GEC NEWS WIREFor the past six years I have been working in the channel organisation, both at Veritas and now with Pure Storage. The first observation at Pure Storage after joining is that I really want to put a brand and identity on the map for the channel community. That’s what I have set out to do in my first 90 days of tenure here. Where I have got to after all the conversations is really what I am calling our foundational 4Ps. These are partnerships, programme, process and people.
Partnerships
What are we doing around portfolio selling, how are we attacking the Evergreen transition to subscription. So if I start with partnerships, that is the core foundation of everything that we do and the task that I am setting for the team in that context is really around How do we build scale and reach?
The Pure Storage partner ecosystem that have got us to where we are today, is well documented and we had great 50% YoY in the prior fiscal quarter. We are going through a phenomenal growth as a business. But we need to build scale and reach in order to continue on that growth curve that we are on as a business.
Where I have got to after all the conversations is what I am calling our foundational 4Ps
When we talk about building scale and reach, we need to have an aligned coverage model. We have our direct sales executives who engage with customers, and we have our channel who have relationships with those end-user customers as well. So it is imperative that we are aligned on that coverage model through distribution, resellers, alliances, GSIs and MSPs as just some examples.
The primary goal of these partnerships in building scale and reach, is to build an incremental new pipeline together. If we do nothing else, that is the core raison d’être for us .
And part of that is really accelerating this transition to subscription with Evergreen. And we are seeing a big uptick in the channel organisation around how we are doing that. The concept of embracing the partner ecosystem is to give a force multiplier in the region across EMEA. So that is partnership number one.
Everything that we do is 100% indirect through channel. The way that we transact our business is all through distribution. We do not have any contracts with any one reseller or MSP for example. Everything is through distribution. We do that for a number of reasons.
Clearly one benefit of using distribution is that they extend the line of credit. But moreover, they provide so much more scale, reach and discipline, where Pure Storage will never be an expert in. And that is the role that we see distribution playing. So simplifying routes to market through distribution has been something that we have been very focused on over the last 12 months and we will continue.
The days of selling an x86 server with some software are gone
We have currently been through a partner mapping exercise to identify – of the existing partners that we have today, how many have the skillset and capabilities to take on technologies like Kubernetes. Do they have a Kubernetes practice as an example? Do they have an AI practice? I look to some of our biggest and brightest VARs across the EMEA region. And we are absolutely targeting them on expanding that portfolio sale within them.
I always say that the days of selling an x86 server with some software are gone. And if you are in that domain, then your business will probably not survive for much longer as we transition to cloud and everything else. But I do feel that we need a breed of new partners, born in the cloud type partners.
How are we going to engage the hyper scalers as an example, how do we embrace marketplace as our route to market. So we are always looking to expand our routes to market to ensure that we can capitalise on all the opportunities that the market has available for us. Very different breed of resellers when you are born in the cloud versus the traditional X86 server player.
Programme
Number two is how do we help our partners drive profitable growth? And the way we do that is through our programme. It has to be predictable; it has to be aligned to the investments, and align those investments to the Pure Storage strategy, which is clearly around transitioning to subscription, the use of Evergreen and some of the newer portfolio products that we have like Pure Storage FlashBlade as an example and Portworx from a Kubernetes perspective.
What I also find though is that the partner ecosystem that we have today is very different from the Kubernetes route to market and channel ecosystem. So our job as a channel is to help accelerate those existing partners that we have with Kubernetes strategies and alternatively embracing the Kubernetes channel today to become Pure Storage partners over time.
Again, helping build that scale and reach.
And then the other part of the program that is critical for us is how do we motivate the seller at the reseller level. There is not many vendors who actually do this, but rather than motivating the company with backend rebates and frontend margin, how do we truly motivate the seller.
There is a big focus on not only cloud subscription, but the cloud support renewal because that lends itself towards annual recurring revenue. If I look at Pure Storage, we are absolutely focusing on both streams at this moment in time.
Process
Number three is process and for me that is all about ease of doing business. I think as we have evolved in our business and grown over the last eleven years since our inception, I feel that we have grown arms and legs, but we tend to have stuck with some of the processes that we did five to seven years ago. So how do we develop, mature and modernise a lot of those processes so that we still maintain that concept of ease of doing business.
Simplification of the partner programme as an example and also part of that is empowering our partnerships to build managed service capabilities on the back of Pure Storage, given the transition everyone has to private and public cloud and hybrid cloud.
People
Number four is all about the people. How do we activate our whole community, both sales, technical and at the peer level executives that we have within Pure Storage – so our senior executives are mapped to the senior executives of a given reseller or alliance partner.
It is important that we have relationships up and down the stack and something I really want to force through our channel strategy in terms of activation. Clearly part of that is around enablement, it is about furthering the certification and accreditation programme, and finally I would say, ensuring that we have cross functional interlock across all different parts of the ecosystem.
So marketing, presales, post sales consulting, to ensure that we are driving what I want to create. And ultimately, this is the goal – creating what I am calling an economist Pure Storage force multiplier. Some partners still want us to go to customer meetings with them. So how do you build independence in our channel to help build scale and reach. To drive profitable growth. To ensure that we can continue ease of doing business and finally activate our partner community.
We are now engaging with different business streams in terms of business development. These are all new personas that we need to engage with. You will see an evolution of the partner programme over the next six months as we move to the next financial year to ensure that we are targeting all the areas of our portfolio across the business.
The OEM type relationship is critical for us moving forward. We are seeing much more traction with that type of relationship.
