Veeam UK channel boss looking to widen partner support

The recently appointed UK channel boss at Veeam is looking to increase the support and deepen the relationships with w wider number of partners in the year ahead.

Alex Walsh steps into the shoes recently vacated by Greg Bailey, who has left the business to pursue other interests, becoming manager of channels UK&I after working at the vendor for the past three and a half years. Before the promotion he was tasked with looking after some of the platinum partners before the call came to step into this latest role.

Walsh steps into the leadership role of a channel team that has been largely focused this year on concentrating efforts on the top tier partners to make sure they are being rewarded for working with the vendor.

"I've worked with many partners and I've been able to see the really good stuff and some of the things we probably don't do so well. As a channel manager there's only so much you can do so it's about making sure we do the good stuff right and utiluise the tools we have available to us," he said.

"We have some really good people in our channel team and previously we have been about each of them working with their partners but what I want to do next year is operate a bit more holistically. Utilising distribution so they can identify new partners we could work with and the ones that we have got in the field today continue to get the support they are used to," he added.

He said that partners would be seeing a lot more of the vendor and it wanted to make sure that there were more relationships being developed across the ecosystem.

"The last two years we have made sure that our Platinum partners have got everything they need to be real Platinum partners, with the accreditations and they feel enabled," he added “With that next level we want to get them to the same sort of place."

Distribution is going to play a key role in that ambition and Walsh said that it had already recognised that it would be working with that tier of the channel more closely in the year ahead.

The other area where Walsh feels he can make a difference is around unlocking some of the potential from the alliances that Veeam has made. The vendor works with a range of fellow players and there will be efforts made to see if more of the value in those relationships can be unlocked for partners.

"That's still relatively untapped and there are a lot of partners that are alliance partners are working with that do a small amount with Veeam and probably want to do more but they don't have that relationship with us. A big plan for me is to make sure we do the right things there as well next year," he said.