New CA Channel Chief Outlines Strategy

When James Hanley took on the newly created position of senior vice president of worldwide partner sales at Computer Associates International, the former EMC executive also took on the challenge of changing the traditional direct-sales culture of the Islandia, N.Y., vendor to more of an indirect model. Nearly a month into his new job, Hanley sat down with CRN Senior Editor Dan Neel to discuss just how he plans to make such changes.

CRN: Is the plan still to increase indirect sales at CA from 10 percent to 20 percent?

HANLEY: Yes.

CRN: How will you do that?

HANLEY: From a structural standpoint there are two things that we can do. Take the overall partner program and align it vertically from the highest level of global strategic partner down to the ESP partners and to the Premier and Affiliate partners so there is alignment, integration and consistency there. We can align it globally as well so that any inconsistencies that exist across theaters of operation we can get rid of.

CRN: How does such an alignment increase indirect sales?

HANLEY: On one hand, it correlates the incentives and support we provide to partners to their investment in the business at CA. And it carves out the areas of the market that enable us to reach the broadest group of customers and focus the programs we provide that come out of our business units to a particular type of partner that's focused on a particular type of customer.

CRN: Will CA increase incentives for partners?

HANLEY: Yes, if we mean incentives in the broadest term. I'm not ready to define exactly how we will increase the incentives. But if you think of incentives as a combination of helping them to be more competent in the services they provide, giving them better programs that have more content, more detail and are more targeted, and perhaps [providing] momentary incentives or rebates--if you look at that broad spectrum--then yeah, we want to be able to be doing all that.

CRN: Would these programs be Web-based?

HANLEY: I think you have to make those decisions by type. There are certain types of education we are quite comfortable having Web-based, and there are others we feel pretty strongly should be one-on-one.

CRN: Will CA increase the number of channel-only product SKUs?

HANLEY: There are certain SKUs that are channel-only. In addition, it's important to understand that while we did some segmentation to our overall customer groove [the named account model], that segmentation does not preclude us from working with partners in any of the segments we have defined. It is a certainty that at the highest segment, in the most strategic and largest customers, we will be working with partners to drive a broader offering into those environments.

CRN: Is the direct-sales force incented to work through partners?

HANLEY: It depends on the account. There are a number of accounts that we have defined where they have the choice. Then there are accounts outside that defined groove where [direct salespeople] don't call on those customers. We have carved those out for the channel to call on. When it comes to the segment we are covering directly, then it's their choice, and they are incentivized to work with a partner where it makes sense to them. They get 115 percent uplift for working through partners, and it can be higher. There are kickers depending on the type of solution being provided, and the way in which we partner, that can take that number to as high as 130.

CRN: In a joint direct/partner engagement, who makes first contact on renewals, CA or the partners?

HANLEY: There are number of ways that customers could be contacted. They could be contacted on the partners' behalf by our telemarketing group, the CIC group, because the partners have the ability to request programs within that telesales group that would benefit them. But I'm not sure if this falls inside or outside one of the programs they can request. Having managed the services business for EMC, I do understand the notion of carving out recurring revenue for the partner group and letting them have that. So that's another initiative that we have, linking the services that are provided in the market to the fact we have a certified partner capable of delivering them and to the revenue theses partners are generating with customers.

CRN: Is CA growing its professional services organization?

HANLEY: No. The idea is to keep it where it is and grow in the partner segment. We need to be able to have sufficient services to support the sales, and the idea is to build those services outside the company and not inside. Pretty much my understanding is the way they plan to do it next year is to keep the growth of that group pretty flat.

CRN: What happened to Unicenter for the mid-market?

HANLEY: I'm not sure exactly where the product is in satisfying the requirements of the midmarket, but from a structural standpoint we are quite open to having the midmarket VARs and resellers take Unicenter to their customers, and we want to support them in doing that. So I think we are going to have an evolution in, one, making sure they are trained and certified properly, two, making sure that the programs that come out of that group are directed at that midtier VAR in a good, concise way, and three, [making sure] that the product meets their requirements. What we'd like to do with Unicenter in the midmarket is find VARs that, for example, can implement about a half-a-dozen Windows-based servers along with some applications into an environment of about 10 distributed offices. That's a classic example: A customer taking Unicenter into that particular configuration, installing it, making sure it's up and running, and then doing subsequent on-site management. Perfect.

CRN: The top-tier partner program, ESP, has been detailed, but the channel is still expecting the midtier program. When does that arrive?

HANLEY: I think there are some announcements related to that that are imminent. I think the announcement you are going to hear [for the small-business markets] will fall under the category of volume-based, prepackaged-type products. But I think by the middle of the summer we will have it all baked out.

CRN: What is your opinion of CA's channel program up to your arrival?

HANLEY: I think the channel program, particularly the ESP program, is very strong. I think it covers most of what a partner would be interested in. So I think the initial definition in the way they rolled that program out is world-class. The next step is to make it ubiquitous top to bottom and to build it out and make it work for the partners in the field. And that's the part we are working on now. How do you link that program definition, which I think was right on, to the provisioning of the program to each channel, consistent with their areas of focus and to the amount of support we need to give them in the field. And once you have these partners certified, how do you build them into the sales process in a consistent way? How do you message that out to the sales group? What [the direct-sales group] is starting to do now is say, "Hey, I need a partner that knows this area of competency. In order for me to sell this I need someone to come in and transition the customer to that environment using their application expertise and their service capabilities.' And they are getting there. We are getting those calls into the partner group.