Vincent Barro, Schneider Electric

Courting the Channel: Vincent Barro, APC by Schneider Electric

Trade
Vincent Barro, APC by Schneider Electric

10 December 2015

Speaking when the deal was announced, managing director Rory Wilson said APC’s product range would fit well with the distributor’s engagement in the enterprise, software and hosting markets, and with the storage solutions it provided.

He expected “a lot of our partners will be involved with it. Some of our larger partners come with a specific demand for a premium vendor and APC definitely fits the bill for them”.

The APC partner programme includes training to help resellers build competencies around APC solutions. Education is available as self-paced, on-demand online training, live webinars led by industry experts, and instructor-led classroom training for more hands-on applications. The training curriculum is organised by specialisation, certification, environment, discipline and delivery type.

Barro emphasises that APC can help resellers with their marketing. “Sometimes the marketing is very poor in Ireland because it is difficult for partners to position themselves,” in a market that has such a blend of different types and sizes of organisations, including multinationals. “Each partner has a different focus and strategy,” he comments. “We need to be able to work with them on each focus and each strategy. If a partner says small business is its main focus, we will help it with small business. It’s done on a case by case basis and we will spend a lot of time with the partner to understand what it’s doing, which products it wants and what is that partner’s go to market.”

The vendor held a live virtual partner event in May where almost 500 partners connected to gain information on the partner programme. They could visit five virtual booths for information and documentation on profitability, incentives, improvements, support and partner experience and APC staff were available to answer questions live during the event. “We managed to cover a huge number of partners in one day,” Barro reveals, “with a big portion from the UK and Ireland. We’re going to do it again in the future.”

While he is not allowed to provide a precise figure for the company’s growth ambitions in Ireland, Barro believes it should achieve 30% this year. “This is not a one-shot business,” he remarks. “We have a long-term plan.”

He stresses that APC wants to create a community with its partners. “We have nothing to hide. We want to be transparent and clear. Outside of a very large deal, we don’t take anything direct. Our competitors go direct all the time. That’s stupid if you want to have a long-term relationship.”

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