CIOs want solutions quicker, simpler and more effective at lesser TCO

Chebbi feels this is the time for transformation for channel partners in
India since customers are becoming more aware about technology and its
implications on their infrastructure, which makes it imperative that partners
too scale their knowledge in the technology domain

What is the biggest challenge for most CIOs in India today?

One the biggest challenges faced by CIOs today is not bit and bytes or the
speed of processors or the chip technology transition. Their biggest challenge
is power consumption.

In about four decades from now the world will need thrice the amount of
energy that it is using today. At the same time, we all know that due to global
warming, greenhouse effect, carbon footprint, etc, we are obliged to cut down
the carbon emission by half. This means that we have to be energy efficient by
four times over by producing less of carbon monoxide.

For any organization, the bigger it is, the bigger is the challenge of energy
management. Smaller organizations can work it as a compe­titive advantage if
they can manage this situation well.

So on one hand, IT has become mission critical and on the other hand, CIOs
have a huge energy challenge. Also they are bogged by the management of the data
center keeping its total cost of ownership (TCO) in mind.

Therefore, the biggest equation that a CIO is trying to solve today is that
of energy management.

Post APC's merger with Schneider Electric, how will you help your channel
to position the entire product portfolio of the merged entity?

When a company builds a data center, irrespective of its size, in order to
deliver the required power utilisation efficiency, it needs to look at
end-to-end solutions. CIOs want solutions quicker, simpler and more effective at
lesser TCO, especially for SMB companies.

Schneider Electric is the energy management of the customer in the IT
infrastructure. Starting last year, we started to build end-to-end solutions for
data centers with our channel partners. Now we are going to enable them to offer
these solutions not only to the large data centers, but to every IT
infrastructure user in the country.

But how are you involving your partners in such an exercise, especially
since most of them are still mired in the transaction mode of doing business?

This is actually the time of transformation for the channel. It is a great
opportunity for them, because they are a partner of a company which can really
bring the true solutions to them.

It's all about clear common vision, strategy and its execution on the ground
level. We have been listening very closely to our partners and our customers and
using all their inputs we will soon be rolling out a complete channel program.

Recently, we had rolled out a program on the service delivery platform called
the Partner Engagement Program (PEP). A similar one is going to be rewarded for
the sales channel.

We are targeting 30-40 major tier-1 and tier-2 cities. It is quite a
comprehensive program which is a direct partner connect program.

What other elements are going to be involved in this new program?

First of all, it starts with a common program. We are talking about
segmentation of the channel, their positioning and customization of our entire
program for that set of partners.

So you are talking about close engagement with partners over having a
larger channel base. How do you however manage to do it in practical terms?

This is actually a period of transformation. Some of the success stories
that you hear about in the channel space is because of their customer focus or
engagement. This calls for a clear mindset of helping to solve the customer
problem in terms of delivery of the solution. This is because the customer
situation is different though there may be common element through it.

But this is easier said than done. We have been able to plan the needs of our
channel over the past months. Now what we would like to do is go and execute
this plan. This is going to be our next phase of the program.

You had recently announced about your plans to have a training center. Can
you elucidate on this?

We wanted to create a training center that is good enough to train our
engineers, our customer's engineers and our partners' engineers. We had one such
center in Mumbai but that was not in line with our future plans. We needed a
bigger place where we could create learning environment that went beyond
classrooms.

This training center will have a library, trained instructors, Internet
resources and candidates will have access to video conferencing facility where
depending on the kind of training to be given we will bring connectivity with
experts around the world. So it will be a virtual best practices delivery center
for training.

Vinita Bhatia

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in