CHANNEL LEADERSHIP SURVEY 2022 - Time to leverage digital transformation to spark innovation

Technological innovation brings benefits. It increases productivity and brings to citizens new and better goods and services that improve their overall standard of living. Every organization in every industry will need to infuse technology into every business process and function so that they can do more with less.

A recent study by Harvard Business School documented that “leading digital companies generate better gross margins, better earnings and better net income than organizations that have not adopted a digital-first business growth strategy”.

Digital transformation is all about becoming a digital enterprise. The Annual Channel Leadership Survey (CLS) 2022 is an integrated report we bring every year in the Anniversary Special Issue (in the month of September). This is the 15th year we are bringing the CLS. The survey is focused on the emerging technologies and contemporary product evolution (hardware/software/services) by technology vendors for addressing the needs and challenges of today’s customers. The VARs/Partners in the country have shared their feedback in choosing their right OEM.

After the release in the VARINDIA September 2022 issue (CLS 2022 report will make us understand who is ruling the roost), there will be a survey to find out the real leader in the Industry in terms of overall sales performance, Service support, Product availability, Channel initiatives and Sharing on-time incentives.

The 23rd Anniversary issue is also going to discuss how 200 Channel Partners are considered as the role model on their anticipation about tomorrow. This survey is based on the survey of Indian Partners (Physical and Online). Besides we have also considered various reports of Gartner, IDC, Marketandmarkets, Future Market Insights, Mordor Intelligence and others.

The winners will be felicitated at the Star Nite Awards - 2022, which is slated to take place on 11th November, 2022 at Hotel Roseat House, Aerocity, New Delhi.

During the survey, we find certain critical issues like, several channel partners raise issues about lack of information like technical, stock, dispatch information, and many basic and transactional information. To address these issues, many companies have taken initiatives to create partner portals. The portal will have all basic technical information, marketing information etc. Seamless integration of company portals can help to place orders directly and partners can see the stock levels, available credit limits, dispatch date, confirmed delivery date etc.

Secondly, many times the channel hesitates to share customer data or more details as they don’t trust the sales person or organization due to fear of losing business to other channels. But by creating and proving transparent channel policy this barrier can be eliminated.

To address certain issues, a few corporates have created platinum, silver, premium clubs to offer special privilege memberships based on business performance. Certain companies form a channel advisory board consisting of channel owners, company channel head, and company business head. They discuss market challenges, channel conflict, change in policy etc.

Based on channel feedback, OEMs continue to make improvements to processes to increase simplicity, besides showing deep commitment to growing revenue through the channel. Let’s have a look at how the OEMs view the channel fraternity and their support in able to penetrate into the market –

Fortinet strongly committed to helping partners expand their offerings

Vishak Raman  
Vice President of Sales, India, SAARC and Southeast Asia – Fortinet

“Fortinet recently conducted its Partner Synergy events at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Chandigarh to ensure partners are up to date on the latest Fortinet technology and solutions and are growing their cybersecurity expertise. Fortinet also unveiled support and expertise development for partners to achieve their business goals by growing their efficiency and profitability. Fortinet also conducts tailored, hands-on technical training across cities designed to further grow the skills of partners. Besides, Fortinet outreach programs across India supports partners’ goals for growing their business with efficiency and profitability, allowing them to differentiate offerings with a portfolio that aligns directly with the threats presented across the kill chain.  

Fortinet is strongly committed to helping partners expand their offerings and address the growing market for advanced services. The Fortinet Engage Partner Program, launched in 2020, was explicitly designed to help organizations develop the expertise they need regardless of where they are in their growth journey. Fortinet also announced important updates to evolve the Engage Partner Program in May 2022 to create even more growth opportunities for our partners of all types. Fortinet is now offering two cloud productivity kits for Engage partners: a Cloud Starter Kit and a Cloud Enterprise Kit. Organizations can acquire and implement the technology they need to create an online environment to demonstrate how together with Fortinet they can secure data, applications, and users in the cloud.”

Lenovo’s channel-first approach ensures a strong partnership with the channel 

Amit Luthra, 
MD - India, Lenovo ISG

“Lenovo’s more than 90% of business is channel-driven, with an ever-growing strong channel ecosystem. Lenovo 360 brings the One Lenovo strengths - enables the channel partners to leverage a first-of-its-kind unified global channel framework that aligns partners’ needs to easily expand to provide Lenovo’s edge (pocket) to the cloud offerings and expand their sales footprint. Additionally, Lenovo Partner Hub, our global partner portal provides a unified, personalized, and consistent experience to our partners.

Our channel-first business approach ensures a strong partnership with the channel ecosystem. With our unique channel-first business mantra, Lenovo ISG ensures we have the right skills and competencies to deliver a customer project. Engaging with multiple channel partners means you are able to scale with your customers, their projects, needs, and budgets and not force a distribution to try and upsell in favor of one exclusive partner.

Lenovo ISG has been closely working with large enterprises, SMBs, and public sectors to address their rapidly growing infrastructure requirement and provide a better customer experience. One example is CSIR IGIB - India’s leading genome sequencing research institute that aims to accelerate cancer research through genetic analysis. The organization leverages Lenovo’s GOAST architecture to advance cancer research by digging deeper into the genetic roots of the disease.”

ESDS as a company prides itself on being channel-friendly

Piyush Somani, 
Managing Director & Chairman ESDS Software Solution 

“We at ESDS market our platform and products through our direct sales force, channels partners, and a number of free traffic sources, making channel eco-system an important element of our business process. In order to successfully implement our ideas, ESDS quickly adapts to changing client demands and preferences. ESDS prides itself on being channel-friendly. In addition to our direct sales approach, we have established a number of strategic alliances to reach clients through alternatives for indirect sales, one of which is ESDS' trusted channel partnership. We also have a strong channel programme in place, and we make sure that our channel partners receive the right materials and technical support. In addition, our joint initiatives and product training give our channel partners the tools they need to make more acquisitions.

ESDS is as an organization values innovation. We are one of the few Data Centers and Cloud Service Providers in India with an in-house R&D group. When the nation first understood virtualization in 2011, our company was the first to offer a true Make in India cloud services. Our R&D team has created a number of products throughout the years that complement our Data Center and Cloud operations. As part of our commitment to innovation, we are concentrating on developing more specialised, reasonably priced technological goods and solutions as part of "Atmanirbhar Bharat."

Hikvision India continues its double digit growth with help of partners

Ashish P. Dhakan
MD & CEO - Prama Hikvision India 

 “Hikvision India is experiencing good growth phase in the Indian market due to increasing demand for security solutions across the verticals. Our market performance figures reflect the success and dynamism of our Pan India sales team. We are experiencing a good lead in the market while maintaining the double digit growth. In the Indian Security Market, channel partners, end-users, system integrators and consultants are reaffirming their trust in our products and solutions and that is a very reassuring experience.

Innovative Partner Engagement Module
We are engaging our partners extensively through innovative partner engagement modules. Our ecosystem partners are the key drivers of growth. Partner engagement is in large part about creating a trusted and loyal relationship between our company and partners. We consider partnering engagement essential for creating partner loyalty. Our B2B engagement strategy revolves around the core value of building relationships with partners and end-users. It mainly includes the partners and end-users to participate in the evolution of a brand, as opposed to merely being the recipients. Hikvision involves partners in the co-creation of marketing collateral and this helps us show that we care about our partners at every step of the way. The key success factors also known as competitive emphasis or posture state the important elements required to compete in target markets. The core of key success factors continues to be the Customer Centricity among various other important aspects and special initiatives.”

Autodesk continues to help enable its partners to become industry experts

Alok Sharma
Director - Channels, India & SAARC, Autodesk

“At Autodesk, we continue to work towards strengthening our partner eco-system (including both VADs & VARs) and ensure that our partners are also adapting and have the readiness to support new innovations emerging in the market. A few key initiatives that Autodesk is embarking on include Specialization Programs – where we continue to help enable our partners to become industry experts, ensuring that they become their customers’ best advisors in their respective sectors and Global Exposure - where we provide partners with access to industry experts around the globe.

The Make in India initiative entails the use of advanced technology. Using advanced technologies such as Autodesk software will allow companies in India to digitize at a faster rate. For instance, the EV market had a slower traction due to lack of quality product and experience. However, with technological advancements and consequent cost optimization, the EV market is sure to increase confidence among the consumers. Ather Energy has pioneered this shift with its superior product and overall customer experience. Ather Energy leverages Autodesk ALIAS Surface and VRED for faster digital modelling and virtual prototyping for its smart electric scooter to pioneer the EV uptake in India. Another Make in India Initiative by our customer, Next Big Innovation Labs is now taking 3D printing materials to the next level, using the technology for bioprinting human skin.”

Kaspersky creates a business model based on 100% partner focus and profitability

Dipesh Kaura, 
General Manager (South Asia) - Kaspersky

“The Kaspersky United Partner Program provides channel partners with all the resources, benefits, and help they need to outgrow the competition. Kaspersky supports its resellers and partners with the help of Force 1.0, an application that will make it simple and convenient for partners to manage Kaspersky consumer solutions and receive rewards.

Kaspersky channel partner program offers more rewards, training, additional initiatives and new customized regional support to channel partners. Kaspersky invests more in its partners by providing them with additional tools and resources to succeed. The company aims to drive partners to a higher level of success with benefits such as increased one-on-one support, more technical education throughout the year, and generous rewards to encourage its business partners. Key partners can propose their marketing recommendations through the Partner Portal.

Kaspersky is a firm believer in the potential of India's growth story, and we will continue to support make-in-India initiatives. It is working with several large industrial brands and would look forward to expanding its presence as more businesses continue to adopt newer technologies. The collaboration between Kaspersky and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India facilitates cooperation in areas such as the fulfilment of the cyber security policies, strengthening the protection of India's cyberspace and other relevant initiatives.”

Policies and initiatives help UiPath establish strong relationships with its partners

Marcus Low, 
Vice President, Partners & Strategic Accounts, Asia Pacific & Japan - UiPath

“As a partner-driven company, UiPath continues to make investments in its partner ecosystem. UiPath's partner ecosystem consists of two main partner categories: business and technology. Policies and initiatives created to help partners on the business front focus on catering to customers with services and solutions which enable them to develop automation operating plans for starting, scaling, and importantly, implementing automation in their business processes. Policies and initiatives created to help partners in the technology domain principally focus on providing complementary technologies that integrate with the vendor’s technology to make the adoption of automation seamless.

Early this year, we launched an enhanced Technology Partner Program, which now includes a range of new technical, sales, and marketing offerings for partners to develop, test, and market their applications and foster complementary offerings. Our partner program provides partners access to training, best practices, and use cases. For example, UiPath partners have always-on access to the UiPath Partner Academy and UiPath Partner Portal. The UiPath Services Network (USN) was launched for partners that prove they are as effective as the UiPath Professional Services team.
At the core of these policies and our partner initiatives, we singularly aim toward building trust with our partners.”

Palo Alto Networks partners are positioned to address today’s evolving cybersecurity frameworks

Krithiwas Neelakantan, 
Channel & Alliances Leader - Palo Alto Networks

“The digital-led shift to hybrid work has put channel partners, and by extension partner programs, in focus. As the business landscape continues to evolve, in-depth intel and expertise provided by the partners from the ground helps us drive value for our customers. Through our NextWave 3.0 partner programme, we provide effective support to our partners through incentives and specialisation benefits. This keeps partners well-positioned to leverage our investments in building pipelines, acquiring new customers, and delivering the portfolio.

Building strategic partnerships along the channel is integral to our GTM strategy and is important to us on a global level. So, with Nextwave 3.0, we prioritise delivering customised experiences that benefit both customers and partners. Our “differentiation with specialisation” approach is a key feature here - partners can construct their security expertise through three specialisations i.e., Prisma SASE (Prisma Access and Prisma SD-WAN), Prisma Cloud, and Cortex XDR/XSOAR.

From a strategic viewpoint, we have invested in India. We have recently opened a new office in Bangalore that will allow us to support our growing business and expand our footprint in the JAPAC region. It houses employees from General and Administrative, Go-to-Market, and R&D. This is our commitment to India as a market and the new state-of-the-art facility provides a great working space for our employees.”

The goal of Poly is to cater to the hybrid workforce

Ankur Goel, 
MD, Poly India & SAARC

“The way we work and the ‘office’ as we know has changed drastically over the last two years. Work is no longer a place we go to but what we do, regardless of location. As a result, many companies in India have shifted to a hybrid work model; hybrid work will be the norm going forward. 

At Poly, our goal is to cater to the hybrid workforce. To provide the best collaboration solution (be it audio, video, or speakerphone, etc.) to our customers so that they can be productive no matter where they are. 
We have recently launched a virtual demonstration studio in Gurgaon so that customers and partners can experience the wide range of solutions we have for the hybrid workforce. The virtual demonstration studio will allow customers a first-hand experience of Poly's pro-grade audio and video technology that aligns with today's prevalent hybrid work style personas. Poly has established a similar studio in Texas, United States. There are a lot of opportunities for partners to leverage this shift toward the new world of work. By partnering with Poly, partners can outfit their customers, be it in the SMB or enterprise space, or anywhere in between, with the best collaboration solutions in the market.” 

Check Point stands committed to providing uncompromised security to SMBs

Manish Alshi
Head of Channels and Growth Technologies - India & SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies

“Check Point is a 100% channel-driven company. In India, we want to be one of the most relevant and preferred cybersecurity solutions providers. We have more than two dozen tools to assist our channel partners, some of which are aimed at partners to use with their customers such as assessments and security check-ups, while other tools such as dashboards and quarterly business reviews are intended for the solution providers themselves. To ensure consistent growth of our partners, Check Point has announced four major initiatives in its global Check Point Partner Growth Program which include - extra discounts for deal registration and new technology sales, a new professional services certification program, pre-packaged lead generation campaigns, and the Enhanced ‘White Space’ program.

As the cyber landscape gets increasingly vulnerable for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Check Point has designed a unique, comprehensive security solution suite that delivers effective, simple and affordable security. 

Check Point is also committed to support the “Make in India” initiative whole-heartedly by steadily expanding our technical assistance center in India over the past few months. We also have a select number of solution segments with product development support being provided out of India. In addition, we have also initiated conversations with several India based entities, to explore the “Make in India” possibility further.”

Barracuda’s continued growth in India is driven by innovative security solutions

Parag Khurana
Country Manager - Barracuda Networks India

“As cyberattacks become more sophisticated than ever, Barracuda envisions a safer world and help our channel partners to protect their customers with cloud-first, enterprise-graded security solutions that are easy to buy, deploy and use. As a channel-dedicated company, we have built programs to enhance our channel ecosystem and to enable our partners to go to market with the best in the industry.

Enablement is the key and we have added Barracuda Academy to our partner enablement program, a series of monthly workshops designed to provide Barracuda partners with tools, training, and resources to successfully sell Barracuda solutions. We also provide marketing and sales support, such as monthly webinars, co-op funding, and ready-made programs that generate qualified leads for our channel partners. We also organise annual events like the recent Barracuda Secured.22 Conference, our worldwide customer conference, with several product announcements.

We deliver innovative products that protect our customers against persistent and evolving threats like ransomware, and help them solve complex digital business transformation. As organisations in India are dealing with the upsurge of attacks and trying to comply with data privacy requirements, Barracuda added a new regional data centre in India to meet growing demand for data protection services in the country and better serve local customers.”

Aligning with India's digital journey, Vertiv’s solutions try to meet the market requirements

Sanjay Zadoo 
General Manager, Channel Sales - Sales, Vertiv India

“Vertiv’s partner program provides 360-degree support to channel partners, allowing easy access to sales & marketing tools, product documentation, marketing development funds, and content syndication, among others. Our dedicated Partner Portal gives easy access to the latest online and face-to-face training courses and partner-only events. Moreover, we aim to empower our partner network through our e-Commerce portal and our esteemed national distributor - Ingram Micro. We have even revamped our company website with a partner locator for all onboarded channel partners to allow regional touch points.

Our channel partners are the last mile in our sales channel as they are directly in touch with our customers and, in turn, help our organization drive overall business growth. Our model runs in four phases; Engage, Evolve, Empower, and Evaluate. In the first engagement phase, we establish an open, two-way interaction with our partners to fully grasp their business requirements and provide them with requisite learning tools. At the evolve phase, we give the partners robust training to strengthen their industry knowledge and understanding of Vertiv’s offerings. To empower, we motivate our partners to make inroads into untapped markets and build a broader customer base. Lastly, we evaluate our partners’ engagement with our customers and their current potential and understand how we can increase their revenues. Our continuous endeavour ensures that our channel ecosystem flourishes to create value for all stakeholders involved.”

Crayon helps its partners grow business, be profitable and ensure customer success

Venkataraman D 
Executive Director - Sales & Strategy, Crayon

“Since the markets have opened up, we at Crayon have actively taken initiatives to strengthen our channel ecosystem. We recently concluded our Crayon Connect Partner summit in Bengaluru, Delhi, where we celebrated our partners winning awards in different categories, after a gap of more than 2.5 years. Sustainability is a key strategy in Crayon’s vision statement, as we want to drive technology for the greater good. Our global commitment to ESG has made us the fastest-rising company on the ESG100 list from Position Green, where we were rated as B+.

Knowledge sharing is one of the elementary services that Crayon has been providing to its customers and partners. Webinars are one of our regular and consistent activities, where we try to give holistic information on the various topics and subtopics of cloud solutions and technologies. Our Software and Cloud Advisory experts share their best practices for optimising end-to-end IT infrastructure.

Crayon has always taken pride in its channel policies. We are experienced in servicing channel partners’ needs around software licensing, cloud cost management, and augmenting revenue streams for businesses like services providers, system integrators, and independent software vendors. We have customised GTM strategies for all our partners. Our global partner community gets instant access to all our software and cloud experts, dedicated account manager, best-in-class technical support, a top-ranking software and cloud procurement platform, and guidance to maximize vendor incentive programs.”

Pure Storage believes in long lasting and sincere partnerships

Jithesh Chembil
Head of Channels, India - Pure Storage

“Pure Storage has been, and continues to be, a 100% channels-centric company. One of the most important things we did in the past year was to consolidate the Global Partner Organization - including MSPs, GSIs, distribution and resellers -  into a single organization to reach all routes to market and leverage partner capabilities more effectively. This consolidation is the foundation of our enhanced Partner program.  I believe that as a unified team with our partners, we are positioned to drive increased portfolio adoption and opportunity.

Although our solutions are targeted at larger enterprises and service providers, our partnership with managed service providers (MSPs) means we are also able to reach smaller companies. MSPs like UBX Cloud, ZeaCloud and ECS Biztech are delivering IT services over the cloud to the fast growing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) market over a Pure Storage platform, notably in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. We recently announced the Pure WaveMakers program to reward Pure’s partners who are leaders in solutions selling, training and sales. Our enhanced Partner Portal is always up to date with the latest sales and technical resources, training, personalized marketing campaigns, a digital asset library, social selling content and more, all at the partners’ fingertips. We also evolved our training resources to meet the partner’s needs and enable them to grow their knowledge with the portfolio.”

Forescout looks at its channel partners as invaluable, trusted advisors to their customers

Subbu Iyer, 
Regional Director, India & SAARC - Forescout Technologies

“Forescout has always believed in the power of partnerships, and we drive 100% of our business in India through an ecosystem of highly skilled and focussed partners. We also have a team of experienced sales and solution specialists giving customers increased access to Forescout ecosystem. Our local sales presence helps develop, re-energise, and enable our channel ecosystem to drive our customer success goals.

Our channel partners are invaluable, trusted advisors to their customers when it comes to defending their networks. As all our business is run through the channel, it is our priority to ensure we enable their success by delivering new levels of automation across our platform, providing more data-driven insights, and offering access to a bigger technical community to tackle challenges and help them become a best-in-class partner. We offer very competitive levels of margin and we have recently expanded our channel program to MSP’s and SI’s globally to simplify and provide increased options for partners to offer our products and services.
Forescout is committed to scaling our business in India with investments in resources, support, R&D, partners and most importantly customer success. Our journey in India started about 5 years back and we have recently setup a world class facility in Pune to host our R&D and technical support teams. We have also doubled our sales presence this year with coverage across major cities in the country.”

Micro Focus helps partners in meeting the business demands of customers through various initiatives

Jiju Joseph, 
Country Manager-HP Software & Solutions - Micro Focus

“Micro Focus is uniquely positioned to support customers in making the most of their current software investments and advancing innovation quicker and risk-free on their journey to digital transformation because of our broad product portfolio, 7,500+ approved partners, and thousands of customers. The five primary IT strategies of Accelerate Application Delivery, Modernize Core Systems, Simplify IT Transformation, Strengthen Cyber Resilience, and Analyze Data in Time to Act are our core operational areas.

As a channel-focused business, we offer various upskilling and cross-selling programs, portfolio adjustments, training, certifications, incentives, and demand generation support as a part of our Partner Boost program. We continue with our efforts to introduce more initiatives that help our partners in meeting the business demands of customers across sectors and environments. We also support eligible partners to fund their marketing and sales activities that create awareness and drive demand for Micro Focus solutions thereby helping to generate leads and grow the business.

Over the years, to push forward the government’s Digital India initiative, we have been collaborating with the Government of India in enabling internet services to Indian citizens, connecting households through citizen services. We work with multiple state governments on smart city building projects with the help of our partners and infrastructure organizations to deliver IT management solutions required for the smooth functioning of smart cities and strengthening cyber resilience.”

Securonix leverages a “Partner First” mentality and methodology

Harshil Doshi, 
Director Sales (India & SAARC) - Securonix

“The Securonix partner community is an exclusive group that plays a critical role in how Securonix goes to market. Securonix partners with Solution Providers, Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), Global System Integrators (GSIs), and Value Added Distributors, with a passion for solving complex security challenges and keeping their customers’ critical data infrastructure safe. 

Securonix leverages a “Partner First” mentality and methodology. Whether we win or lose, we work together with our partners. The Securonix Partner Program empowers our partner ecosystem to build services practices with flexible options and customized resources. The Securonix Fusion Partner program provides a foundation for Securonix and its technology alliance partners to build long-term relationships. The program has a tiered structure with distinct partnership categories and corresponding levels of commitment, which include a wider array of benefits and more exposure through Securonix channels.

Securonix’s MSSP program qualifies candidates using a flexible set of guidelines that are not set in stone. Once qualified, the candidate is exempt from the first year of training fees and never pays a program fee. Our ultimate goal is to keep our partners happy and satisfied. We have identified the key challenges faced by MSSPs and have tried to address them in our initiatives. We work with 22 channel partners, including MSSPs, SIs, distributors, and others to expand our customer base.”

IceWarp considers its partners as its valued customers

Anita Kukreja, 
Head - Marketing and Channel Sales, IceWarp India

“IceWarp has initiated building a robust ecosystem enabled with technology, skills and leaders to evolve the channel organizational structure and develop the partnership quickly. The modernization of our processes, programs, and the underlying technology has also strengthened the channel ecosystem. Our team has also introduced fundamentally different approaches for channel strategy, communication, community, recruitment, onboarding, education, training, certifications, competencies, incentives, motivation, loyalty, co-marketing, co-selling, tech enablement, collaboration, and overall engagement.
As an OEM, we ensure engagement with partners is regular, processes are seamless, and their experience is personalized. We make information accessible to them, be transparent, provide marketing support, and listen to their feedback. Regular training and certifications are undertaken for the partner’s Inside Sales and Sales teams to assist them with sales and technical knowledge. Our lucrative incentive programs help to motivate our partners to engage and help them grow their own business. IceWarp’s channel ecosystem creates a very real possibility of an attractive partner growth trajectory where we stay true to our commitments.
Through our three local datacenters in India, Netmagic, CtrlS, and Yotta, we ensure to keep the data secured and within the country. Additionally, IceWarp as a solution enables and empowers thousands of promising enterprises of all sizes in India to digitally transform and grow their unique businesses and contribute toward the development of the Indian economy.”

Seagate to continue investing its efforts in building an effective partner ecosystem

Sameer Bhatia, Director of Asia Pacific Consumer Business Group, and Country Manager for India & SAARC, Seagate Technology

“The channel ecosystem of Seagate continues to grow in numbers and reach as we better understand evolving opportunities in the current market scenario and double down on our efforts to engage with our partners and customers more closely than ever. Seagate’s initiatives have always been focused towards empowering our partners and distributors to enable them with the right set of knowledge and tools. Our partners are essential to our success in India.

We have developed the award-winning Seagate SkyHawk Partner App to empower our partners. The app was designed for India as the first-of-its-kind solution for video and imaging applications partner community in the country. Not only the app enables partners to calculate the storage needs and investment required on the spot, it also provides online warranty service booking, tracking facilities, and instant connectivity to SeaCare centres.

Seagate Insider partner program is also how we connect with customers and partners in the markets. We continue to focus on providing comprehensive training sessions, seminars, and co-marketing initiatives to answer unmet opportunities in the rise of edge applications, remote working, and smart cities.

Through our distributors, we offer several training programs to our channel partners to achieve the above objectives, which are aligned with the latest IT industry trends and channel practices in India. Some of the notable programs to name are “Seagate Regional Meets” and “Seagate Surveillance Weeks”. Held in multiple cities, ‘SkyHawk Surveillance week’ is one of our marquee initiatives that attracts the highest concentration of partners (at least 340 partner stores) with unparalleled peer insights and expertise on business strategy, innovation, and leadership, as we build a robust partnership network with them.

We trust that, going forward, these activities and our efforts will continue to help strengthen our position as a market leader in the storage, software, and system industries, while enhancing our channel growth rapidly.”