With 2017 already racing to the quarter mark, and the Australian channel following along in fast pursuit, one thing appears to be amiss.
Well, rather five things to be precise.
Because as the dust settles on a turbulent few weeks of job activity in the local market, the aftermath sees five tier-1 vendors without channel chiefs.
Microsoft, Google, Lenovo, Huawei and Citrix.
Following the departure of Phil Goldie as Director of Partner Development in Australia - for a New Zealand-based channel role - Microsoft is currently seeking a replacement capable of educating and empowering its 10,000+ partner base across the country.
Through the tech giant’s growing cloud business, Goldie’s replacement will no doubt be tasked with continuing Microsoft’s drive to recruit independent software vendors, those capable of developing new applications and solutions on the Azure platform.
Across the cloud market at Google however, a different issue resides.
For this is a vendor attempting to create an Australian channel from scratch, as it attempts to lure partners onto its cloud platform to gain much needed credibility within the enterprise.
As reported by ARN, the internet search titan is operating in new market territory, learning how to be a channel-friendly vendor and understanding how to engage with its partner community, while grappling with enterprise approval at the same time.
As a result, the company is on a hunt to build out its local cloud team as it prepares to launch the availability of its Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in the local market.
Within this framework, plans are in place to hire a Sydney-based Head of Google Cloud for Australia and New Zealand, alongside Google Cloud Sales Executives, Inside Sales, Customer Engineers, Solutions Architects, and Partners within Google Cloud accounts.
Meanwhile at Lenovo, the vendor is seeking to replace the outgoing Margrith Appleby, who is stepping down as Channel Director of A/NZ, after just over a year in the role.
Despite only being on board for 12 months, Appleby leaves behind a strong legacy, with plans already underway to hire a replacement.
In addition, Huawei is still actively seeking a successor to Leo Lynch, who vacated his role to head up channel operations for StorageCraft across A/NZ.
As reported by ARN, Lynch built and developed Huawei’s channel network in Australia, having joined as Channel Director of Enterprise Business Group in January 2015.
The task now for Lynch’s replacement will be based around building on the vendor’s current channel network of over 100 active partners and three distributors locally.
Finally, Citrix is also on the hunt for a new channel chief in the local market, following the resignation of Channel Sales Manager A/NZ, Belinda Jurisic.
Jurisic, who has been in the role since 2013, leaves after almost four years heading up the company’s local channel sales team.
Likewise, Citrix is “actively backfilling the role” in a bid to ensure a smooth transition for resellers.
Collectively, the five vacancies point to an uncertain start to channel life for partners of the vendors in 2017.
While the new year is always synonymous with chopping and changing, seldom does it appear so fast and so frequent.
With over 50 high-profile senior management roles changing hands already - and many more expected to follow - channel change in Australia is no longer expected, rather guaranteed in the weeks and months ahead.
