HP’s top 5 tips for disties
Collaboration: We look to our partners to provide feedback so we can strengthen our relationships, develop joint business value and constantly improve upon our partner programs.
Customer centric: Our partners are an extension of our business and need to be able to deliver great service while solving our customers’ toughest challenges.
Accelerate growth: We look for partners that can generate new leads, increase demand for our products and services and expand upon existing business by using the tools available through HP’s partner programs.
Enable long term growth strategy: The channel is a key element of HP’s go-to-market strategy. We continually look to work with and invest in the channel and in our partners to enable our long-term growth strategy.
Agility: We look for partners that can recognise and respond to the tectonic shifts in the way businesses use and consume technology, using those insights to create new market opportunities.
IBM’s top 5 tips for disties
Partner alignment: Partners that the distributor services and geographically covers need to address the customer segment and sales regions that IBM aligns to.
Capital and financial risk: A distributor needs to have substantial working capital to cover their active partner base, allow for growth and manage financial risk and compliance with these partners.
Partner coverage: A distributor needs to be able to reach more partners and build scale. This could be geographical coverage, partner type, skills or speciality.
Total solution: A distributor need to be able to aggregate across multiple technology vendors and provide technical skills and partner enablement. They need to offer a total solution or speciality and be able to support it through high partner satisfaction across a suite of accredited vendors. It is essential that every distributor has a differentiator or a defined value proposition that is recognised by partners and IBM.
Channel programs and promos: While it is the vendor’s role to create demand and ensure there is a customer and market for the vendor’s product, a distributor's role is to "push" and promote a vendor’s products into the market that is aligned to that vendor.
VMware’s top 5 tips for disties
Logistics expertise: The fundamental basis of a good vendor relationship with a distributor is around the distributor’s ability to supply goods and services to the partner community in a timely and cost effective fashion. Everything else is secondary.
Understanding value: Understand not just the “what” of a vendor’s technology, but also the “why”. This enables them to more effectively determine how to partner with the channel and in which market segments to focus, while being able to articulate the sales opportunity.
Good ideas: On many occasions a good distribution partner can pick a trend or identify a market opportunity before the vendor sees it. At VMware, we love it when our distributors come up with new or unique ways of building a better relationship with our partner community.
Ability to change: How the market transacts today is completely different to how it was transacting 10 years ago, and it will be different again in another five. A good distributor will have the flexibility to manage these changes in the market. The growth of the service provider community is a great example of this.
Adding value – Some distributors over reach their agreed role with their vendor partners, duplicating vendor’s efforts in demand generation or market development, or even worse, investing in non-productive markets. Knowing what it is you are not going to do is important.
Cisco’s top 5 tips for disties
Partner base: Access to broad partner base in terms of partner type, location, customer and technology focus. Importantly, Cisco’s looking for a partner base that includes partners that take an architectural approach to applying technology to business propositions or challenges.
Complimentary offerings: Distributors that carry other vendors who have complimentary offerings to Cisco so we can deliver complete and business-relevant solutions to customers.
Value investments: An ability to invest in value added services to help partners address gaps in their own offerings or help them transition to new markets such as cloud, mobility and industry verticals.
Financial position: Financial position to hold levels of inventory that ensure we meet market demands.
Enablement: Commitment and capability to drive partner enablement in sales and technology skills, with a focus on network business architectures versus point products.
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