Veeam increasing partner collaboration

Veeam is looking to increase the business it generates with its partner base by increasing the collaboration it has with resellers.

The data management specialist has been examining its interaction with the channel and recognised the need to evolve its support levels to match the changing market dynamics.

Greg Bailey, head of channel UK&I at Veeam, said that one of the main themes for this year was around increasing collaboration and removing obstacles that might hinder resellers.

"It is about partner account management version 2. If the resellers are evolving then  how do the channel and the vendors need to evolve alongside that? Just because we had a good year last year doesn't mean we can just do the same things. So there is a lot more of finding out what they are doing with their big partners that will affect us," he said.

"We learnt last year that we cannot be prescriptive we have to learn what is important for the reseller and work with them," he added “I’m not in R&D so I can’t change the products but what I can change is the approach taken to the channel and the people talking to those people.”

Bailey gave one example of where it had spotted a chance to make a difference was around the deal registration process, with room for partners to increase the business they took all the way through to completion.

"This is the year of collaboration so how do we work together closer and smarter, not just with the partners but internally as well," he said.

The communication extends to resellers involved with other vendors involved with the Veeam ecosystem: "We know that if we want to win in the higher bigger blue chip companies we need an HP, Cisco and Microsoft to do that and the model is now aligned."

The vendor's channel is continuing to change with a move beyond backup and DR as a service to provide other elements, like monitoring and management as a service.

"In five year’s time if you are not selling as a service models then you will struggle for sure," said Bailey.