EMC (NYSE:EMC) has appointed its first channel development manager for Scotland.
With 28 years’ experience in the Scottish IT sector, including roles with Dell, CommVault, Hitachi and NetApp, Mark Baur will be focused on securing new partners across Scotland in addition to supporting the vendor’s regional partner base.
According to Baur, there is “an immense amount of expertise across the channel landscape” in Scotland. He says: “Their knowledge of the needs of both local businesses and the major markets such as oil and gas make them key to the success of EMC in the region. My aim is to provide our partners with the support they need to make working with EMC as easy and profitable as possible.”
In recent years EMC has made an effort to be more channel-friendly, with an increasing percentage of its business now from indirect sales. In EMEA EMC claims 64 percent of its sales go solely through the channel, with 80 percent of deals “influenced” by the channel.
Martin Brown, EMC’s country manager for Scotland says: “We are delighted to have Mark on board, particularly given his extensive experience, drive and enthusiasm for contributing towards our growth targets in the Scottish marketplace. I’m confident he will make a significant impact on the team. We look forward to the success continuing over the coming months and years.”
Adds Terry Beale, head of channel EMC UK&I: “The channel is vital to EMC’s success across all of the UK and Scotland is a great example of that. We are working to both help our existing partners increase their strength in the market and expertise and also identify new niche partners that have traditionally held incredibly close ties with smaller business where our product portfolio is increasingly relevant.
“EMC is committed to increasing its relevance to this market and Marks’s appointment will be key in us achieving this in Scotland.”
At its recent EMC World event in Las Vegas, the vendor detailed its forthcoming Business Partner Programme (BPP), and revealed it was “bullish” about grabbing market share in 2014.
