Parrish: NetApp Committed to the Channel - What's on Parrish's Agenda
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Weeks will pass
before Parrish has a full assessment of NetApp’s channel, but she’s
identified two themes in need of addressing: making it easier for
solution providers to work with the vendor and better channel field
operations to enable resellers’ business.
When it comes to the
"ease of doing business" problem, Parrish muses, “I wonder if there’s a
vendor out there that doesn’t have this problem.” But NetApp’s problem
is amplified, she and members of her team say, because of its
strengths: strong technology building blocks that require customization
for each order. The current partner purchasing process requires
extensive consultation and configuration, which extends the ordering
time. The cumbersome nature, she says, costs solution providers money
and puts deals at risk.
The
solution is possibly preconfigured bundles and solution building
guidance. Stopping short of creating rigid suites of products, Parrish
is looking to create new pathways in the NetApp product lines to
expedite solution building, pricing and fulfillment.
“We’re not going to
tell [solution providers] the answer and take away their ability to
solve problems, but we’re going to show them the way to make a
well-configured system that won’t blow up when they install it.”
Field alignment is
exactly as it sounds—internal organization for NetApp’s channel support
network. Parrish says she wants channel account managers who are given
the tools, resources and direction to engage with and enable the
solution providers in their territories without conflict. That means
more training, marketing and account maintenance programs. Such
programs and resources current exist, but she says that they’re
inconsistent in how they’re applied in the field.
Parrish believes
NetApp’s and its partners’ growth opportunities rest in services.
Because of the complexity of the technology and architectures, storage
vendors have struggled with enabling and handing over services beyond
Tier 1 support to their partners. NetApp earlier this year launched a
program that has already trained 25 solution providers to deliver the
full breadth of storage support services to their customers. Parrish
and NetApp want hundreds of solution providers to go through the
program.
“There’s a huge
services opportunity with NetApp that I don’t know if it’s been touted
enough to the channel community,” she says. “NetApp has made it very
clear that it's a vendor with a small services division. A lot of
vendors talk about services, but I think this is a unique opportunity.”
Developing and
nurturing the NetApp services channel is of critical importance given
the company’s ambition and competitive position in the market. Its
solution providers need more revenue opportunities to keep growing and
remain profitable, particularly in the current economic downturn.
However, Parrish also has a wary eye on the competition.
The obvious target
for NetApp’s market share growth is EMC, the 800-pound gorilla in the
storage market. But Parrish says that Dell—with its recent acquisition
of EqualLogic—and Hewlett-Packard present serious competitive threats
that NetApp and its channel need to guard against.
“Accelerating our
channel to get beyond EMC is what we have to do, but guarding our
flanks against aggressive competitors in the rearview is definitively
necessary. With that focus, I need to ask if I have partners that can
build a business around NetApp. We need to make sure NetApp remains
relevant. Growing in a hot market is easy, but markets always cool
off.”
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