To Partner or no?
by Jesse on Feb.28, 2007, under Consulting
Having been an EMC Partner a number of times, I’ve noticed a few things.
EMC obviously doesn’t consider the literal meaning of “Partner” when they bring on Professional Service partners. They refuse to give them the access to the tools they need to complete their jobs.Â
All you have to do is to log into powerlink as a partner after having had employee access to the site to see, there is a *LOT* of material that isn’t there for “externals”
It’s frustrating. Having spent the last year as a customer I was able to see the difference.
An emc employee comes in with everything they need, if they don’t have it they can get it quickly and easily.
A partner comes in, and when a something comes up, say a peice of software didn’t get shipped with the original order (happens more often than I’d like to admit), what does the partner get to do?
Call the badged emc employee and have them download it for him, because he doesn’t have access to the software he’s supposed to be there installing.
Pity – lot of time wasted time, billable time, waiting for things they should have had in the first place.
November 13th, 2007 on 5:39 am
What do you think of the new ASN program and how they are trying to go more 100% channel? Would you do the partner work again?
November 13th, 2007 on 5:49 am
I do partner work now, EMC is my bread-and-butter. Right now unfortunately I have to go through a third-party partner because EMC won’t do direct with a non-ASN partner.
I do believe that the pros of being a partner outweigh the cons, I just think that EMC should support their partners better. A good for-instance is TPA or Third-Party-Access. I’ve been working a position right now for over two months and have yet to be granted access to the corporate “E-Room” site for the gig.
As a result, I have to store all of my data on my own server for remote-access. I use something not quite as complex as E-Room but highly effective. I use PublicFolders in exchange, locked down for obvious security. This allows me to connect in remotely and keep a common location for my documentation. (it also allows me to put it somewhere where it’s going to get backed up)