Sanjay Zadoo, Country Head – Channel Business, Vertiv shares the company’s channel strategies for 2020
What have been the key highlights of 2019 and how 2020 will be an important year for the IT channel industry?
We have invested in educating our partners on technology applications and setting a direction for them to approach prospective customers. We’ve always ensured alignment and development of solutions to meet customers’ expectations and enabled our partners to be equipped to take these developments to the customers. In 2019, we saw many of the emerging tech categories turn into revenue streams.
The effective use of technology tools is no longer optional; 2020 will be the year where early adopters will capitalise on the increased need for technologies such as IoT, AI, automation, 5G and the edge. With every change, our business has evolved to continue supporting our clients and providing them with the opportunities the latest technology provides.
Midway into 2020, we are seeing a monumental shift in how customers acquire our products and how our partners are reacting with their go-to-market strategies. B2B channels are in transition — from a resale function to a more fluid ecosystem of affiliates, alliances, and reliable partners. At Vertiv, we have always believed in empowering our channel partners and addressing their needs. Through this year, we have set our focus on solution selling and aligning our support and resources to a strategy that focuses on market growth areas. With a strong focus on the channel, we intend on driving change in partner productivity, to help them prepare for the solutions of the future.
What are the top three technology trends that channel community should be focusing on, and why?
IDC predicts that by 2025, worldwide data will grow 61 per cent to 175 zettabytes. This explosion of data will have to be matched by an increase in data storage, processing and data centres. To meet this growing demand, we anticipate a growing need for scalable and cost-effective solutions. Just as the entire IT industry is changing, so is the role of the channel partner.
Businesses are looking to centralise data management and delivery, as well as leverage data to control their businesses and the user experience. To enable this, they are turning to converged solutions to overcome the restrictions and inadequacies of independent silo structures offered by traditional IT storage. These converged solutions bring together networking, storage and software in a preconfigured package, managed as a single converged system, enabling greater value.
IoT is a business critical need that involves remote monitoring and control of IT infrastructures at the edge. There needs to be in place an effective partnership that will help organisations offer support to address changing customer requirements. We ensure that our partners have in place the requisite capabilities needed to accelerate solution development and distribution for customers.
What are the top channel directions your company has set for partners, and where should partners invest to be aligned with these directions?
As companies look to digitally transform their businesses, their focus is shifting towards holistic solutions that deliver desirable business outcomes. This creates a distinctive window of opportunity for channel partners. We have continuously been empowering our channel partners and addressing their needs. We believe data will be the driver of all change and expect our channel partners to be aligned with technology trends, especially when core and edge solutions will propel growth.
At Vertiv, we form strategic associations to build, assist and engage with our rich ecosystem of partners and deliver a wide range of product offerings. While partners need to invest in resources, we ensure they have in place the requisite capabilities needed to accelerate solution development and distribution. We also help them with resources, expertise and services needed to deliver holistic end-to-end solutions.
We offer them 360-degree support through our Vertiv Partner Portal, that includes easy access sales tools and other partner related information. To help them align with our wider business goals, we conduct regular training to enhance their skills and align with new trends of technology needs.
