EMC Canada Corp. has expanded its Authorized Services Network (ASN) Program to include mid-market resellers and systems integrators.
As part of the new program the reseller community will help EMC deliver its Clariion-based professional services for storage area networks (SAN) and network attached
storage (NAS) implementations.
“”Our extension of the program is another logical step in our strategy of enabling our partners from a services perspective,”” said John Koury, vice president of channel marketing for EMC.
The ASN program is designed to go alongside the Velocity Partner Program, EMC’s reseller program for its Clariion products, which was introduced last year. Velocity, like ASN, is also based on a three-tier system.
Qualified Velocity partners will also be included in the ASN and will be given access to EMC intellectual property, training, mentoring and licensed service delivery methodologies for a range of Clariion-based SAN and NAS professional services.
There are 19 ASN partners in the U.S, with six or seven more in transition.
Skydata Corp. recently signed on to the program and three more companies are in negotiations, an EMC Canada spokesperson said.
Rob Stroud, channel manager for EMC Canada, is optimistic about the opportunities for the Canadian channel.
“”For us to have a program to offer our partners that allows them to offer services around our entry level and mid-tier offerings is very exciting for EMC.””
Mid-market resellers fall into a new category of ASN partners called Focus. The two existing categories are Select and Advanced, with the latter being the highest tier a partner can achieve.
Classification depends upon partners’ EMC service capabilities and expertise. The ASN Program was created in 2001 to sell EMC products to the mid-market and commercial space.
The announcement is part of EMC’s ongoing effort over the past year to develop a channel program for partners that resell Clariion products. Traditionally, one-third of EMC’s sales is through the channel. In the past, however, EMC has gone direct.
“”We think that it’s a key component to growing our business and growing our partners’ business in the mid-range space,”” said Koury.
Another important factor in the decision, Koury added, is that 40 per cent of revenue that partners receive comes from professional services (separate from hardware and software).
In order to become a partner, resellers must meet a set of criteria including strong professional services within their organization, storage competency and financial viability with customer satisfaction topping the list.
“”We want to make sure we’re doing it with partners that are a little bit battle-scarred because it does require some degree of infrastructure to be able to go out and deliver on these professional services,”” said Greene.
In terms of return on investment, Koury says partners are in a much better position to offer customers value for their dollar.
“”If the end user has the ability to have a local partner be able to not only sell them the equipment but install the equipment, maintain the equipment, add to it, reconfigure as needed, add new software layers, partners can generally do that at lower cost, they tend to be local, they tend to be on-site.
“”We believe that has to translate to a cost savings for the end user,”” he said.
Koury and Greene are hopeful about what the channel expansion means for EMC.
“”Our channel business is growing very nicely for us. We’re looking for it to grow as well at least in 2004,”” said Koury.
