By Kathy Gibson in Barcelona – VMware is actively looking to expand and strengthen both the number and the level of its partners in the South African and African markets.
VMware SA’s Ian Jansen van Rensburg, says the Value Velocity programme, where the company is marketed via VMware’s distributors, has been successful.
“We’ve been getting great feedback from this programme. We want to get new resellers on board, and there is also a push to improve the status of our partners.”
Wayne Biehn, who runs VMware’s African operations, explains that that partner programme rewards resellers according to their level on the programme as well as the different competencies that they qualify in.
“At the end of the day, we fulfil to customers through partners. We may do evangelisation direct, but go-to-market is always via the channel. So the partners need to be equipped to give value to the customer.”
The local operation hopes to increase the number of premium partners in the region, and it is actively recruiting and developing resellers to reach this goal.
“A criterion for premier partners is that they can speak to the value of the entire platform, across the entire solutions stack.
“And it goes beyond a technology conversation. This is disruptive technology, with a lot of processes and adjustments that have to be made to realise the full value of the solution.
“Premier partners will be able to hold their customers’ hand across the technology, processes and skills sets transformation.”
Jansen van Rensburg adds: “The SDDC will not build itself – you need a range of skills to implement it properly. We are talking about software-defined networking, storage and security, and partners need to have the knowledge and experience to build it properly.”