CA maintains direct sales relationships with large global customers in the region and their HQ countries, but the primary sales interface for most client organizations in Greater China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Zealand is now represented by leading local IT players, with which CA has enjoyed working relationships for up to 11 years.
Other markets are addressed by a hybrid go-to-market model, by which a direct sales force works in conjunction with channel partners. Such territories include Australia, Japan, India and Korea.
According to Gavin Selkirk, Corporate SVP and GM, CA Asia Pacific & Japan, rollout of this overall approach to sales in APJ began in November 2007 and was designed to enable CA to achieve wider coverage and deeper penetration of markets. “The shift in our go-to-market strategy was based partly on the realization that local industry expert partners in certain geographies possess a wealth of knowledge, experience and cultural understanding that no outside organization could match,” he explains.
Selkirk adds, “We are achieving wider coverage and deeper penetration of markets, as well as greater cost efficiency, following deployment of our channel sales go-to-market strategy.
Feedback from partners since the roll-out has been extremely encouraging and continues to help CA fine-tune various processes, in line with the company’s philosophy of continuous improvement. “There are still some areas we need to develop and mature, but I am convinced that our overall strategy for the marketplace is right. We are very clear in how we address the overall market and our strategy is very well received,” Selkirk elaborates.
Channel partners play a crucial role in the way CA is helping client organizations to boost productivity, cut costs, enhance efficiency and reduce risk during this economic slump. Commenting further on this, Selkirk says, “Our partners are also helping customers to enjoy amazingly rapid return on investment in CA products – often in less than a year. As a result, our relationships with customers are becoming stronger and longer.”
In addition, CA has beefed up their partner training programs with new modules and enhanced their incentive schemes to reward high-performing partners appropriately.
Relationships are key, emphasizes Selkirk. “Whether economic conditions are buoyant or in free fall, our relationships with channel partners are all about trust – and CA strives to demonstrate consistently in the way we apply our values and earn that trust. An example of our commitment is the fact that we make our technical and sales courses available to partner personnel as if they were on the CA payroll.”
He adds that inevitably, the many market dynamics at play mean CA’s APJ management must be vigilant and forward-looking in terms of continually fine-tuning their relatively young go-to-market model. “We are always seeking to improve the overall customer experience, which forms a significant part of our day-to-day contact with channel partners,” Selkirk notes.
The majority of CA’s channel partners are organizations that they have been working with for a number of years. With that in mind, the fact that they are well versed in CA’s technologies, portfolio and customer-centric service ethic are what makes them attractive to CA A proven track record in customer service is also always a must. CA is convinced that working with a network of like-minded partners – whether in a sales or technology context – is good for customers, the company, employees, partners and shareholders, as well as the IT industry at large. In that regard, Selkirk says that they are always alert to opportunities to form new partnerships.
CA is also going steaming ahead on the alliance front. The company has developed long-standing, strategic relationships with market leaders in the IT world. “Our relationships with leading platform and application vendors enable strong product integration and technical collaboration to ensure that all products deliver comprehensive solutions for enterprise IT environments,” comments Selkirk.
In February 2009, CA and VMware announced a joint program that enables partners in Singapore and Malaysia to package CA products with VMware’s award-winning virtualization solutions to help customers maximize the business benefits of virtualized IT environments.
The main benefit to resellers supplied by CA’s channel partners in Singapore and Malaysia is that the joint approach helps them build larger and more profitable virtualization practices. In particular, resellers benefit from a 10% at-time-of-purchase discount on the CA Recovery Management element of a combined CA and VMware order purchased through channel partners Ingram Micro in Singapore and Jardine OneSolution (JOS) in Malaysia.
Obviously, this kind of initiative serves to enhance business operations and profitability for our channel partners, which makes them stronger in the market. This is good for our channel partners therefore good for our relationship with them.
To support the Alliance Affiliate Initiative in Singapore and Malaysia, CA and VMware will join forces to host a number of webcasts and seminars for reseller partners and customers throughout February and March. These events have been designed to enable CA partners to learn first hand how they can achieve higher margins, multiply existing sales leads and boost revenues.
According to CA, the VMware Alliance Affiliate Initiative will bring tangible benefits to their channel partners’ businesses in this challenging economy.
Another example of CA’s commitment to its alliance network is its partnership with Fuji Xerox in Singapore. The Fuji Xerox-CA partnership, announced in July 2008, will enable Enterprise Content Management (ECM) users to secure document management servers, implement role-based access to sensitive server content and enjoy an enhanced end-user experience via a single sign-on feature, while easing identity management concerns and speeding up delivery of information.
Three package solutions will address the majority of identity-related security concerns for enterprises using ECM and will be based on CA’s industry-proven Access Control, SiteMinder and Identity Manager products.
Solution 1 – based on CA Access Control – enables companies to centralize both control and distributed enforcement of role-based access to server resources, while combining cross-platform host protection, a precision approach to access management, policy-based efficiency and secure auditing. The solution supports UNIX, Linux, Windows and virtualized platforms.
Solution 2 – based on CA SiteMinder – provides centralized web-access control via user authentication and a single sign-on feature, plus policy-based authorization, identity federation and auditing of access to web applications and portals.
Solution 3 – based on CA Identity Manager – offers automated identity-management for creation, modification and de-activation of accounts and entitlements based on user relationships. By controlling access to a full range of enterprise systems, the package enables companies to manage user and content lifecycles across the organization and ensure that entitled users access the system at appropriate times. This system also centralizes workflow approvals and automates access grants, roles and policy modifications, while helping CIOs to demonstrate compliance.
CA also has a strategic alliance with Camelot Information Systems, which was struck to greatly enhance service among CA’s mainframe customers in mainland China. The move built on an already productive working relationship that existed between CA and Camelot subsidiary Bayshore Consulting for more than four years.
Well known for serving banking organizations, Bayshore fields a mainland China team of 40 local and international mainframe specialist consultants and engineers holding some 150 years of experience between them in the areas of mainframe system services on VSE/OS/390/z/OS platforms. These include system performance tuning, health checks, installation, maintenance, customization and consulting, as well as vendor product and software installation, customization and maintenance, plus various aspects of application, such as architecture analysis and evaluation and problem solving (DUMP/Trace analysis).
Already served by mainframe know-how held by CA resources around the world, the Company’s mainland China customers benefit from Bayshore’s in-depth local knowledge, extensive coverage and domain expertise.
By Shanti Anne Morais
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