GEC NEWS WIREIn the process of following the pursuit of creating a winning business strategy, seldom the idea of growing together takes a backseat. Ehab Halablab, A10’s newly appointed Regional Channel Head of MENA, believes that he is here to demystify concepts. In a region where channel-driven business rules the roost, Ehab says that he is all hands full to inspire A10’s channel ecosystem like never before with the company’s key products like The Affinity Partner Program and ATC (Authorized Training Centre) that was launched in Dubai recently.
While Ehab has many priorities lined up for the year 2019, the one which attracted us more was his vision to ‘turn distributors into value-added distributors’. So, what does Ehab wants to achieve?
“I do not want my distributors to be mere box movers, but to create more services. All of A10’s programs, campaigns, incentives would be driven towards this vision and we shall propel the partners’ go-to-market strategy in line with this. By doing this, we are also making sure that the distributor has more professional services in his portfolio to be delivered to our customers.” The company will be actively onboarding new potential partners in the region that will be focused on A10’s business. The internal sales team will also be seeding new business opportunities that will be fulfilled through resellers in the region. In addition, Ehab will be focused on strengthening local ties with the company’s alliance partners like HP, Nokia Systems, Ericsson and NEC.
Ehad further states that the company is also building stronger incentive programs and adding it to their portfolio to ensure the partners grow with them and speak in a single voice to the customers. “We have been strategically devising and building relevant campaigns which we can push to our channel and motivate them to double or triple the existing profit margin. We are also making certain changes to our distribution landscape as well. Certain strategies are being evaluated and planned. The launch of the Authorized Training Center here is also a vital step towards that. The ATC would be a first-of-its-kind in the region to educate partners and customers. A10 ATCs will be regularly launching monthly sessions at the beginning of each quarter. There is also going to be the launch of a partner training program called ‘RiDerS’ which will give an opportunity to channel system engineers to gain the requisite high level of security knowledge.”
“I am planning to push the channel relation to more mature levels and create a stronger and profitable business model for everyone to ensure that all our channel partners are a part of this success,” he adds.
Second priority on the desk is to champion the company’s Affinity Partner Program which leverages incentive programs, co-partner end-user events, and vertical focused events to drive partner engagement and opportunities. Ehab says that partners can expect some big announcements coming their way in 2019 that promises richer offerings and benefits to the partners on board. He also adds that they would be investing heavily into direct enablement of partners. This would include quarterly or bi-monthly enablement session for partners in major regions and also include online sessions that would keep the partners updated, regardless of the geography they are in. The session not only taps regional but global cases as well. “We believe in having a healthy partner relationship where we sit together to drive and discuss business growth. We are accountable to our customers as it is not a one-time contract that they sign-up for. With A10, a customer’s journey is continuous wherein we keep on adding layers and layers of processes customized as per their need. oWe are the consultants are partners to our customers and it is a long term relation. We help the customers move from a pure on-prem to a hybrid cloud environment. Hence it is very important that our partners are up-to-date with our offerings and strategy.”
By Anushree Dixit
