Digital Transformation is the integration of digital technologies that bring in fundamental changes to know how your business functions and how you deliver value to your users. The partner business in India is poised to grow at a tremendous rate with newer ideas and newer strategies.
Digital transformation is serving as a major economic driver while Cloud has been an IT enabler, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Since the start of the pandemic, the rate of digital transformation has increased exponentially. Organizations are adopting cloud because it is easy, flexible, and scalable. Cloud-based technologies, platforms and ecosystems create new opportunities for innovation, but they can also introduce new threats.
Distributors and Value Added Distributors (VADs) play a very important role in the overall growth strategy of the Corporates. Moreover, channel partners are integral to the overall success of the corporate’s go-to-market strategy for delivering an excellent customer experience.
Technology is moving from edge core to the cloud, while also replacing the conventional data centers at the core of the network. Today, organizations reset their IT strategy and implement the systems and solutions, including cutting-edge cloud services, to re-energize performance across the enterprise.
Companies that are integrating IoT and 5G technologies into their digital strategies will be able to meet the goals of their businesses today and in future and maintain a competitive advantage in today's dynamic business environment.
The Indian E-commerce market is expected to grow to US$ 200 billion by 2026. Much of the growth for the industry has been triggered by an increase in internet and smartphone penetration. As of August 2020, the number of internet connections in India significantly increased to ~760 million, driven by the ‘Digital India’ programme. Out of the total internet connections, ~61% connections were in urban areas, of which 97% connections were wireless.
CHANNEL SCORE CARD
Like every year, VARINDIA is coming up with the Channel Scorecard in the April 2022 Issue, in which a total of twenty product categories will be featured and surveyed to understand the top vendors in each of these categories. The scorecard that is ranked on a scale from 5 stars to 3 Stars, is based on seven important factors - Product Availability, Price Performance, Channel Profitability, Pre-sales support, Training and Certification, Channel Policy and Post-sales Support. This scorecard is based on the feedback received from the partners in the A and B Metro class cities in India. However, this report does not reflect any feedback from the end customers.
Channel partners are credited for being the integral part of the success of the corporate’s go-to-market strategy (GTM) for delivering an excellent customer experience. But this success of these VARs depend upon the support provided by OEM/vendor partners for help with pre-sales and post-sales support, marketing development funds and training. Distributors and value Added Distributors (VADs) also have a very important role to play in the overall growth strategy of the corporates.
For the scorecard, vendors that were able to work with partners and provide high quality products at good prices are rewarded with high scores. This year, distributors and sub-distributors, having realized the massive opportunities in E-commerce, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security and Work from Home (WHM) solutions, have contributed immensely towards the Indian IT ecosystem. The major distributors including Ingram Micro, Redington, Savex Technologies have positioned as the top three players in the distribution space, while distribution majors including Compuage, Supertron , Tech Data, RP tech, Brightstar , Inflow and iValue have been very aggressive in promoting various offerings to the channel from cloud to security as services for enabling digital transformation for industries. In the past two years we have seen the technology landscape emerging, with focus increasing into Cyber security and Work-from-home (WHM) solution space. To complement this sector, there are VADs (Value added Distributors) including RAH Infotech, Technobind, who have increased their footprints.
Methodology of the ScoreCard
The survey sample we have taken include the partners who are directly dealing in the partner eco-system and does not include the sales that happened through various E-commerce sites in India (the ecommerce business is a big chunk and the figures are very difficult to find and the actual business cannot be validated. Most of the vendors have cleared their old inventories through the E-commerce players to reach to the remote parts in the country, whereas certain distributors and partners were directly involved in the transactions with E-commerce companies.
Market Forecast
Technology plays a critical role in resolving visibility problems. Distributors enable channel partners to deliver complex IT solutions around the world. Their innovative approach and proven experience in datacenter, cloud, security, mobility, analytics and IoT empower channel partners to deliver the end-to-end solutions to their customers to transform and remain competitive.
Enterprise technology must do much more than keep the wheels turning; it needs to be the engine that drives functional excellence and the enabler of innovation and long-term growth.
VARINDIA’s forecast of the Industry
The pandemic accelerated tech adoption has resulted in many start-ups growing much faster than before. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and internet of things were considered too expensive, too complex, too much for small businesses to consider. But COVID-19, continued innovation, and changing business models now have all but eliminated any barriers to entry, leaving SMBs—and the solution providers serving them—with plenty of opportunities.
With the rise in the number of cyberattacks around the world, businesses need to detect the rise of malicious attacks in their workforce, identify security misconfigurations in their cloud services, constantly seek opportunities to enhance cyber resilience, perform continuous pen testing, and adopt a zero-trust approach.
As devices get smarter and computers run more complicated calculations and send more data, software defined edge platforms are expected to become more capable and universal. Today many workloads and even public cloud edge are seen shifting to software-defined architectures. For edge deployment in multi-cloud environments, the combination of modern edge platforms and software-defined edge systems therefore will be considered the best method. As enterprises begin to deploy their data, IoT and application pipelines to the edge, software defined edge workloads will help organizations avoid unmanageable edge infrastructure sprawl that could result if each edge workload created its own dedicated platform.
CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICES
The global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from USD 445.3 billion in 2021 to USD 947.3 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 16.3%. Despite the increase in technology spending in APAC, the setback due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic is imminent.
Many of the enterprises across verticals have adopted the work from home model to safeguard employee well-being and maintain operational efficiency, surging the demand for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based collaboration solutions. The cloud computing technology adoption is expected to increase in sectors where the WFH initiative is helping to sustain enterprise business functions. The lockdown also saw a significant increase in the demand for OTT platforms. This surge in Video-on-Demand (VoD) has increased the demand for IaaS to tackle consumer demands. Enterprises across the globe are expanding offerings to addresses the emerging needs of end-users. There is massive scope for expansion with the cloud market expanding. Cloud service providers have data centers in various locations, which makes them faster and more reliable.
Channel Players: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google, Alibaba, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, VMware
WFH SOLUTION
During the start of the pandemic, the world starting pivoting to a digital-first working model.
Globally, organisations and individuals are seen adapting to this new reality of remote working. However, work from home productivity involves more than just a functioning laptop. Networks need enough capacity, endpoints must be secured for workers to access their files and applications from anywhere, and employees need access to cloud applications to take full advantage of the collaboration tools available to them. The current, rapid-shifting need for work from home infrastructure demands, what is known as proactiveness and foresight.
Organizations want employees to be productive wherever they are. Work-from-anywhere success rides on creating seamless experiences for employees, especially those operating remotely, who may be using untrusted networks and third-party applications to access applications. The solutions need to provide, which has to be secure access to reduce threats from public internet resources and apps – no matter how your working model evolves.
Channel Players: Google Drive, Team, Logmein, Teamviewer, Slack, Skype and Zoom
DDoS SOLUTIONS
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation services include the vendors that deliver services for detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks. The success of DDoS Mitigation service is measured when a network that is targeted in an attack is protected and kept up and running. The instances of massive DDoS attacks are gradually increasing across the globe. Some of the significant DDoS attacks include Domain Name System (DNS) amplification attacks, NTP attacks, and Chargen-focused attacks. The widespread use of IoT devices observed in several application areas, such as smart city projects, smart transportation are subject to high-intensity DDoS attacks.
The global DDoS Protection and Mitigation solution market size, in the post COVID-19 time is expected to grow from USD 3.3 billion in 2021 to USD 6.7 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 15.1% from 2021 to 2026. The major factors fuelling the DDoS market include rise in multi-vector DDoS attacks. Ease of availability of DDoS-for-hire services would provide lucrative opportunities for DDoS solution vendors.
Channel Players: Radware, Cloudflare, Akamai, Arbor, F5 and Imperva
DATA PROTECTION
With hacker attacks occurring once every 39 seconds, data privacy is becoming a bigger issue now than ever before for both companies and consumers. Without proper protocols in place, no business would be able to survive for long. Every business needs to comply with data privacy regulations to stay competitive and maintain customers; hence data protection is utmost important.
A lack of awareness and technical insight into data privacy remains a core concern for several industry thought leaders as organizations become increasingly exposed to data privacy concerns and regulation. As per a report from IDC, the amount of data created, by 2023 it will reach over 100ZB (one trillion gigabytes). The global Data Protection market size is projected to reach USD 113390 Million by 2027, from USD 61330 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 9.1% during the forecast period 2021-2027. Increasing data volume, government regulation mandating data protection, and rising concerns of critical data loss in the on-premises environment are expected to drive the growth of the data protection market.
Channel Players: IBM, Dell, IBM, HPE, VMware, Nutanix and Veeam
ENTERPRISE LAPTOP
Greater internet penetration in emerging markets, rising disposable incomes, advancement of technology and product innovation initiatives by the big players are seen as some of the factors driving the growth of the business or enterprise laptop market. The market has seen a sudden but unsurprising boom during the pandemic. The growth is commendable as the sector has also been facing a global shortage of semiconductor chips affecting shipment volumes.
While 2021 was the year of digital transformation, 2022 will be the year of digital acceleration. There will be an increased revenue growth in the industry from spending on premium PCs, monitors, accessories and other technology products that enable people to work from anywhere, collaborate around the world and remain ultra-productive. Global PC shipments pass 340 million in 2021 and 2022 is believed to be even stronger. For the full year, revenue passed US$250 billion in 2021 against US$220 billion in 2020, up 15%, highlighting the seismic transformation in the industry.
Channel Players: HP, Dell, Lenovo, Apple and Acer
POWER SOLUTIONS (ON-LINE & OFFLINE UPS)
The demand for Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) has grown over the years and the factors responsible for it are the inconsistencies in power supply which result in data loss, non-availability of essential services, risk to hardware, and potential financial losses. Interestingly, though the demand for the uninterrupted power source is incessantly coming from all over the world, the Asia-Pacific region is currently generating the most substantial chunk. The modular UPS market is growing as a result of high growth witnessed in colocation and cloud services and increased usage of cloud applications among industries.
The global UPS market has been projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.3% during the period from 2018 to 2025, while another research projects the UPS market to grow from USD 7,225.7 Mn in 2017 to 13,154.4 Mn by the end of 2025. India as a market is seeing a continuing growth for UPS systems across all the sectors, with residential households, small offices to large business enterprises.
Channel Players: APC by Schneider, Vertiv, Eaton, Numeric, Delta, Luminous and Microtek
DATA BACK-UP
The data back-up & Recovery software market in India is poised to grow manifold in the coming years. Rapid digitalization, the presence of SMEs & large Enterprises, and the growing adoption of cloud services are some of the factors that are fueling this growth. With businesses continuing to add storage capacity at record rates, they are also reevaluating data backup solutions to identify additional opportunities to increase data security, operational efficiency, and cost savings. There has been a rising investment in sectors such as BFSI, telecommunication, healthcare, aerospace, and other end-user industries in this space. In addition, government initiatives towards technological innovations such as introduction of ‘Digital India’ initiatives are creating new opportunities for data back-up companies across the country.
However, as reports point out, the organized data recovery market being at a nascent stage in India, there is still the dominance of unorganized sector players.
Channel Players: Veeam, Dell EMC, Commvault, Oracle, Veritas, IBM, HPE, Arcserve and Actifio
HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)
HCI is one of the most rapidly-growing methods for deploying IT in the datacenter, for the simple reason that it reduces the overall hardware requirement in the datacenter infrastructure. Also, it reduces the requirement of having separate backup software, deduplication appliances, and Solid-State Drive (SSD) arrays. In India, its demand is going to come from various verticals like BFSI, IT & Telecom, Healthcare, and government sectors, among others.
Shifting workload towards public cloud, growing HCI adoption rate in emerging countries, demand from the healthcare industry, etc. are some of the factors which are responsible for the HCI market to grow further. Yet the market faces challenges such as limitations due to dual-socket servers, challenges of HCI implementation, etc. The market is expected to observe some new market trends such as the shift to subscription-based contracts. However, restriction on hypervisor selection restrains the market growth.
Channel Players: Nutanix, VMware, HPE, Dell, Cisco, NetApp, Oracle and Acuutech
ENTERPRISE MOBILITY
The India enterprise mobility market is growing with factors like growing internet & smartphone penetration, emerging mobility trends such as BYOD, CYOD, BYOA, and surging data telecommuting needs responsible. According to a report from GlobalData, despite the drop in its value from US$860m in 2019 to US$800m in 2020, India’s enterprise mobility market will maintain a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% between 2019 and 2024.
Moreover, the recent work-from-home trend across various industry verticals imposed due to COVID-19 outbreak has strengthened the demand for enterprise mobility tools, boosting the market growth. Besides enterprise, the high demand for enterprise mobility solutions is also coming from SMEs, who are fast adopting cloud-based services and from various other sectors such as energy & utility, healthcare & life sciences, media & entertainment, retail and consumer goods, IT and telecommunication, and transportation & logistics.
Channel Players: VMware, Cognizant, Accenture, SAP, Microsoft, Infosys, BlackBerry, IBM Samsung, SOTI and Infosys
x86 SERVER
The contribution of x86 server market in 2021 grew to 88.8% in terms of revenue, which is a growth of 3.5 percentage points over the last year’s same quarter. The highest contribution in the x86 market mainly came from the professional services and telecommunications verticals. The professional services vertical spending was led by investments from fintech, cloud service providers (CSPs), telecom players, and IT/ITeS companies. Investment from banking in the server segment was high due to digitalization and application modernization projects, while the Government was another key vertical that contributed to this growth. However, most of these investments were pent-up demand that got deferred to 2021 due to the pandemic.
The gradual roll-back of lockdown restrictions and businesses opening, along with the fast pace of vaccination across the country, indicated the recovery of the server market in the second half of 2021.
Channel Players: Dell, HPE, Cisco, Lenovo (IBM), Huawei and Oracle
STORAGE
While India’s external storage market witnessed a decline of 6.0% YoY by vendor revenue in Q1 2021 (Jan-Mar), there was a noticeable YoY growth in storage spending from BFSI, professional services, and manufacturing verticals, according to IDC. The market however saw a sharp decline in telecommunications, media, and government verticals in Q1 2021. Surprisingly, adoption of All-Flash Arrays (AFA) has been at its peak high, contributed by an increased uptake of AFA specifically from banking organizations. The market is expected to grow further as a majority of the enterprises are preferring only AFA for all their primary workloads.
The Covid-19 situation however has spelt doom for the sector. While entry-level storage systems grew by 11.5% YoY due to increased investments, midrange and high-end storage segments witnessed a YoY decline but expecting strong uptake of these storage segments in the near future.
Channel Players: Dell, HPE, NetApp, Hitachi Vantara, Oracle, Lenovo, Huawei, AMI and QNAP.
STRUCTURED CABLING
As research pointed out by 6Wresearch, India structured cabling market size is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% during 2018-24. Growing demand for higher bandwidth and transmission rates in India is going to drive the market. Additionally, the government announcing the 100 smart city initiative and provision of free Wi-Fi services in trains, expansion of the datacenter business and the increasing demand for intelligent buildings are augmenting the growth of this market in the country. In addition, upcoming infrastructural projects along with the establishment of new and expansion of metro railway networks are anticipated to further drive the growth of the structured cabling market in India over the coming years.
The COVID-19 pandemic has however impacted the India structured cabling industry adversely, with key industries like IT & telecommunication, construction, automotive, and manufacturing, severely affected. This led to a slower demand for structured cabling in the country.
Channel Players: CommScope, D-Link, Legrand, Schneider, R&M and Citadel.
UTM (UNIFIED THREAT MANAGEMENT)/ NEXT-GENERATION FIREWALL (NGFW)
Next-generation Firewall (NGFW) and Unified Threat Management (UTM) are firewall products built for today's security needs of enterprises. While NGFW has seen impressive success among large enterprises, UTM has seen its usage in the small and medium businesses. While the recent increase in the number of sophisticated data breaches is the key driver for the growth of the UTM market, the introduction of virtual firewall providing security to the virtual network will be a key opportunity for the global NGFW market in near future.
Increase in sophisticated cyber-attacks, development in IoT-based complex threat landscape, and enforcement of stringent government regulations for data safety & security is leading to the growth of the global NGFW market. The UTM market segment accounted for the most significant revenue growth, according to IDC and it continues to drive market expansion. It is the largest overall segment, accounting for 61.8% of the worldwide security appliance market.
Channel Players: Check Point, Fortinet, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Sophos, SonicWall and Juniper.
VIDEO CONFERENCING
The global video conferencing market size is expected to reach USD 9.95 billion with a CAGR of 11.4% over the forecast period of 2021-2028. Despite voice remaining as the primary means of communication, video based unified communications too have registered maximum market share in terms of revenues. Adoption of video conferencing has risen across all major verticals, and in the coming years it is expected that video based unified communications would dominate the market.
An increasing transition towards cloud and the growing adoption of Video Conferencing as a Service (VCaaS) are expected to drive market growth. As remote and globalized working models are becoming popular, the move to the cloud is becoming inevitable, thereby driving the demand for video conferencing solutions. The education sector witnessed a notable rise in the demand for these solutions in 2020 to continue with online learning and seminars.
Channel Players: Avaya, Cisco, Poly, Microsoft, Alcatel, Panasonic and Yealink
DATACENTER
India, seen as one of the developing datacenter markets in the APAC region, is expected to cross $4.5 Billion, growing at a CAGR of over 4% during the period from 2020-2025. Besides third-party datacenter service providers operating, there are several on-premise or dedicated datacenters owned by local enterprises. Over the past few years, with the development of hyperscale datacenters, the market has grown significantly with the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for digital transformation initiatives in private as well as public enterprises in India, resulting in huge investments in datacenters. While Mumbai and Chennai are expected to drive 73% of the sector’s total capacity during 2021-23, cities like Hyderabad and Delhi NCR will emerge as other new hotspots.
Globally, in 2021, the datacenter market witnessed the development/expansion of over 515 datacenter projects, with APAC leading with 161 projects, followed by Europe, and North America.
Channel Players: Netmagic, Web Werks, Yotta, Pi Datacenter, Sify, CtrlS, ESDS, AWS, BSNL, IBM, Google and Microsoft.
PRINTER
The Indian printing industry has grown at a tremendous rate with verticals like government, education, SMB, Enterprise etc. contributing to the growth. Channel expansion and e-learning are factors believed to further propel the growth of this market (both Inkjet/Ink tank). Across all segments, the commercial segment is expected to witness significant growth. The market for Inkjet printers is expected to grow at a higher pace because of the Ink tank printers.
The beginning of 2021 saw printer vendors continuing to face supply challenges. However, with the situation improving and with manufacturing hubs in China and Southeast Asian countries increasing their capacity to meet the global surge in demand for printers, the segment is seen picking up pace. Following this, the inkjet segment noted a YoY growth of 38.8%. In the laserjet segment, where there was a subdued demand from the corporates, 4Q20 witnessed increased activity from the Government leading to a growth in demand for laserjet printers.
Channel Players: Epson, HP, Canon and Brother
CYBER SECURITY
Being one of the largest markets for internet usage in the world, India has in the past reported the largest share of users who experienced any cyber crime, nearly 30 percent higher than the global average. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to other disruptions, has further aggravated the situation by attributing to the rise in online crime. With cyber security threats today looming large and becoming even more sophisticated and complicated, the market is poised to grow in big numbers.
The cyber security landscape of the country is going through an interesting phase as businesses are keenly looking at innovative tools to protect themselves from cyber-attacks and threats. The market that was valued at nearly 140 billion Indian rupees in 2019, is estimated to reach close to 290 billion rupees by 2025 with the growth in digital adoption, and increase in online attacks.
Channel Players: Cisco, Check Point, Palo Alto Networks, SonicWall, Fortinet, HPE, IBM, RSA, McAfee and Sophos.
CLOUD SECURITY
Cloud Security, also called cloud computing security, includes a wide set of policies, technologies and applications used to protect data, applications, virtualized IP, services and the associated infrastructure of cloud computing. A NASSCOM report states that growing adoption of Big Data, analytics, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things is expected to further push the cloud market in India, which will result in the cloud security market growing 3-fold to USD 7.1 billion by 2022.
Governments particularly are going to play a big role in implementing cloud security in different countries and this is expected to boost the market growth further. In addition, increasing threat of cybercrime and targeted attacks, growing digital transformation in the education, telecom industry, media and entertainment sectors around the world are some of the major factors driving the growth of the global Cloud Security Market.
Channel Players: Cisco, DXC Technology, CA, Micro Focus, Fortinet, Check Point, Juniper, and Sophos
GAMING LAPTOP
Gaming has moved from being a niche to being part of the lifestyle and essentially, more and more people are gaming and using it to relieve stress and socialise. The global gaming laptop market that was valued at USD 9 billion in 2019, is projected to reach USD 15.58 billion by 2027 during the period 2020 - 2027. The rising disposable income of people is believed to drive the overall market growth of the global gaming laptop market.
The influence of E-sports and the surge in demand for high-performance computers are anticipated to augment the growth of the global gaming laptop market. The growth is also attributed to breakthroughs in the 3D rendering space. Growth in the gaming trend as a profession and innovations in laptop technology is anticipated to further generate lucrative opportunities for the gaming laptop market in the future.
Channel Players: ASUS, Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo
CONSUMER LAPTOP
In spite of India having the largest number of consumers for PC products across Asia-Pacific region, a large section of its population is yet to fully adopt digital products such as PCs, laptops, and smartphones. Hence there is still a massive headroom for growth. The third-largest market worldwide, India’s dynamic nature and the accelerating push towards digitisation will fuel this potential business opportunity.
With the rising adoption of laptops across educational institutions and corporations, the demand for advanced laptops has increased. Most of the schools are adopting virtual technologies and providing online courses, which allow students to learn as per their convenience. In India, the top 5 laptop brands HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer and Asus command 88.2 per cent of the total laptop market share, while other brands contribute about 11.8 per cent share. There is a demand seen for both new and old laptops, PCs, and even their components and the number is seen to be increasing.
Channel Players: Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Asus and MacBook Air
Khalid Wani, Senior Director- Sales, India, Western Digital
Western Digital intends to foster a strong brand-distributor connection through communication and trainings
“Our channel partners are critical to our success. To engage with channel partners and empower them in the current digital situation, we offer a variety of programs such as TechTalk (an app-based training module for channel partners) and the WhatsApp business platform to empower them. We have a host of different initiatives in which we digitally inform and educate our partners on new products.
Western Digital India's channel tactics are intended to foster a strong brand-distributor connection through real-time communication, relevant training sessions, and a range of incentives campaigns to recognize and reward channel partners. We have a consistent three-pillared channel marketing approach at Western Digital: education, reward, and engagement. We provide frequent and thorough programs for our channel partners to help them prepare for changing client demands, a dynamic business landscape, market trends, and keep them up to date on relevant solutions and products.
In addition, we have many incentive programs for channel partners, including the SanDisk League of Heroes, the Western Digital Elite Partner Promo, and the myWD Partnership Program. These programs recognize and reward the value that our partners offer to the organization. We have also given our partners digital toolkits to help them acclimate to the new digital environment, including product collateral and sales generation resources, as well as social media connections with prospects.”
The Channel has played a pivotal role in expanding the footprint of Dell Technologies
Anil Sethi, VP & GM - Channels, Dell Technologies India
“Channel partners are integral to Dell Technologies’ overall success to deliver excellent customer experiences. They have always been the driving force behind Dell Technologies’ business growth and we are committed to strengthen this ecosystem, with renewed focus and ample growth opportunities.
The Channel ecosystem has played a pivotal role in expanding the footprint of Dell Technologies. We are committed to grow this further by enhancing partner experience levels and building services led go-to-market strategies, aided by new incentives and distribution support. Our brand-new Incentives Center gives our partners an increased visibility and insight across all their program incentives in one centralized location – for Rebates, MDF (Marketing Development Funds), and MyRewards (incentive for partner sales specialists). We have also invested in configuration, pricing and quoting through the Online Solutions Configurator (OSC) tool.
The updated Dell Technologies Partner Program for 2022 will streamline and enhance the partner experience across multiple program tracks. Solution Providers, Cloud Service Providers and OEM partners will now enjoy one regional incentive structure, one tier structure, and one set of tier requirements. We are committed to investing in our partner’s end-to-end experience with us and are excited for the opportunities that will allow Dell Technologies and its partners to create together, partnering for the future.”
HP drives digital adoption of its partners with various strategic initiatives
Gurpreet Singh Brar, Senior Director, Head - Channel
Sales, HP India Market
“We are a highly channel focused company and our growth strategies revolve around enhancing the channel capabilities. An easy, effective and transparent partner compensation framework is very important for the company to drive the strategic objectives and growth. Driving the partner program with a high level of ownership acts as a strong foundation for any organization for building channel trust and loyalty.
Digital presence is gaining a major relevance for the partners especially after the pandemic. We at HP are constantly driving digital adoption of our channel partners with various strategic initiatives. To name a few we have done the exclusive retail channel( HP Worlds) Digitalization called Parivartan which is focused on digitizing the retail aspects like footfall tracking, lead generation, CRM modules, running digital promos etc.
We are driving various Partner programs focused on digital Campaigns to encourage them to go digital, SEO marketing initiatives like geo tagging of partners , keywords search etc to generate leads and reach a focused customer base, training programs for channel partners on digital trends etc. In order to adapt to the changing channel ecosystem, we constantly innovate the partner programs for creating a balanced approach across all channel pipes.”
HID Global values the relationship it has with its channel partners
Vishal R Soni, Sales Director, Secure Issuance, India, HID Global
“HID is committed to delivering a global partner program that provides relevant enablement, and marketing and sales support resources that equip our partners to solve customers’ secure identity challenges and drive mutual growth. It has a two-pronged partner program approach. We work to motivate and reward Resellers, Integrators, OEMs, and Distributors through structured incentive programs and enhanced benefits, as well as provide robust technical and developmental support for our Technology Partners, Managed Service Providers, and Alliance Partners.
At HID Global, we value the relationship we have with our Channel Partners and our HID Advantage Partner Program enables us to build a foundation that helps us all succeed. One of the steps is providing training on HID’s solution to our partners. HID Academy is our best-in-class, digital training platform, where our channel partners can earn certifications based on incremental learning levels to achieve HID solution competency.
Learning assessments occur on a yearly basis, and the partners are awarded benefits based on a tiered approach consisting of Silver, Gold and Platinum level as they gain expertise. Additionally, partners earn loyalty-based incentives as they continue building profitable relationships with their customers, to help our partners succeed.”
For Check Point, partner ecosystem is critical to scaling its business
Manish Alshi, Head of Channels and Growth Technologies - India & SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies
“Check Point has one of the ‘strongest balance sheets in the industry’ when it comes to operating margin, gross margin, cash on hand, and lack of debt. This enables us to train partner salespeople and engineers at a fraction of the cost of competitors.
Our training and certification program through online and in-person partner enablement platforms offers partners best-in-class training courses to assess, sell, deploy, and support security solutions. We also offer one of the best professional services training and shadowing programs in the industry. Apart from this, we also 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.
Check Point has a 100% channel-led business model and as such, the partner program is at the core. The Check Point Partner Program also enables deeper collaboration with Check Point, giving partners access to expert support and resources to speed up customer sales cycles. Our company’s mission is to provide the finest security while also giving possibilities for partners to grow and become more successful. With the new initiatives in the partner programme, we're doubling down on our commitment to helping our partners earn new business and strengthen relationships with existing clients.”
Sophos believes in putting its partners first in all its efforts
Sunil Sharma, Managing Director of sales, India and SAARC - Sophos
“Sophos is a 100% channel driven company. Our channel partners are almost like an extension of Sophos in India and SAARC. Being a channel focused company, Sophos has designed its go to market strategy only through partners. With every business effort, we try to empower our partners, be it making them well versed with our technology or with business acumen. For the past two years, we realized that many of our partners needed handholding to make their business efforts digital. Throughout these two years, we did joint digital activities with our partners. We call them partner through webinars.
We have a dedicated department called Channel Service Center, where we help our partners to run their own digital campaigns to engage with their customers. The Sophos Global Partner Program is our platform to interact, engage and grow with our partners. Our channel strategies are well designed and are driven through our global partner program.
At Sophos, we believe in putting our partners first in all our efforts. For us, partner focus starts with the products that we create. There are features designed specifically for partners, such as the Sophos Central-Partner dashboard that allows partners to centrally manage their customer endpoints and firewalls from a single dashboard.”
The channel ecosystem is a significant layer of Commvault’s GTM strategy
Anshuman Rai, Area Vice President, India and South Asia - Commvault
“Commvault is committed to nurturing and anchoring its channel partners through current market needs and transforming them into partners of the future. With the aim of accelerating our partner’s digital transformation journey, we continuously update our approach and encourage collaborative paths to close more deals. With the evolution of the partner programs in the Commvault ecosystem, we have ensured more flexibility across program tiers with predictable profit potential and trusted deal support for business growth. We also provide our partners with in-region support, expansive training, and demand generation resources to build a future-proof and digitally empowered business with unlimited opportunity.
The recent developments in Commvault’s Partner Advantage Program provide a tailored and refined way to support Commvault’s MSP and Aggregator partners. We are committed to supporting and standing by our partners through any given situation and dedicating our time to jointly building an ecosystem of the future. Together as a team, we will focus on strengthening our global partnerships by empowering and accelerating our partners with our cloud initiatives through our enhanced Partner Advantage Program.”
Barco digitally empowering its VARS through a hybrid work portfolio solution
Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director of Barco
“As a global enabler of collaboration and visualisation solutions, Barco has cemented its position at the forefront of digital transformation. We had the foresight to realise that the future of work was evolving and understood that businesses must adopt a digital strategy focused on flexibility and agility. We are digitally empowering our partners and VARs through a products and solutions based remote and hybrid work portfolio aimed at making digital transformation a reality.
As a B2B company, the partner programme is exceptionally important to Barco as our partners are the connecting cords between the company and its end customers. Our entire go-to-market strategy is dependent on our partners and, given the imperative role they play, Barco is intensely focused on designing and following a fair and transparent partnership model. We have created a thriving and connected ecosystem, in tandem with our partners, by making them a part of our success story. We also ensure that our partners receive all possible support in aspects such as product availability, pre- and post-sales support, price performance, channel profitability and training and certification as we are keen on fostering an equitable and customer-focused ecosystem.”
Thales places importance on its partners in driving its business growth
Rana Gupta, VP APAC, Cloud Protection and Licensing, Thales
“Thales not only strives to conduct all its business through partners but also places importance on partners driving the growth of its business. All the elements of the Thales Accelerate Partner Network (TAPN) program are designed towards rewarding partners who engage in the market to develop more business. These rewards include Deal Registration Discounts besides the backing of the Thales sales team to support the concerned partner on a registered deal.
This year there is a special emphasis on recruiting cloud partners who have not been in the traditional TAPN framework with the increasing movement of workloads to the public cloud where our solutions are more relevant than ever to drive the business growth.
Given that Thales has had its Thales Accelerate Partner Network (TAPN) program in place for several years now and during those years we have not only witnessed the growth of our partner ecosystem but also the corresponding healthy growth in revenue for all concerned, I would say that it is already a very fair and transparent framework. Having said that, I think the key is the commitment to creating a win-win situation and continuous communication in order to actually execute in the market.”
A 100% channel-oriented brand, SonicWall considers partners as its extension
Debasish Mukherjee, VP - Regional Sales, APAC - SonicWall
“Our global family of SonicWall SecureFirst partners, including MSSPs are valuable to our business. As a 100% channel driven organization, our goal is always to educate and empower our partners, while providing them with cutting-edge and cost-effective solutions for a strong cybersecurity framework. Our famous and very well attended partner event -Boundless, provides the partners with unrivalled content, insight, and expert analysis to be successful in their businesses across geographies.
A unique initiative- SonicWall University, is an online partner enablement platform designed to keep SecureFirst partner sales representatives, pre-sales and support engineers at the forefront of both cyberthreats and security solutions. Also, our recently launched SonicWall MSSP program empowers partners, VARs and MSSPs with resources and tools they need to protect their customers while improving operational efficiency and costs.
As a 100% partner-oriented company, we believe that they are the extension of our company, the obvious go-to market route for us. Therefore, we lay great emphasis on processes and programs, making them well structured, highly rewarding, and educating for our partners. For SonicWall trust and profitability are the pillars that drive the strong collaboration with its global partners.”
Schneider Electric’s partner program helps partners grow and differentiate their business
Swarup Das, Director, Channel - Schneider Electric India
“At Schneider Electric, we have consistently endeavoured to deliver new solutions across both technology and business practices. We work in tandem to provide our partners with the best-in-class automation and digital solutions to build greater efficiency and sustainability. The IT Solution Provider specialization helps position our partners to better meet and exceed these expectations, driving more profitability and competitive differentiation for the business. Our new IT Partner Program helps partners grow and differentiate their business for the long-term by becoming a strategic adviser and expert in their market across multiple IT competencies.
The mySchneider IT Partner Program builds on our award-winning channel program's history to help our partners pursue multiple IT competencies and enable the development of diverse business models. Our flagship Partnerships of the Future program empowers a standardized and streamlined framework to assist our partners in reaping the advantages of projects and companies. We offer future-focused solutions and possibilities that encourage cooperation, provide support at every stage, and extend the know-how to use and deploy the appropriate digital tools for effective business outcomes.”
Veeam considers the requirements of every partner and designs programs accordingly
Amarish Karnik, Channel Sales Director, India & SAARC - Veeam Software
“At Veeam, we want to help our partners add greater value and build more strategic relationships with our customers. Constant innovation to our partner programmes, developing appropriate skill sets, upskilling staff, and identifying additional revenue streams with software and services has become paramount, and Veeam is constantly striving to support its partners on their journey to digital transformation.
We have strengthened our Partner Perks programme, which was created specifically to increase partner engagement, reward them, encourage focused solution adoption, and drive business growth. Veeam also provides several other network programmes that facilitate access and provide better support to our partners, as well as increase partner engagement and encourage focused product/solution adoption among customers. Our partner programs are aimed at empowering all our partners to thrive in the evolving business landscape and better respond to customer demands. We collaborate closely with our partners to help them gain a better understanding of Veeam's solutions while also learning about their technical abilities and areas of expertise. We at Veeam are firm believers that the success of our partners, in turn, reflects on our success as an organization. We believe in “disruption” by bringing innovation to our product portfolio.”
Barracuda is fully committed to helping its reseller partners succeed
Parag Khurana, Country Manager - Barracuda Networks (India) Pvt. Ltd.
“At Barracuda, we envision 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. By saying that, partner enablement is a key focus for us. We want to help our partners and customers understand their vulnerabilities by educating them on the evolving security threats and ways to stay protected.
Our dedicated Partner’s Program provides different resources to help channel partners to achieve their business development goals with sales and marketing support, as well as product information. We offer hands-on, self-paced sales training, and monthly webinar to keep our partners up-to-date on the latest security issues and how Barracuda solutions can help address their customers’ security concerns.
Barracuda is a channel dedicated company. It’s very important for us to help our partners to find new business, expand and grow the business, and succeed together. We launched Barracuda Academy, a training program designed to provide our premier and preferred partners with the proper tools, training, and resources to sell Barracuda products successfully. We also heavily invest in marketing and sales support services to support our channel partners and generate qualified leads, deal registration, co-op funding, ready-made programs and annual events.”
Channel partners are NVIDIA's driving force
Vishal Dhupar, MD, Asia-South, NVIDIA
“Channel partners are our driving force, and we look at innovative ways to strengthen the ecosystem by enabling them to grow further. During these two years, we saw many changes and adapted to the same. To continue supporting and encouraging our partners, we undertook different approaches to keep the engagement going, such as virtual sales calls, digital marketing, and third-party campaign partnerships, to name a few. We witnessed our partners migrating from physical marketing activities to digital platforms, as it was the need of the hour.
NVIDIA's business model is partner-driven, making the partner program a vital part of our business. NVIDIA understands the importance of strategic partnerships, and we have embraced the larger markets and several key verticals to address them. We partner with distributors, VARs (value-added resellers), OEMs, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Cloud Service providers (CSVs). NVIDIA's focus is on accelerating the growth of our partners, and we believe that a strong partnership is the foundation of mutual success.
NVIDIA is committed to investing in our partners to collaborate and partner for the future. NVIDIA Partner Network (NPN) successfully functions at three levels - Community, Preferred and Elite. The NPN partner program is designed for value-added reselling, solutions integration, designing or manufacturing systems, hosting services, consulting, or servicing NVIDIA products and solutions.”
Micro Focus implements initiatives that help partners meet the business demands
Saurabh Saxena, Country Director, Micro Focus – India
“Micro Focus has over 40 years of experience and 7500+ authorized partners to help customers maximize their existing software investments and innovate faster, providing software and critical tools they need to build, secure, and strengthen their operations. We are a channel-driven business, and our Partner Boost program continues to aid partners, especially in India and APJ region making collaboration easier with high profitability. This global network of partners lies at the heart of ensuring the highest level of customer satisfaction. Through our various upskilling and cross-selling programs, portfolio adjustments, training, certifications, incentives, and demand generation support, we ensure that partners have increased engagement scopes with customers, strong cyber resilience, and digital capability scores with more opportunities for higher revenue generation.
Micro Focus continues to implement initiatives that help partners meet the business demands of their customers across environments and sectors, helping them offer high-quality solutions and products with guaranteed return on investments. Moving forward, our partner program will focus on providing greater opportunities to the partners through the Micro Focus enhanced suite including 27 product portfolios within six product groups – Application Modernization & Connectivity, Application Delivery Management, IT Operations Management, Cyber resilience, Information Management & Governance, and Vertica, the core analytical platform by Micro Focus.”
Building an ecosystem and partner network is key to A10 Network’s ongoing success
Sanjai Gangadharan, Area Vice President – South ASEAN, A10 Networks, Inc
“Channel partners play a very fundamental role when it comes to our company’s go-to-market strategy as a majority of our business is transacted through them. They ensure business continuity by delivering security services that ensure performance and security of applications and cloud platforms at optimal levels. They learn new skills to work in line with the market needs.
At A10 Networks, we have an Affinity Partner Program especially designed to foster growth of channel partners who are leaders in the marketplace. Through the Affinity Partner Program, we invest heavily in the development and training of our partners in order to ensure high levels of expertise both from a technical and sales perspective. Over and above that we also offer them other benefits including – Training and certification, Elevate to Elite Program, Tech Packs, Path to Platinum and Lead the Way initiative.
At A10 Networks, building an ecosystem and partner network is key to our ongoing success. Our primary focus is partnering with players who are strong in key verticals and can bring talent and expertise to our customers. We strongly believe in enabling and empowering our partners and strive to provide them with the best possible support, tools and resources.”
NetApp makes consistent efforts to improve its programs, policies and portfolio based on partner inputs
Ganesan Arumugam, Director – Channel Sales, NetApp India
“As we have evolved into a hybrid cloud service provider, our partner programs have simultaneously transformed to meet the demands of the new normal. To this extent, we have launched multiple tailored programs for our partners as we transition towards a competency-based model. One of these solution specializations is our cloud preferred partner program. It enables qualifying companies to stand out as leaders in delivering best-in-class NetApp public cloud service solutions. The program recognizes their competency in optimizing solutions with AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.
Our partner program is a powerful way to build profitable revenue models and drive value for customers by bringing together the expertise of multiple organizations. We are working with a strong partner network such as Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic, Binary Global Ltd, NTT India, Corporate Infotech Pvt Ltd. among others. They play a critical role in enabling customers to achieve their business goals. We have announced several initiatives specifically designed to empower our partners in freeing up their cash flow, planning business continuity, and focusing on business growth. NetApp has also unveiled the “Sell More, Earn More” incentive program wherein the Partner & distributor sales & pre-sales reps stand to earn exciting incentives. Recently, we have set up a virtual Data Visionaries Club where we connect partners with our global and local teams to help them understand technology better.”
For SecurID, partner program is the key to its business success
Anand Mohandas, Channel Partner Manager – India, SecurID
“For decades, our brand has helped businesses around the world adapt to new cybersecurity challenges. SecurID, an RSA Business, established some of the foundational technology that business leaders rely on to secure their operations. We are working alongside our customers and partners to develop new solutions that build business resilience, advance zero trust security, support hybrid work, and future-proof our customers’ operations.
Channel partners are a vital part of SecurID. Enabling them is key to our success. We prioritize VARs, as they help us with a variety of business goals, while we help VARs address identity security. Our online training and channel management resources equip our channel partners with the knowledge and product updates needed to grow their businesses with us and to solutions tailored to customers’ needs.
At SecurID, we believe that our partner program is the key to our business success. The launch of our new SecurID Partner Program emphasizes the important role partners play in our go-to-market strategy. The “sell more, earn more” model provides greater opportunities for all channel partners, regardless of their tier, to grow their business and expand their profitability.
Our newly launched SecurID Partner Program has been designed based on feedback from our channel partners and will continue to evolve as business needs evolve.”
SAS continues to see double-digit growth in partner related revenue
Manish Nair, Head-Alliances & Channels, India/Emerging Markets, SAS
“SAS recognizes that in this digital era empowering partners is imperative for business success and long-term growth. Real digital empowerment is also about identifying jointly potential target markets with partners, building business plans to address the market opportunity and finally empowering partners to drive the plan.
SAS empowers partners with extensive tools and technologies to be successful in executing joint business plans, which includes exhaustive enablement programs across partner sales & technical teams which are delivered digitally through SAS dedicated partner portal. Also, SAS assists its partners with digital channel marketing programs to drive marketing campaigns & industry events to evangelize SAS offering/ joint partner IP’s to drive greater customer outreach.
SAS continues to see double-digit growth in partner related revenue, and partner satisfaction in the Partner Program which has risen each of the last four years. Our partners bring our software to life, creating innovative new applications to solve business problems, guiding our customers through deployment, and helping them get the most out of SAS for all their analytics needs. We believe each partner brings unique capabilities & assets which contributes to our joint success & differentiates us in the market.”
Securonix with partners creates WIN-WIN business opportunities for customers
Harshil Doshi, Director Sales (India & SAARC) - Securonix
“Securonix is helping its partners in providing support to their customers at every step of their security journey. The Securonix Fuel Partner Program provides customized support, training, and opportunity registration that recognizes and protects partners’ investments in time and resources. Partners leverage the Securonix Fusion benefit program, which accelerates the development of interoperable security solutions, simplifies the integration of these products with complex customer environments, and delivers solutions to maximise the value of existing customer investments, reduce time to problem resolution, and lower operational costs for the end user.
Securonix collaborates with partners to create WIN-WIN business opportunities for customers. We have onboarded more than 50 new partners and 200+ customers from 12+ additional countries over the last 12 months in addition to our existing partners. We strive to make solutions, implement them, and manage customers as easily as possible for our partners. We ensure that our partners have comprehensive knowledge of our products and can effectively guide their customers through custom training programs and extensive professional service resource support. The company assists partners in addressing complex customer challenges by developing products that are fast, agile, scalable, insightful, regulated compliant, and collaborative.”
Vertiv channel partners are a crucial part of its go-to-market strategy
Rakesh Kumar, Director Channel Alliance, IT Solutions, Vertiv
“It is a priority for Vertiv to ensure its partners are empowered and have access to 360-degree support. Through our Vertiv Partner Portal, we enable our partners with dedicated sales support, sales selectors and configurators, marketing resources, marketing development funds, online partner training, content syndication, eligible partners can apply for rebates, information about PAYBACK schemes and deal registration and incentive programs.
Vertiv empowers the partner network through the newly launched e-Commerce portal along with its esteemed National Distributor - Ingram Micro. Vertiv has also revamped the company website with a partner locator for all onboarded channel partners to enable regional touch points and connect with customers in a specific region.
India being a key market for Vertiv, our channel partners are a crucial part of our go-to-market strategy. We’re constantly working on expanding this network across the country, which, in turn, helps grow our and our partners’ businesses together. To ensure we keep our partnership model fair and transparent, we have identified four key phases- engage, evolve, empower, and evaluate- to keep our customers and us involved in each other’s businesses throughout the tenure of our partnership. Vertiv also focuses its efforts on making sure the overall channel ecosystem is working in harmony.”
Channel Partnership remains at the core of the business functions of Axis Communications
Sudhindra Holla, Director, Axis Communications, India & SAARC
“Channel Partnership is at the core of our business functions and through collaboration, we explore new opportunities in the market. As a channel-focused company, we have strengthened the channel partner ecosystem, which has grown to more than 75,000 partners, in 179 countries. Our channel focused programs are designed to help system integrators, value-added resellers (VARs) and installers accelerate their solution sales. We also provide multi-fold benefits to our partners through enhanced margin opportunities, the industry’s most complete and reliable product portfolio, and world-class training and support from Axis.
Our initiatives are built on trust and mutual commitment while accelerating solution sales and providing long term value. With plenty of room for growth and advancement, we support our partners in every step of the way. Partners can also take advantage of project pricing opportunities and discounts on demonstration equipment. Additionally, our training and certification offerings ensure that our channel ecosystem stays current with new practices, tools and technologies.
At Axis Communications, one of the bigger initiatives we have undertaken towards digital adoption is launching digital training for our channel partners. We have streamlined and calendarized the training modules for our specialist partners and distributors. Our team has adapted to communicating similar training digitally by breaking the module into a three-day course.”
IceWarp’s partner network is an integral part of its business strategy
Anita Kukreja, Head - Marketing & Channel Sales, IceWarp India
“Our channel partners are the backbone of our business. We are glad to be working coherently with them to help our prospects and customers have their teams on our platform which can significantly aid seamless communication and collaboration with the internal and external world. As a practice, we engage in constant engagement with our partners to equip them with important information and certification programs to digitally upgrade as well as train the team members regularly.
Partners are core to our DNA, and we believe they are our last mile to the prospects and end customers. As experts and veterans in the industry, our partners play a very important role in supporting our customers on the ground with their proficiency in services. We feel confident that our decision of working in tandem with channel networks will remain core to our go-to-market strategy. The said outlook has decidedly played a pivotal role in growing the brand’s market reach out geographically and vertically.
The partner network is an integral part of our business strategy for the region.”
Partners play a decisive role when it comes to the GTM strategy of Cyble
Vivek Kumar Sharma, Regional Sales Director – Strategic Alliances and Partnerships (India and SAARC) - Cyble
“At Cyble, we believe in sharing knowledge. To deliver actionable threat intelligence, we keep our partners updated on the latest tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) that adversaries are employing. In the interest of empowering our clients to safeguard their systems, we are designing a partner portal with modular training and are in the process of creating a lab for skill upgradation. Our efforts are directed at creating a repository of digital marketing content for the use of our partners.
Partners play a decisive role for a vendor when it comes to the go-to-market strategy. With India being a huge market, collaboration with a well-structured partner program has been a key driver of Cyble’s growth. We strongly believe in partner protection. We are in the process of creating a deal registration process which will enable our partners to register a deal, which in turn, will be integrated into our CRM solution. This process is based on complete visibility and enhanced usability. In addition, we are forming a cohesive work model wherein channel and enterprise sales will work together. We have already designed a lead generation programme through joint marketing and will be starting a partner recognition programme soon.”
The dynamic market scenario strengthens the relationship between Nutanix and its partners
Krithiwas Neelakantan, Channel & Alliances Leader, Palo Alto Networks
“With the way of work changing, enterprises are kickstarting their digital transformation journeys by completely reinventing their current Tech stacks. Channel Partners are therefore now responsible for guiding our customers through this technological shift securely, as well as evaluating how they can deliver maximum value. This is where we, at Palo Alto Networks, come in. Our NextWave 3.0 Partner Program entrusts partners with a diverse portfolio of offerings instead of a handful of specialized products which provides them and our customers a competitive edge. We also push partners to integrate these products into their own operations which can aid in the maturing of their infrastructures, scaling new markets, and delivering optimal customer experiences.
The dynamic market scenario has strengthened relationships between us and our esteemed partners, making them significant growth drivers across markets the world over. When it comes to developing partnerships within the NextWave program, our models are based on three pillars: integrity, flexibility, and adaptability. We enable partners to adopt our “differentiation with specialization” approach which allows them to tailor and deploy every product in our portfolio as per their requirements.”
Fuji Electric's channel partnership is focused on strengthening and transforming business together
K G Deenathayalan, Business Head - Energy Division, Fuji Electric India Pvt. Ltd.
“We are a partner-led- organization and we co-sell with our channel partners. Our channel partners play a significant role in Fuji Electric India's go-to-market strategy, and our relationship is built on partner profitability and transparency. We are passionate about the success of our channel partners, as their success directly translates into our success.
To empower our channel partner, we transfer knowledge through virtual training and development. The partners also take it up as a project to upskill their team. Apart from training and certifications on various new technologies, we have also ramped up our sales and service training for the newly recruited partners. We have also extended our marketing activities with the partners in various digital ways and yielded excellent results.
We have been committed to channel partnerships since our entry into India 35 years ago. We are focused on growing our partner community by enabling them to become solutions providers and execute the projects undependably rather than selling products.
We are committed to growing our partners with a profitable business. To motivate them, we develop several incentives and R&R programs and make sure that they make a better margin with us.”
Customer success is at the core of everything that Oracle does
Sanjoy Mukherjee, Senior Director - Technology Alliances & Channels, Oracle India
“The cloud represents a huge opportunity for our partner community. Being a customer centric organization, we understand the value that partners bring to our customers’ businesses. We always consider our partners an extension of us. This becomes especially important now given the rise in technology acceptance across sectors. Given that our partners account for 80% of all Oracle transactions in the Asia Pacific region, they are the key towards making our customers’ businesses efficient.
Our partner led approach is reflected in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) where we focus on helping our partners familiarize themselves with new cloud capabilities and specializations. Customer success is at the core of everything we do at Oracle. We strengthen our network by skilling and reskilling them continuously. OPN is Oracle's partner program designed to enable partners to accelerate the transition to cloud and drive superior customer business outcomes.
Oracle incentivizes partners to build and deliver customer-validated cloud solutions pertaining to their needs. For over 40 years, Oracle has been engaging with customers to ensure maximum benefits for them and for many years, our partners have played an integral role in this process too. With new offerings continually added, our comprehensive network of partners ensures customers cloud architecture on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) can scale and evolve with the organization’s needs.”
Channel Programs help Nutanix partners to improve focus on customers
Harsh Vaishnav, Head of Channels, India, SAARC - Nutanix
“The Nutanix business in India is wholly channel-driven; we prioritize the requirements of our partners and give them access to resources, technology, and expertise to help them succeed. In addition, our Partner Support Centre in India helps our channel partners move more swiftly to an ‘Everything-as-a-Service’ (EaaS) model and grants them the access to full suite of Nutanix products, which creates flexibility, ease of deployment, and more subscription-based revenue stream.
The Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program (NESPP) helps service provider partners streamline engagement for the partner ecosystem by utilising a standardised set of tools, resources, and marketing platforms. This reduces complexity while enhancing reward potential. It further enables service provider partners to increase revenue and agility by removing the lock-in and minimum commitment limits that come with standard contracts and programmes. It also provides greater access to information and insights across the partner ecosystem through custom-branded marketing materials, training tools, and personalized insights allowing for more effective data-driven decisions. Additionally, the program’s integrated architecture provides a simplified engagement system for customers.”
CommScope’s partner program equip the channel with best-in-class technology
Kalyan Deep Ray, National Channel Manager, Enterprise Sales, India & SAARC, CommScope
“To continue navigating pandemic situations in different regions, we shifted our channel empowerment efforts onto digital platforms through running virtual roundtables, customer conferences and podcasts. As CommScope adapts to the new normal of digital business model, these key programs will help partners drive their business optimization that will lead to increased customer satisfaction.
We also developed and implemented ‘The CommScope Virtual Assistant’, a live chat function with a human agent and supported by an AI chatbot that offers quick, real-time solutions for partners and VARs who are accessing our website. Our PartnerPRO Network forms the backbone of our collaboration with partners by featuring an exclusive global network of experts designed to help partners discover new revenue opportunities. The network consists of CommScope-authorized local distributors, solution providers, consultants and alliance partners that are trained to provide local insight, which puts our high-performance solutions to work. We also recently launched our RUCKUS BIG DOGS Partner Program which includes a new middle tiering that allows a wider range of local partners access to market development funds and unique specializations in our industry-leading wireless networking technologies.”
Eaton is committed to driving business through partners
Debasish Banerji, Director, Sales and Service, Eaton Electrical Sector, India
“An Intelligent Power Management company that Eaton is, we have done many activities to enable our channel partners digitally. On the digital solutions front, we launched Brightlayer for the Datacenter suite in 2020 which is Eaton's software application that includes everything from data center infrastructure management (DCIM) with capacity analytics and 3D visualizations to advanced, automatic remediations and cloud-based analytics that help predict power component failure. In 2022 we have added the SmartEdge Enclosure system (Rack + iPDUs + Monitoring software) to our digital solutions basket which has been very well received by the channel community.
We therefore want to empower channel partners around Digital solutions as this is the growth area for us. Eaton has a well-defined customer success strategy where channel partners play the key role of consulting and delivering world-class Eaton products and services to our customers. In 2022 we are launching Eaton’s globally acclaimed Power Advantage Partner Program (PAPP) for not just a single-phase but also our three-phase power partners across India. Further to this, we are expanding our reach with Geo expansion programs to serve our clients with our complete portfolio, including digital solutions, across all locations. Eaton’s fast-paced consistent Q-o-Q growth has come via the growth of our Channel Partners. We have conducted business transparently, introduced new solutions and products to grow channel partner margins.”
Partnership is the key to Optoma’s success
Vijay Sharma- Country Head, Optoma Corp
“As a brand in a niche segment, we put extra efforts to empower B2B partners to achieve sales growth in each market. We provide social media support, print advertisements in channel magazines, participation in trade shows, dealer and customer meets etc. to support them. We train them in product management and customer engagement through various digital mediums. We run free workshops, training and online sessions too for making them understand the nitty gritty of the digital age and its usage in sales and customer engagement and retention.
Partner program is an integral part of our business strategy as it plays a pivotal role in lead generation and sales growth. Since the beginning our strong partner base has helped us to create a footprint across India and connection with customers. Owing to a successful partner program we have strengthened our network, connected with new customer base and generated brand recall. The business strategies for the partners and distributors adopted by Optoma are transparent and fair in nature. We as a company give them fair share in the profit and allow them to grow with us.”
Kaspersky prides itself in continuously improving its partner program
Dipesh Kaura, General Manager-South Asia- Kaspersky
“Kaspersky United, our partner program, integrates solution specializations targeting specific customer needs. In addition, we invest in a dedicated partner portal integrating all the tools our partners need to do business with us – including flexible license management for MSPs and MSSPs. This program also offers several opportunities to help our partners become digitally empowered - Skills transfers: boosting partners with the latest knowledge and ability to sell to and support customers Specialization: helping our partners differentiate their business from competitors, in turn attracting more customers
Support: dedicated support team along with sales and technical training and certification for a well-equipped team
As a 100% channel driven company, Kaspersky prides itself in continuously improving its channel program, Kaspersky United. This program puts partner profitability at the centre of it with major benefits such as generous, transparent rewards, incentives and discounts. Our multi-award winning portfolio of solutions, paired with solution specialisations of partners, we believe is a win-win situation for both our partners’ and our business’ growth.
We recently commissioned a survey to learn more about how vendors can improve their relationship with channel partners and best practices for working with them as a result of the pandemic.”
Minosha boasts of partners associated with them since its inception
Gaurav Sachdeva, HOD - Product & Marketing (Minosha India Ltd.)
“While the pandemic in the last 2 years has brought new challenges to the work environment, it has given us all an opportunity to reinvent the wheel and adopt practices which support remote operations without adversely affecting efficiency. To empower our partners, we imparted regular training and access to digital Learning & Development tools. We also introduced software solutions for our customers and partners to remotely manage all their output devices while ensuring 100% uptime.
60% of our revenue contribution comes from our IDC channel consisting of our partners, VARs & Dealers which makes them a vital part of our ecosystem. Our Top 60 partner program has been successful in ensuring partner mindshare & loyalty. We have partners who have been associated with us since our inception, which goes back to 1993. Our Partners are always at the center of our business strategies as they play a pivotal role in achieving the long-term organizational goals. These partners are not only our extended arms but are also our brand ambassador representing Minosha India & Ricoh at various platforms. As an organization, we have clearly defined SOPs that have been designed to ensure an unbiased ecosystem with our channel partners.”
Hikvision supporting its partners in every step of the digital journey
Ashish P. Dhakan, MD & CEO - Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd.
“We at Hikvision India are following the roadmap for empowering the partners through our various digital initiatives on social media platforms. Our digital journey has made us aware that digital and analytics have been dynamically reshaping the B2B buying and selling environment in a mission critical mode. We are supporting our partners at every step of the digital journey by empowering them.
The partner programs are key drivers for business growth. Our aim is to enhance the customer experience by offering best-in-class products, solutions and services. The ‘Customer Centricity’ is our key success mantra. Over the years, we have grown by achieving excellence in three key focus areas of products, solutions and services. We are focusing more on Partner Training and Skilling imperatives by bolstering our digital capabilities. We are unveiling new digital initiatives across the channel to empower our esteemed partners. We also take every possible step to build trust among our partner ecosystem. We also ensure transparency across the distribution channel to ensure win-win situation for all our stakeholders. Designing a fair and transparent partnership model takes lots of hard work, impeccable integrity, innovative ideas and cohesive strategy. We strive to be at the epicenter of the channel and prioritize its needs.”
UiPath strongly adheres to building trust with its partners
Harpreet Bhatia, Regional Vice President, Partners – India and South Asia at UiPath
“UiPath is a partner-first organization, and we continue to invest in our partners to enable profitability, growth, and differentiation. To date, more than 4,700 partners have joined the UiPath partner program, a global ecosystem of recognized leaders in technology who are transforming the way humans work, helping companies make work strategic, valuable, and fulfilling.
The UiPath partner ecosystem extends the power of our leading automation platform to companies of all sizes, across industries, and helps make customer success possible. As the company grows, we continue to provide our expanding partner ecosystem with the tools and support needed to empower all workers to be successful in the jobs of the future.
According to IDC predictions from 2021, the use of UiPath and its partner ecosystem will generate $16.4 billion by the end of 2025. The report also estimated that UiPath together with its partners will employ more than 40,000 by the end of 2025 and generate $52.1 billion in revenue opportunities between 2021 and 2025. UiPath partner ecosystems primarily consist of two types of partners: business and technology. The former focuses on services and solutions to help customers develop automation operating plans, while the latter focuses on providing complementary technologies.”
Forcepoint’s Global Partner Program is the cornerstone of its channel strategy
Ajay Kumar Dubey, Country Head, Channels - Forcepoint
“Forcepoint has always been laser focused on ensuring partners are right by our side on our cloud security evolution and roadmap journey. Part of our strategy is extending our offerings as an evaluation to all key partners. By consuming our cloud security services like a regular customer would do, partners become digitally empowered and gain first-hand knowledge of the capabilities of our technology, including the security challenges it can help solve. We have a very close relationship with our channel partners in India and are in constant communication with them to ensure they are right across the latest Forcepoint updates and offerings.
Our Global Partner Program (GPP) is the cornerstone of our channel strategy in India. We are a 100% channel organization and our business growth depends on how well our partners grow. Forcepoint built the Global Partner Program on the guiding principles of simplicity, growth and partner-led services to ensure our customers have the security expertise and support needed, when they need it.
Forcepoint is constantly driving operational transformation to ensure we are easy-to-do-business-with which makes us attractive to partners to work with, and ultimately delivers partner-led growth.”
Safe Security’ strategic collaborations with partners remain a key to its growth
Rahul Tyagi, Co-founder & Partner Engagement Lead - Safe Security
“Despite spending billions of dollars, businesses continue to rely on reactive, siloed and point in time cybersecurity solutions which lack business context. SAFE is a unique offering as it enables and empowers a partner to deliver real outcomes for their customers. For the first time, partners can become trusted advisors of their customers and help them get real-time visibility of their enterprise-wide cyber risk posure, and have a proactive and predictive approach to managing cyber risk.
Our partners are essential for our growth. We have a very aggressive growth strategy, and strategic collaborations with channel partners will be key to our growth, globally. While we are a SaaS cybersecurity product company, our partners provide support to the customers throughout the year, and help them improve their cyber risk posture.
We have taken multiple steps to design a fair and transparent partnership model that helps our partners thrive and grow, along with us. For example, our deal registration process is extremely transparent. Similarly, we conduct joint business planning along with our partners to help support the customer in their cybersecurity journey.
We have also launched a one of its kind certification program which enables the partner to have the right knowledge and skill sets to partner the customer in its true sense.”
Keysight looks at partnerships to be long term that deliver success in the long run
Joseph Kovacs, Global Partner Manager - Keysight Technologies
“We work with our solution partners and distributors to become digitally empowered in their marketing efforts. For solutions partners, we amplify what our partners do with us using social media. We jointly work with them on paid campaigns and provide marketing content such as co-branded solution briefs. For distribution partners, we develop joint programs to help market our products.
Solution partners help us grow. We reach out to strategic partners to fill solution gaps to bring a comprehensive solution to our customer’s problem or where the partner has vertical expertise to reach a new audience with our domain expertise. Our guiding principle is that each company in the partnership must see value and bring value. Each one must realize a clear benefit that helps their business to grow. We want our partnerships to be long term and deliver long-term success. It helps both the partner and Keysight grow our businesses. The first step is to understand our customer’s needs, we work to build a solution and then look at the business case including customization, margins, resources, and costs.”
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