VMware tightens grip on partner strategy

Brad Anderson (VMware)

One year into his new role as the managing director and vice president for VMware in A/NZ, Brad Anderson is sticking to strengthening ties with the vendor's partners.

“The message for the market and our partners is we are on a track with our strategy and we're really listening,” Anderson said.

“The relationships and commitments we've got, we really want to hear more from partners on how we can be better, different or support your business. It's a two-way discussion. We're trying to get our arms around the market.

“Twelve months into the job and it's been a whirlwind. For me, it has been good to get back to my roots in software and really focused on customers and partners.”

The 'anywhere workspace' trend, application modernisation and containerisation, multi-cloud and security were some of the areas that Anderson highlighted as presenting grand opportunities for partners in the market.

“We want to be on the transformation journey with our customers, which are with us in the data centre, but then how do we take them into the cloud, what does that look like and how do we help our employees work remotely?” Anderson quipped. “We’re supporting customers on their digital transformation.”

Credit: VMware

Recently appointed VMware A/NZ partner business director Olga Specjalska added that the company was working closely with its partners to help recognise the role they play in the customer’s evolving digital transformation journey.

“There are multiple initiatives that we are looking at implementing locally following our global program to recognise our partners and the role they have played in a customer’s journey,” she said.

“Coming into this role from a different background, I'm bringing a fresh look into the partner ecosystem and how we can support partners in rolling out that strategic value to our customers.

“Trust and profitability are what I believe is important to our partners.” 

Specjalska took on the top post in May after nearly 10 years at the vendor, with which she held her previous position as A/NZ marketing director since 2018. 

Earlier this year, VMware evolved its Partner Connect Program to feature customer lifecycle incentives, which involved extensive collaboration with partners “to define and build incentives that matter to them.”

Partner Connect, which was officially launched last year, was a message to the vendor’s traditional base of partners that change was on the horizon, alongside an opening of the door to a newer breed of provider nestled in the cloud arena.

“There is a very big commitment from across the organisation to evolve the program as our partner ecosystem and customers are evolving,” she said.

“There are parts of our partner program that we are continuously working on, one of which is the simplicity of the program, and the ease of doing business with our partners.

“We continue to listen to our partners and evolve on that journey with them.”

Earlier this year, VMware also revealed its Zero Carbon Committed cloud partner initiative, which aims to help customers meet their sustainability goals by reducing the carbon emissions associated with their data centre operations. 

“I look forward to working with our partners across Australia and New Zealand in seeing how we can play our part together in that mission,” she said.