The new program for the channel partners is based on how to drive solutions, not products. Everything that has been built now is about the solution and the joint business planning process that focuses on core initiatives, solutions, a route to market and where our partners want to go
What is the GTM and channel strategy of Hitachi Vantara ?
At Hitachi Vantara we are extremely proud of our close alignment with our key partners to bring our data operations advantage to our customers. We have a strong and growing ecosystem of partners in India who can take our solutions, integrate them with their IP and services and accelerate the rollout of IT and oT solutions locally and support our government’s vision of digitally empowered citizens.
Hitachi Vantara’s market focus is helping customers to improve their business outcomes withinnovative technology solutions that will not only change the way companies operate, but also how the world works. The company’s mission is that its customers begin to “own” their data and learn how to maximize their analytical capabilities to improve their business models. Hitachi-Vantara’s solutions give customers the keys to unlocking the value of what’s happening within their enterprise.
We have highly structured academy-led training courses and certification levels in Hitachi Certified Professional Program for our Partners. The Channel strategy is aimed at arming our partners to demonstrate incremental value to our customers via Data Stairway to Value. The Data Stairway to Value aligns the investments to deliver the return our customers are looking for from our products and solutions. It reinforces the integrated nature of all the investments, and it is a system that pays off at each level. This framework function in four steps: Store, Enrich, Activate & Monetize.
STORE: Store and protect the data at the lowest cost and right service levels across traditional and private/public/multi/hybrid cloud solutions. With an agile data infrastructure that optimizes information asset storage, management and protection while optimizing service standards, innovation can be enabled throughout the company
ENRICH: Use metadata and analytic insights to generate new “context” that makes data more intelligent. Our customers can link this data to discover conceptual relationships that are otherwise invisible and apply those insights to support the innovations that drive value for the business
ACTIVATE: Integrate and orchestrate data assets and use analytics to generate actionable insights for every interaction. In this step, our customers can discover, integrate and orchestrate data to drive business value, either by boosting productivity or creating new revenue opportunities. Activating their data enables them to apply advanced analytics that generates actionable insights for every enterprise interaction and application
MONETIZE: Deliver outcomes that capture the economic value of all data inside company/enterprise and beyond. Monetizing data is about taking its latent value and connecting that value to an entirely new business opportunity and generate new sources of revenue and allow mature businesses to diversify for growth.
With the continued development of Hitachi Vantara, which helps clients optimize their information quality, the company has made substantial investments in its partner sector as a critical part of its expansion. We provide our partners with the best-in-class certification program, which strengthens their professional capabilities to meet market needs and reach their business goals. We conduct periodical training for partners and regularly update them on our products and solutions through regular webinars. Also, we organize annual partner events for our partners to interact with our executives face-to-face and discuss the latest industry trends and the ever-changing market needs. The last India CIO & Partner Summit was successfully held in Sri Lanka in February.
Which are the recent developments and initiatives in Hitachi Vantara’s channel partner program
One of our unique propositions is the adoption of value co-creation approach with our partners with a single objective of helping our customers in their journey of Digital Transformation. The new program is based on how to drive solutions, not products. Everything that has been built now is about the solution and the joint business planning process that focuses on core initiatives, solutions, a route to market and where our partners want to go.
The new Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure build on our global Cisco partnership, paving the way for expanding our collaboration into new areas and the new Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure is a Cisco Validated Design (CVD) that combines the companies’ technologies including Hitachi’s storage and Cisco’s compute and networking.
Hitachi VSP PRO, which was launched in September 2018, is a prime example of the company’s dedication to simplifying and improving delivery cycles for its partners. Hitachi VSP PRO solutions are specifically developed for the partner community. They enable partners to quickly and easily quote small, medium, large and extra-large systems using an automatic, self-service model, which reduces the process from hours to minutes.
The key differentiator would be Hitachi Vantara’s innovative models of selling to customers via these focused partners. We will continue to collaborate with our partners to penetrate new markets and increase our market share.
Which verticals and technologies should channel partners focus on, to grow their business ?
Our vision is to create a self-sustaining, value selling and profitable ecosystem of partners which forms the crux of our channel strategy in India. One of our key objectives is to bring about more clarity on partner roles by outlining clear expectations.
The increased storage, analytics, smart spaces solutions and cloud-migration demand from segments like Public Sector, Technical Services, and BFSI has driven the growth of all our solutions in India. Customers in these segments as well as all other segments where technology refresh, capacity expansion, modernization initiatives and investments in emerging technologies continuously drive the incremental growth in data are customers that our partners can address to augment their business.
Discuss the Initiatives taken by Hitachi Vantara to upskill and reskill the employees working for the partner community
Our partner ecosystem is highly critical to our success. As we look to broaden our ecosystem expertise and deepen our cloud, analytics, and IoT services and offerings, we will continue to expand our solution-capable partner ecosystem to accelerate co-creation and innovation and to help our customers fully leverage their data to drive extraordinary outcomes. To ensure this we invest significantly in our Partner Enablement initiatives – these initiatives provide partner with technical and solution knowledge of all our products and solutions as well as guides them through various sales plays on how to solve their customers problems. The knowledge sharing sessions happen across several different mediums – via Webinars, via face-to-face sessions and via hands-on lab sessions. We encourage all our partners resources attending these trainings and enablement sessions to get certified on Sales and Services on our products and solution and provide them scholarships to accelerate this process. As a part of Partner program, we also align attractive rebates to reward our partners who have required certified resources aligned to their business plan.
