HPE and VMware: Bringing Partners into the Paradigm to Increase Customer Value

[EIC_Alliances]

by Joseph George, Vice President of Compute, Industry & Alliances Marketing at HPE

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to catch up with Kathleen Tandy, Vice President of Global Partner and Alliances Marketing at VMware on the podcast she hosts – “VMware Partnership Perspectives”.

By the time we reached the conclusion of the podcast, the end result was something special: part Silicon Valley history lesson, part technical review, part management best practices, and a great deal more.  It was truly a reflection on where we’ve been as partners - and where we’re going.

A core theme throughout our discussion was about how, for over 20 years, the HPE and VMware partnership has been a beacon of innovation and leadership. And today, we continue to closely partner with each other to meet the demands of today’s customers pursuing data-first modernization from the edge to the cloud, with a strong portfolio of integrated virtualization cloud and mobility solutions and services.

The true end state
One of the themes in the interview is that “the tech itself is not the end state.” The customer outcomes that drive the bottom line for their business—that is the true end state.

We agreed that one of the strengths of the HPE VMware relationship is the ability to evolve with customers’ requirements. Today’s technology customers have a real need for experts they can trust to help them change and thrive. And as Kathleen put it, when our customers are succeeding, we’re succeeding.

Bringing channel partners on the journey
Another point of strong agreement was that our channel partners are critical to HPE and VMware success because, among other things, they understand the customer, the customer strategy in detail, and where the customer priorities lie. They are an important player in ensuring the customer need is clearly defined, and ultimately met.

To make our customers successful with the new consumption model, continuing to join forces with partners is of the utmost importance.  And that is why HPE and VMware continue to prioritize making it easy for our channel partners to transact, to train customers, and to be certified.

Lessons learned from the pandemic
And interesting segment of the interview was when Kathleen asked what lessons I’d learned as a leader in managing my team through the pandemic and beyond. Here’s what I shared (though I’d highly encourage you to listen to the full story on the podcast).

1. Be in the trenches with them and lead by example.
2. Overcommunicate and bring everybody into the conversation to minimize confusion.
3. Work behind the scenes for your people to make their lives easier.
4. Take the opportunity to let your team shine.

Best advice
We ended the podcast by Kathleen asking about the best piece of advice I’ve ever received professionally or personally. For that answer and a lot more, my advice to you is to stop reading and switch over to the podcast.

I hope you find listening to the podcast as rewarding as I did recording it. 

And be sure to learn more about the HPE and VMware Alliance, as well as VMware's partner programs.

Until next time,

JOSEPH
@jbgeorge