Analyst outfit Canalys has named its 12 channel champions for the year.
The EMEA Channel Leadership Matrix puts 12 vendors in the champion category with a magnificent seven of which have maintained that status since 2018: Fortinet, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, NetApp, Palo Alto and Veeam. Making up the rest of the dirty dozen are APC, Cisco, Kaspersky, Nutanix and Trend Micro.
HPE, AWS, Dell EMC and Juniper Networks were seen as contenders and Canalys noted that they had made significant channel investments but needed to work harder getting partner sentiment to improve. The growers: Apple, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft and VMware, had improved over the course of 2019.
Canalys stated that the champions covered a wide range of technologies but they did have some common characteristics that had helped them maintain the top position: “They all show improvements in channel processes to drive simplicity and ease of doing business; they prioritise investments in partner profitability and business models and demonstrate a commitment to maintaining or growing the share of revenue generated through partners.
“All of the Champions generate the majority of revenue through partners, but crucially are supported by a channel-led sales approach. This tends to be reflected in the importance given to channel management functions at a corporate level, and internal sales cultures that recognise the value of partners to the vendor’s success.”
Over the course of this year there has been a move by the majority of large vendors to increase the incentives and rewards for their top tier partners and use distribution to support those that are looking to move up the tiers. There have also been plenty of enhancements, refreshes and fresh partner programme launches to try and provide the right infrastructure to support the indirect model.
