Pure Storage rolls out distributor programme

Pure Storage has cut the ribbon on a distributor programme in EMEA as it looks to increase the support it can provide that tier of the channel.

The vendor is looking to manage its partner base more effectively through distribution and is keen to reward partners for helping it increase business and get resellers rising up the tiers with training and certification.

What has partly spurred the decision to launch the distie programme is the consequences of the decisions to acquire StorReduce last year and Compuverde yesterday to expand its hybrid cloud storage pitch. That adds the potential to go after a much larger customer base.

"How can we extend the total addressable market without increasing the number of partners?" asked Matthieu Brignone, area vice president EMEA partners at Pure Storage, who added that it was committed to, "working with a small set of partners that we can help grow together with us".

"We want to bring the distributors more into the game. In the past as we were looking after a small set of partners the distributors brought some value to us but not in the same way we expect them to do in the next months and few years," he added.

Scott Goree, has been handed the responsibility for seeing the strategy through as director of global distribution, which is a new position at the vendor.

Last week the firm held its first annual distribution summit in Europe with partners to outline the enhancements it is making. The vendor works with Arrow in the UK.

"Investments are key, the focus is key and processes and tools are also vital," he said that it had increased the number of staff committed to working with distribution, was making it clear which partners would be managed by the disties.

"I want them to do partner activation and those partners that aren't purchasing every quarter to get them on a steady pipeline and doing sales blitzes and call campaigns and have the distributor help that partner have a more predictable and repeatable business. As well as moving those partners that are only selling one of our product lines to expand," he added.

"We don't want thousands of new partners but I do want selective expansion. So partners that have an MSP practice that would be net new incremental to Pure or would address a new market segment we are not in today I want partners that can go and do that and have a selective recruitment policy," he added.