Pure Storage Expands Partner Program With Eye On Independence

‘We want to make sure our partners want to work with Pure. We are 100-percent channel-focused. We couldn’t do it without them. Their success is our success. We want to make sure we’re giving as much to the partner community as they need for them to become more independent,’ says Wendy Stusrud, vice president of global partner sales at Pure Storage.

Flash storage technology developer Pure Storage this week unveiled significant updates to its channel program aimed at helping partners chase new opportunities more independently from the vendor.

The changes are also aimed at helping partners be better prepared for the subscription economy, said Wendy Stusrud, vice president of global partner sales for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company.

“We want to make sure our partners want to work with Pure,” Stusrud told CRN. “We are 100-percent channel-focused. We couldn’t do it without them. Their success is our success. We want to make sure we’re giving as much to the partner community as they need for them to become more independent.”

By “independent,” Stusrud (pictured) said she means providing the tools partners need so they are not depending on Pure to find and close deals.

“We don’t want them to wait for us,” she said. “If they see an opportunity, we want them to go out and grab it.”

One way Pure Storage is doing this is by offering a predictable and programmatic pricing model, Stusrud said.

“We want partners to have straightforward opportunities,” she said. “This starts from the time the deal is registered. Before, we didn’t have a predictable pricing model. Every deal was customized.”

Pure Storage is also updating its quoting and configuration tools with automation so partners can do quotes on their own, Stusrud said.

“They’ll be able to attack opportunities more quickly,” she said. “We’re trying to take some inefficiencies out of the model.”

Susheel Chitre, Pure Storage’s area vice president of worldwide partner strategy and business development, said improving efficiency is a primary driver in the partner program updates.

“Once a partner has an opportunity, they need information on transitions and their pipeline, and insights on prior deployments,” Chitre told CRN. “Maybe a customer is at 80 percent of their storage capacity, or are not using all their features, or haven’t taken care of upcoming renewals. We want to give partners information on those incremental upgrades and refreshes.”

Pure Storage also wants to provide a rich set of tools to let partners design their own proposals and services, Stusrud said.

“We’re including guidance to help partner sales reps to understand what they need, and to offer suggestions,” she said. “This will help partners’ sales reps have a more creative relationship with their customers.”

Bob Olwig, executive vice president of global partner alliances at World Wide Technology, a St. Louis, Mo.-based solution provider and long-time Pure Storage channel partner, told CRN that what the vendor is doing with its focus on partner independence is about creating the best partner experience between Pure Storage and a company like WWT.

“Pure Storage is making it simple to understand their program and incentives,” Olwig said. “And increased automation is important for a leading company like WWT. It’s all about working shoulder-to-shoulder with Pure to get access to the biggest companies in the world.”

Olwig said he has also seen a prototype of Pure Storage’s new partner intelligence dashboard, which he said looks at a partner’s installed base and what equipment has been deployed over the years.

“Our vendor partners all have varying degrees in terms of the customer intelligence they provide,” he said. “Some still use spreadsheets, and some do via their partner portals. Pure is unique with its new dashboard. For us, it’s about being able to better service partners whether it’s renewals or upgrades. It’s important to know what customers need. Maybe a customer is not taking advantage of what we already installed. It happens, especially when vendors provide enterprise agreements with bundles that customers may not know include some capabilities.”