EMC enhances partner program 14 July, 2008 By Paul Weinberg

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"Everyone doing presales work gets virtually the exact same curriculum that our presales [internal] architects get," stated Pete Koliopoulos, vice president, Global Channel Marketing at EMC.

"We train them, we engage them, we move them through the program, the exact way we do our own employees," he continued.

Why didn't this happen earlier in Velocity? The EMC spokesperson stated that the channel program had to reach certain "baselines" to make this development possible. "This is kind of evolutionary [within the company]."

Going through 2008 and beyond Velocity is becoming more "solutions-centric" in the marketing and selling of EMC products through the channel, stated Koliopoulos. In previous years the program had emphasized products (2006) and services (2007).

Channel partners are being encouraged "to improve pre-sale proficiency" in the July 2008 incarnation of Velocity.

The Velocity pre-sales readiness program has new rewards in the form of co-op and rebate accelerators for the EMC's certification requirements to support partners improving technical proficiency, stated Koliopoulos.

To drive the pre-sale stages, EMC is introducing a new Technology Architect (EMCTA) designation which includes two accreditation tracks -- storage and information infrastructure.

The Technical Architect is expected to encourage partners to "mentor" customers in possible product and solution options as "a trusted advisor," Koliopoulos stated.

Also, the Technical Architect is not expected to sell, he continued. "One of these technical advisors is typically not as leveraged for a sale. [They] get a bigger base salary, if you will, than sales [persons]. And the technology person is looked at as someone more trusted in terms of bringing the right solution."

Furthermore, the authorized services network specialty designation has been beefed up to include advanced training and accreditation in the three major areas - backup, archiving and consolidate -- the latter is for partners "who offer solutions for mid-sized enterprises to manage and improve infrastructure availability."

Koliopoulos stated he expects the new ASN Specialty designations will help partners "further differentiate themselves" in the competitive market.

In the enhanced Velocity program, channel partners earning an ASN specialty designation are eligible to become EMC "Champions" which entails gaining access to exclusive webcasts, product/NDA roadmap reviews, their eRoom for content, best practices sharing, participation in EMC's Beta program (as available) and access to EMC's product engineering teams.

Finally, Velocity has an advanced sales accreditation program that is aligned to the technical specialties and is designed to enhance the sales reps' ability to have "pre-sales conversations" with existing or new customers.

EMC has separate channel programs from its sister companies, VMware and RSA. Also, EMC makes twice a year changes to Velocity to allow for "a certain amount of predictability," stated Koliopoulos. "[Partners] know in January or July there are going to be some [enhancements to the program]."