Storage
EMC still the favorite
EMC retained the most-preferred channel vendor crown in 2009 despite some of its key managers leaving the company during the year. NetApp, which failed to make the final list in 2008, emerged second on the back of its channel development initiatives.
IBM was ranked third followed by HP. Most IBM and HP partners sell storage as part of an infrastructure solution to customers. But with the economic slowdown IT Capex was hit; this impacted the overall demand for infrastructure solutions, and consequently the storage business of the partners of these companies.
EMC
What tilted the scale in EMC’s favor were the offers it ran on its entry-level Clarion and Celera range of products during the year. It offered customers easy-to-deploy boxes at attractive price points and with a 4-year warranty.
EMC, being a pure-play storage vendor, is perceived to be better on price-performance at both the entry-level and high-end. With the launch of Iomega NAS solutions at an entry-level price of less than Rs 30,000, the company now boasts of the widest range of products.
An aggressive pricing strategy meant that EMC had a minimum 10 percent price advantage over its competitors.
EMC’s unified boxes, like NetApp and IBM, come with FC and iSCSI support, which is not the case with HP. The company’s products also come bundled with relevant software for data replication, backup and archival, which respondents rated as a strong differentiator.
On the profitability parameter, partners said that the company offers an average 10 percent margin on product sales, while in a solutions-centric deal they can make up to 20-25 percent, the best among peers. EMC provides an incentive of 4 percent of the product value on opportunity identification and deal registration. The company’s deal registration and lead generation system was rated the best among peers.
EMC’s channel marketing was the most energetic, and it ran an incentive program for the sales staff of partner organizations; the program was well appreciated. The company also introduced quarterly boot-camps for partners’ technical and sales staff in order to equip them to sell better. In addition, in partnership with its group company, VMware, EMC ran training programs on storage virtualization for its key partners.
NetApp
In 2009 NetApp expanded its channel capacity significantly. The company ranks higher than all its peers when it comes to channel engagement, and, according to respondents, it enjoys an enviable personal relationship with partners.
NetApp’s other strong point was the joint product and marketing initiatives it launched with vendors such as VMware, Symantec and Microsoft in order to provide comprehensive solutions.
The company improved its partner communication by introducing online tools such as Campaign Express for CRM activities, and opening up Field Portal, the company’s intranet for partners, for transparently sharing data regarding targets, achievements, status of leads, etc.
NetApp gave away demo products at heavy discounts to partners for creating customer point of contacts (POCs). This, according to many respondents, proved helpful in convincing customers about NetApp’s strong product offerings. It also encouraged many new partners to start their own POCs.
Respondents said that NetApp lacks products at the entry-level (around Rs 5 lakh) where all the other three vendors have offerings.
IBM
Many IBM partners said that they push IBM storage only in server deals. For stand-alone storage requirements they partner with EMC because stand-alone IBM boxes are not price-competitive, and often face inter-operability challenges.
IBM offered several attractive storage bundles with servers. However, with the server market moving southward, the storage business also suffered.
The company introduced its entry-level unified storage, the DS 3000 series, on a MOQ basis in 2009, thus increasing its visibility in SMB channels. The series did well, and IBM ran good schemes in spurts to generate demand. However, respondents said that IBM lacks a stronger entry-level portfolio which can compete with EMC.
Hewlett-Packard
Though HP launched LeftHand iSCSI SAN boxes at the entry-level during 2009, partners said that after few months of marketing and channel activities the company stopped pushing the brand aggressively. What’s more, it failed to get the pricing of LeftHand products right. Also, recommendations by partners to provide demo units of the new productline at a good discount weren’t heeded by the company.
Unlike its competitors, HP doesn’t have a truly unified box which supports both FC and iSCSI. As per respondents, both NetApp and EMC used this aspect to de-sell HP products among customers.
Many HP partners agree that HP has the strongest storage portfolio after EMC. However, the company lacks an effective go-to-market strategy.
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