EMC loses Velocity

EMC (NYSE:EMC) is to drop its Velocity partner programme in favour of a new brand that all partners will use going to market, EMC Business Partner.

“We are introducing a newly-branded partner programme that leverages the power of EMC…The name Velocity goes away. You will all market yourself as EMC Business Partners with all the clout of EMC behind you,” SVP of global channel sales, Gregg Ambulos, told EMC’s top partners during the channel keynote at EMC World in Las Vegas today.

Ambulos says the re-branding, which will come into effect on January 1, 2014, is just the start of a process to make working with EMC “simpler, more predictable and more profitable”, promising more announcements in the months to come.

The vendor has a made notable effort in recent years to improve its once-strained relationship with its partners – and it appears to be paying off.

“You are the centre of our universe,” Ambulos told partners, revealing that the channel now represents more than 50 percent of EMC revenues.

(In fact, EMC’s president of global sales, Bill Scannell, later quoted the figure as being closer to 60 percent, if service providers were added to the mix.)

Encouragingly for the UK channel, Scannell said 74 percent of business in Europe went through partners in Q4, with a target set now of 80 percent.

Last year EMC announced it was to hand over a chunk of its direct enterprise business to the channel. Updating partners today, Ambulos said the firm “opened up thousands of accounts in the enterprise space and the results have been absolutely stellar.”

While chairman and CEO Joe Tucci said EMC had no hard target for further growing the channel’s share of business, he conceded a further increase was “an inevitable part of the plan.”

Elsewhere today, EMC’s SVP of strategic sales, alliances and service providers, Terry Breen, garnered applause from the audience when he revealed the firm would be ditching its PowerLink system and replacing it with a brand new partner portal. “We are committed to giving you what you need to make doing business with us simple and successful,” he said.