Darrin Edkins - mid-market and channels manager of flash solutions, EMC
EMC has its eye on the mid-market space, according to its newly appointed mid-market and channels manager for all flash solutions, Darrin Edkins.
Edkins, who recently departed Nutanix for EMC, said his former experience in the local channel would help him in this new role.
“My roles have mostly been in the enterprise space and they were channel oriented roles," he told ARN.
“I’ve had my eye on EMC for a long time – I think they were one of Nutanix’s toughest competitors and it has been on the list of vendors I’ve always wanted to work for.
"Going back into a larger organisation, it has a strong channel program and rules of engagement processes."
Edkins’ responsibilities at EMC includes working alongside the mid-market sales teams and channel teams in aligning the company’s go-to-market strategy and to grow within the mid-market space - the push will be around its Unity solution.
“This is a very good platform to unlock. Unity as a product has been designed from the ground up for the mid-market," he said.
"It is a platform that solves mid-market customers’ problems. So it’s simpler for channel partners to skill up and take this to market."
Edkins claimed the business now understands what’s important for its partners – what their needs are and what their business requirements are, with plans in place to ensure its go-to-market strategy aligns with that.
“If you want to succeed in the mid-market, you have to do that through channel," he added.
"Channel partners have long-standing relationships with a much larger customer base. So, we’ve got to work smartly with them."
In working on this strategy, Edkins claimed partners need to have the tools, resources and enablement that they need.
“There are two components to this – the traditional tier one base and the tier two base," he said.
"For the tier one base, EMC has already programs in place to enable them. There are go-to-market campaigns designed for channel partners to pick up and run with. They can use their MDF that they’ve accrued to take those to market.
“Focusing on the strong tier two partners out there, it means we are meeting them and with the EMC channel teams, and see how we want to go to market and do business together."
Edkins also said there will be more attention and focus than before in the channel, with distribution set to play a big role within this space.
“We have a long-standing relationship with Ingram Micro and a much younger relationship with Avnet," he observed.
"We’re going to plan together on how to reach the Tier Two partner base. Unless we work together, we can’t win. But if we find any gaps in the business that we can’t satisfy through them, then we can potentially look at going to market with an expanded partner base.
"But we need to start with what we have first. This move is a strengthening of our go-to-market strategy.
"So partners can now focus on services like professional and consulting services that can make then good money rather than focusing on basic implementation services."
Edkins said the company is also expanding its all-flash team, bringing in staff within technical pre-sales roles.
