Arcserve increasing top tier support

The recently appointed EMEA channel sales director at Arcserve has set out plans to crank up the support it can give partners, particularly those at the top end of its programme.

The data protection player hired Vince Blackall just before Christmas and as he wraps up his first quarter at the firm his thoughts around strategy have started to crystalise.

He has been around the data protection market for most of his career, with spells at CA Technologies, Dell, Symantec and Commvault.

"I am going to maintain the 100% channel approach and the two-tier channel model and focus on the people who are in our corner and maintain the business and are interested in growing it," he said.

The business has traded with thousands of resellers across EMEA over the years and Blackall will be looking to the firm's distributors to work more closely with those partners.

But at the top end Arcserve is making an investment in its channel teams to make sure it can support the gold and platinum partners that have chosen to dedicate time and resources to the vendor.

"There are quite a few companies in the data protection sector and it is very attractive market and very crowded and you want to do the best job you can but you can spread yourself too thin and I want to refocus on the top partners, the platinum and golds," he said.

Blackall said that it would not be looking to expand the number of top partners because it wanted those already signed up to feel they were part of "an exclusive club".

His other task is to go out to the channel to reintroduce them to Arcserve and challenge some of the preconceptions that might exist around the firm and its technology.

"Companies have come [into the data protection market] in the last few years and we want people to give us a fair crack up against them technologically," he said.