Kathy Gibson reports – Vertiv Africa has launched its new partner programme, tailored for the African market.
Speaking at the company’s first Africa PowerUp webinar series, Vertiv Africa MD Wojtek Piorko says the company’s Africa for Africa programme is expected to drive growth on the continent.
There is currently 300 MW of white space, leaving massive room for growth, Indee, this is expected to double in the next two years – at a conservative estimate, says Piorko.
“We also see lots of digitalisation programmes across Africa,” he adds. Governments are investing heavily in this space.
There is also investment taking place in growing and upgrading telecommunications networks to 4G and 5G.
Sustainability is another big area, with growth in efforts to green industry.
Mining is a big growth opportunity, Piorko adds.
“Hence the investment of Vertiv in Africa. We have recently revamped our head office in Johannesburg, opened new office in Nairobi, and planning a new office Nigeria in September.
“Each of these offices is not just a place for our employees to site, but also customer experience centres. Partners an introduce customers to our equipment, and we can provide certifications in these centres.”
With the growth coming from Africa, there is a big potential in the channel, so Vertiv is building the channel team with tools to help them grow.
Vertiv splits Africa into five regions, headquartered from Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Cairo and Casablanca.
George Moss, enterprise director: southern Africa at Vertiv Africa, points out that Vertiv operates in several lines of business: infrastructure management, AC power, DC power, thermal management, integrated solutions and services.
These are all available to reseller partners, together with the traditional run-rate business, he adds. “Bring these opportunities to us and we can hold hands with you through the project.”
The run-rate product lines are available via distribution, with the greatest demand for UPSs, PDUs, KVM switches and consoles, and racks – with distributors urged make these available to the channel ex-stock.
Jacqui Gradwell, field marketing director: Africa at Vertiv Africa, says the EMEA partner programme has been tweaked to be more relevant for the African market, and will be further refined based on reseller feedback.
The Vertiv Partner programme is designed to empower distributors and resellers to meet the complex customer demands around edge computing, digitalisation and other disruptive trends facing today’s data centre and wider IT landscape.
Gradwell says the Vertiv channel model is premised on four value propositions:
- The offerings are not over-distributed
- It is margin-rich for channel partners
- It is a global company with decades of expertise
- It is a world-leading IT infrastructure provider
Partners can belong to one of five levels on the partner programme: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond or Diamond Elite.
- Silver partners simply have to sign up to the programme.
- Gold partners must buy Vertiv products least twice a year, do one deal registration and one relevant training course.
- Platinum partners must record $20 000.00 in annual revenue, do one deal registration, so marketing centre training, and conduct one marketing centre activity.
- Diamond partners must do $100 000.00 in annual revenue, sign up to the active partner locator, submit a business plan, do one deal registration, bu one on-premise product training; two marketing centre activities, and sign up for Oracle lead management.
- Diamond Elite tier is for direct partners recording $500 000.00 in annual revenue.
Joining the programme brings various benefits for partners, Gradwell explains.
Registering opportunities on the partner portal ensures the best pricing, and there are further solution discounts are available for Gold, Platinum and Diamond partners that use the Vertiv solution designer.
Silver and Gold partners can also join the Vertiv Incentive Programme (VIP), with VIP-Plus for Platinum and Diamond Partners, earning bonus point for activity. Partners with e-commerce platforms are rewarded with additional bonus points, and the Individual VIP incentives rewards resellers for activities on the portal.
The VIP programmes are currently available for partners in South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco, with rewards in the form of online shopping or vouchers.
The marketing centre on the portal helps resellers with marketing tools, letting them co-brand various assets such as social media, email and online marketing.
Leads are directed to partners via a leads dashboard, which resellers are encouraged to visit regularly. “We receive leads from many sources,” Gradwell points out. “One way is from customers going on to our web site and searching for a partner.”
All partners have access to Vertiv Learning, and earn status by completing training.
Fatima Zahra Ghaidi, field marketing specialist: north-east and north-west Africa at Vertiv Africa, explains that partners can sign up simply by clicking on www.partners.vertiv.com.