Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, recently announced a series of significant enhancements to the award-winning Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Program. The improved programme for 2013 focusses on specialisation, education, incentives and support designed to help accelerate HDS partners’ sales revenue and profit. 
“There has never been a better time to be a Hitachi TrueNorth partner than right now,” says Jack Domme, CEO, Hitachi Data Systems.
“We are creating massive, unique opportunities for partners to grow their business by addressing the most complex business challenges our customers face. We are honoured to work with outstanding partners that continue to bring incredible value and innovation to not only the customers they serve, but the entire marketplace.”
Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Programme enhancements include:
* Hitachi TrueNorth Services Specialisation Programme – provides partners around the globe with realtime 24/7 access to the same tools, best practices, and associated manuals and implementation materials as Hitachi Data Systems employees, under a single-access framework. The programme is now enhanced with a set of remote service offerings for Hitachi Unified Storage.
* Hitachi TrueNorth Scholarship Programme – HDS will extend this programme later this year with “Just For You” training. This on-demand adaptive learning approach builds on existing skills and expertise to deliver the right training at the right time to make customer facing interactions more productive.
Since 2011, the Hitachi TrueNorth programme has been providing all training to partners at no cost. In the past year, hundreds of partners have taken thousands of training courses ensuring they have knowledge on the latest solution designs and implementations.
* Industry-Leading Partner Incentives – this new global, best-in-class partner reward structure includes incentive rebates to partners for all HDS solutions and offerings. Competency-based rebates are available for partners who have specialised delivery and integration skills supporting Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP).
* Account Segmentation – HDS is continuing the tradition of partner-centric selling, broadening TrueNorth Partner engagement, which includes further clarity regarding end-user account strategies, potential participation in named Hitachi Data Systems accounts, and leadership in non-named accounts.
Account segmentation will increase the number of sales and service accounts for Hitachi TrueNorth Partners, enabling greater business building and profit growth opportunities.
“Hitachi Data Systems partners are a strategic and critical component of our ability to help customers increase efficiency and flexibility in their IT infrastructures,” says Mike Walkey, senior VP, Global Partners and Alliances, Hitachi Data Systems.
“These new enhancements usher in the next generation of our partner programme and affirm our commitment to continuing to invest and improve the way we team with our partners.”
The Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Programme has a longstanding history of success, including a 2013 Data Centre 100 win, a 2012 Storage Vendor of the Year win and most recently being named to CRN’s Five Star Partner Programme Guide for 2013.
Hitachi Data Systems recently appointed Vic Booysen as channel director for sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa, to establish and grow a channel organisation in this territory. Booysen has a longstanding career in IT in South Africa but specifically a wealth of knowledge around storage solutions, including an in depth understanding of channel from both a vendor and reseller perspective.
With the recent acquisition of Shoden Data Systems by HDS, HDS is now fully represented in this territory and will drive market share acquisition and growth in all segments of the market.
Booysen iterates that HDS will seek aggressive growth in this region through an enabled set of select partners that can add strategic value to the HDS business. He further states that with the support of the award winning TrueNorth Partner Programme, the channel strategy of HDS in this region, and, the industry leading solutions from HDS, there has not been a better time to partner with HDS in this region.