Tough times call for tough measures. However, this is not the case with the global tech leader, Nutanix. The company has been proactive in extending all its support to both customers as well as partners that will help them sustain their business operations in the current environment
The current global crisis has compelled the technology players to up their game and address the fast changing, or in a few cases, unique requirements of their customers. This situation has also called for a tweak in their go to market strategies so that they continue providing support to their channel ecosystem and reiterate their commitment to the community.
In this endeavour, many tech vendors have announced a slew of initiatives for their partners, who are facing huge disruption in their business operations. As a global leader, Nutanix too has demonstrated its support to partners worldwide by coming up with the Nutanix Special Financial Assistance Program, which was announced in the month of April this year.
The objective was to provide participating partners with extended payment terms to give them increased financial flexibility for their businesses. This program aims to help provide liquidity to partners and provide them the financial flexibility needed to support their businesses and customers, based on each partner’s particular needs. Additionally, Nutanix also enables enhanced financing options for customers through Nutanix Financial Solutions (NFS).
Apart from these, Nutanix is focused on supporting customers and partners with rapid deployment of the programs like Nutanix FastTrack for VDI and Nutanix Work From Anywhere (WFA). The former program allows organizations with existing VDI to onboard remote employees, enabling the rapid deployment of the infrastructure needed to provide secure, seamless access to business apps and desktops. It also offers special incentives for partners in support of the key role they play in the deployment of these solutions. The latter initiative includes a 30-day free trial of Xi Frame, Nutanix’s Desktop as a Service solution, which allows IT administrators to set up a secure remote virtual app and desktop environment in just a few hours.
The India market story
Like other regions, the Indian customers and partners too stand to get benefitted from these initiatives. As put up by Ritesh Syal, Head & Director, Channels & Alliances, Nutanix India, “Despite the adverse situation that we are in, our fundamental goal has remained the same – how do we make life easier and simpler for the partners – as they are the key carriers of Nutanix’s story in the market and the main source for our business. We also have global programs aimed at keeping partners focused on their customers without having to worry too much about the day-to-day running and operations during this time of turmoil. The Nutanix Special Financial Assistance Program is one such initiative designed to do just that. We are making things simpler for the partners and are focused on keeping them relevant.”
Syal goes on to add, “India’s enterprises are now faced with a new business reality where access to the right technology and capabilities has become crucial. ‘As a Service’ solutions have enabled our staff to remain safe and connected from anywhere, on any device with secure and complete access to their work desktop, files and network. We expect ‘As a Service’ to become a core component of our business and that of India’s enterprises. We are also excited with the speed of solutions such as FastTrack for VDI, which has reduced the time taken for us to set up our conventional VDI environment from months to weeks. The simplicity and flexibility of the Nutanix infrastructure solutions has made deployment easier, enabling us to accelerate delivery service.”
Nutanix is strongly committed to its partners’ as well as customers’ success, and will continue to ensure the partners have the resources they need to survive this time. Through the new solutions like FastTrack for VDI and Xi Frame Test Drive, the company is extending support to partners, which helps them get workspaces running in an hour.
One of the prominent SI partners of Nutanix in India is Wipro and together they are offering VDI solutions to the global customers. On this partnership, Saket Singh, General Manager & Business Head, Government, PSU, Defense Vertical – ISRE, Wipro, says, “Indian enterprises are now faced with a new business reality, where access to the right technology and capabilities has become crucial. ‘As a Service’ solutions have enabled our employees to remain safe and connected from anywhere, on any device with secure and complete access to their work desktop, files and network – and this is exactly what our customers expect from us as well. At Wipro, we expect ‘As a Service’ to become a core component of our business and that of India’s enterprises.”
“Companies are under enormous pressure to transform digitally. In partnership with Nutanix, we are able to offer our customers, ‘outcome-based’ solutions – whether it is Hybrid Cloud Solutions, Software Defined Everything (SDx), Internet of Things (IoT), RoBo, Database migration, Virtuadesk (VDI) and Wipro’s Digital Database Services (DDS) powered by Nutanix Era and Nutanix HCI,” highlights Singh.
Additionally, Nutanix is also helping partners improve focus through providing multiple software platforms for unstructured data, long term archival solutions, cloud spend optimization, compliance, and security of VM’s. This makes it easier for partners to add value by upselling software onto existing hardware, which solves business outcomes for existing customers.
“This is an important time for upskilling as well, and we are investing in the learning and development of our partners by offering free certification exams for solution providers through July 31, 2020. We will continue to offer no-cost courses and resources, to ensure our partners remain equipped with the knowledge and skills required to stay ahead of market needs,” adds Syal.
Navigating through the pandemic
While the world and businesses across industries are grappling through this unprecedented situation and finding out ways to sustain amidst the rapidly changing macroeconomic scenario, it’s been business as usual for Nutanix due to the company’s agile structure, nature of work, and the technology it uses. Business continuity has emerged as a challenge for many enterprises but for Nutanix, it wasn’t an issue, as it has always been equipped for remote working.
“As a modern, flat, and cloud-based, software company Nutanix is already structured to navigate and operate (globally) during the pandemic. This tech-based, de-centralized structure has allowed us to focus more on our customers – using technology to help our customers and partners stay safe, secure, productive and efficient,” shares Syal.
Apparently, in the month of April, the company did a virtual meeting locally with India partners understanding their situations and how the deliveries are impacting because of the lockdowns. There was a constant dialogue with the ecosystem, while looking at their concerns. And that’s the reason why Nutanix came up with the financing program for its authorized, registered resellers who were eligible for the extended payment terms that was offered without any extra charges, interest or hidden cost.
“It was an open kind of program which was launched for all the partners. We are maintaining an open dialogue with our partner ecosystem to understand their needs,” asserts Syal.
Service is one area which has been a major concern for customers as well as partners during this period. However, with its ‘Follow the Sun Support Services Model’, which means offering round-the-clock service and support to the customers, Nutanix has been able to serve the customers well.
“We have never been down and out of 10 support centers, 2 are in India. What we have done differently from this perspective is that we have prepared few very important capsules for the partner ecosystem from a service-related aspect, wherein they don’t have to struggle too much, just pick that up and straightaway go to the customer and service it. We have been extremely proactive in terms of going back to customers, going back to partners, re-checking if everything is working fine, if they need any kind of support so that we are prepared from a resource perspective, with whatever is required to service that customer,” stresses Syal.
Taking cue from the current scenario, Syal is of opinion that businesses that survive this pandemic will emerge leaner, more efficient, productive and far more adaptable. They will rely on software, AI, Automation, and Cloud, to help them deliver more with less. Flexibility will also be key and because of this, more enterprises will embrace software and multi-cloud systems. Moreover, the growing importance and value of data emphasizes the importance of cloud interoperability. What matters now is how businesses can access all its data, whether its located on-premise or on public cloud. Transformation, that once may have taken years, is now rapidly accelerating across every city and every sector, and more organizations across every city and every sector are looking for Intelligent Automaton to become more resilient for the future.
Way forward
With the business models changing rapidly, the company believes that there is a lot of acceleration happening in the market today with respect to digital transformation. People who were hesitant in taking such kind of decisions are moving at a much faster pace. There is now a new business reality, which is accelerating India’s shift to a multi-cloud model. This is where Nutanix and its channel partners are ready to help match and adapt to this new reality.
Valuepoint Systems is one such partner which is working very closely with Nutanix to address the customer requirements. R S Shanbhag, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Valuepoint Systems, explains, “Our customers have had to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives due to the pandemic. As a business partner, we are working closely with Nutanix to ensure we are able to provide solutions for VDI and DaaS to enable customers to set up a ‘work-from-anywhere’ environment which is secure, agile and scalable. Together, we are able to help our customers embrace software and multi-cloud systems without limitations of traditional IT infrastructure.”
“For us, the key priorities are in maintaining business continuity for the customer, and enabling customers’ digital transformation not just with the resources they have currently, but providing the right technology that will make them resilient and efficient for the future. These are the two key things that I really see moving forward,” adds Syal.
For partners, Syal conveys that they should stay flexible, while servicing a customer remotely or in person. They should keep in mind the new alliances they can build their story with. Most importantly, there should be a focus on growing their sphere of influence, and expertise through knowledge by reading, learning, and adapting to newer things.
