VMware continues to build on Partner Connect

The message for partners tuning into VMworld is that the commitment to keep building on the Partner Connect channel programme remains at the heart of VMware’s plans to ensure it can arm resellers with the best tools and rewards.

VMware launched its latest partner programme in early March, promising that it would make life simpler for the channel and reward those that gained master competencies and positioned themselves to sell more of its technology.

Six months on, the vendor is keen to stress that it has not been static and is building on the launch and improving the programme based on partner feedback.

Jean-Phillippe Barleaza, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) vice-president for channel, strategic alliances and cloud partners at VMware, said it was not waiting to improve the system and would be using the event to share progress with partners.

“The objective is to build on the launch of Partner Connect [which was discussed with partners at VMworld last year] and we are really building on Connect on a daily basis. We do that in a close relationship with our partners, using our partner advisory councils across the world and getting feedback from them,” he said. 

“We want to continue to provide greater agility, simplicity and ease of differentiation for our partners [so they] can provision our technologies in any shape as the customer wants: whether it is perpetual, SaaS [software as a service], or if the customer has an operating or capital expenditure budget. The ease of provisioning and using our technologies in the very best conditions is really what drives most of the philosophy of Partner Connect,” Barleaza added.

VMware is focusing its firepower in five areas: app modernisation, multicloud, digital workspace, virtual networking and intrinsic security.

Barleaza said the majority of its partners were selling in more than one area and the vendor was keen to get them selling across all the technologies where possible.

“The intent is to provide customers with everything they need to build the digital foundations that will allow them to build these modern applications and to deliver new products and services in the digital world and measure those digital outcomes. We’re seeing our partners going on a journey across the five franchises and we’ve got very few partners that are committed only to one of those areas,” he said.

As VMware has expanded its portfolio, often through acquisition, there has also been an opportunity to expand the channel base. Barleaza said it had seen more security specialists come via Carbon Black and had also charted a growth in the number of service-dedicated partners that had started working with the vendor.

“We really want to help our partners become more competitive and agile and to differentiate, so that’s why Partner Connect is a single programme where partners can access all five franchises and all the different benefits associated with that investment,” he said.

“We are not waiting for the next release of the programme. The teams are actively working on improving and enriching the programme, in alignment with the partners using their feedback,” he added.