Infinidat, the memory-cached high-end array shipper, says it has been — and is — building up its channel partners and program while competitors are reducing their channel commitment.
It claims competitors, without naming them, have recently cut the number of partner account managers, slashed on-target earnings, and reduced the ranks of veteran channel managers. Infinidat says it has invested heavily in building up its channel partner program, increasing partner revenue, margins, co-op/marketing development funding (MDF), and joint events.
Eric Herzog, Infinidat’s CMO, said in a statement: “Infinidat is doing all the right things to catapult partners forward. The outstanding results of Infinidat’s engagement with solution providers speak for themselves.”
So far this year Infinidat says it has:
- Increased channel revenue by more than 20 per cent;
- Increased the number of channel transactions by 25 per cent;
- Doubled its channel-focused headcount;
- Run three times as many joint channel/Infinidat demand generation events as last year;
- Increased the number of channel partners by more than 25 per cent year-over-year, from <400 to >500.
The headcount increase includes “very experienced” channel-dedicated sales, SE, support personnel, and marketing, with resources around the globe. Kevin Rhone, practice director for partner acceleration at ESG, said Infinidat “has expanded its channel programs by increasing joint end user demand generation events, high value rewards for new customer acquisition, and rich competitive refresh incentives.”
Kelly Nuckolls, vice president of marketing & alliances at InfoSystems, said: “With Infinidat’s dramatic expansion of their channel focus and white-glove partner support, we are very excited to expand our GTM strategy in 2022.”
Infinidat says it aims to co-sell with channel partners as often as possible — almost 90 per cent of its revenues come through channel partners. Partner recruitment is ongoing.
Comment
Since Infinidat competes with other high-end block array suppliers, such as Dell EMC, Hitachi Vantara, HPE, IBM, and others, we must infer from Infinidat’s statement that two or more of them are cutting back on their channel programs.
