Vighnesh Taunk: Welcome to all our viewers of IT Voice Tech News. Today, we have the privilege of sitting with Mr. Darsshan Somaiya, the Head of Strategic Partner & Alliances for India and the SAARC region at Hitachi Vantara. Mr. Somaiya plays a key role in spearheading the Partner Ecosystem at Hitachi Vantara India & SAARC. We are delighted to have you here. Could you please tell us a little about Hitachi Vantara and your role within the company?
Darsshan Somaiya: Thank you so much for having me here at IT Voice. At Hitachi Vantara, I head the Strategic Partner and Alliance ecosystem for India and the SAARC region. My primary responsibility is to foster and grow the partner business alongside Hitachi Vantara’s own business each year. This involves collaborating closely with our partners and ensuring effective engagement with end customers through our team, which includes Commercial Account Managers, Inside Sales Representatives (ISRs), and Solution Consultants. Our main focus is to drive growth within the market through strong partner relationships.
Empowering Partners
Vighnesh Taunk: Data complexities and scalability are significant challenges in the Indian market. How does Hitachi Vantara empower its partners to tackle these issues?
Darsshan Somaiya: We empower our partners by providing them with access to our tools and programs, which are designed to enable them to tackle the complexities of data and scalability challenges effectively. At Hitachi Vantara, we have a suite of tools that partners and their Solution Consultants can access to enable themselves. Once enabled, they can handle configurations, pricing, and quoting independently, which minimizes their dependency on Hitachi Vantara and allows them to spend more time engaging directly with end customers. This approach ensures that partners can effectively convey the benefits of our solutions, combined with their services, to solve customer challenges.
Tools and Resources
Vighnesh Taunk: You mentioned tools earlier. Could you elaborate on the specific tools and resources that Hitachi Vantara provides to its partners to enhance their capabilities and support their growth?
Darsshan Somaiya: Certainly. We offer specific tools like “Guru” and “Clue,” which are designed to empower our partners. These tools allow partners to educate themselves about our data solutions, configure and design comprehensive solutions, and address the data complexities faced by their customers. We continuously update and improve these tools every six months based on feedback from our partners. Additionally, our Center of Excellence team collaborates with our pre-sales and Solution Consultants to provide ongoing training to partners through a forum called the Partner Technical Ambassador Club (PAC). This ensures that our partners are always up-to-date with the latest developments and best practices.
Customer Feedback
Vighnesh Taunk: Customer feedback is crucial in enhancing any product. How have these partnerships specifically impacted the business in terms of operational efficiency, scalability, and overall growth?
Darsshan Somaiya: You are absolutely right; customer feedback plays a vital role. Our partners bring a lot of operational efficiency and help us scale the business significantly. Let me give you a couple of examples from specific industries. In the media and entertainment industry, some of our partners helped us expand our presence by doing the groundwork necessary to establish our solutions with major players. For instance, in the media and entertainment sector, our partners helped us secure deals with two of the largest companies in India, both of which have been dominant for over 100 years. The partners leveraged their relationships to integrate our solutions, which resulted in significant operational efficiency and helped solve customer challenges within five to six weeks.
Similarly, in the financial services industry, particularly with a major stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, our partners used their operational efficiencies and connections to help us establish a relationship where we hadn’t been present for nearly a decade. These examples demonstrate the value that our partners bring in terms of operational efficiency and business scalability.
Advice for Partners
Vighnesh Taunk: What advice would you give to your current and potential partners looking to collaborate with Hitachi Vantara?
Darsshan Somaiya: My advice to both current and potential partners is to stay committed and leverage the comprehensive data infrastructure solutions that Hitachi Vantara offers, whether it’s block, file, or object storage. Recently, we launched a new product called the VSP 5000 Series, which allows partners to manage all three types of data within a single solution. This helps partners address a wide range of customer challenges efficiently.
I also encourage partners to take full advantage of our partner enablement tools and ensure that their teams are fully trained and skilled. Once a partner’s team is well-equipped, they can approach customers with confidence and resolve challenges more quickly. Continuous learning and adaptation are key to staying ahead in this competitive market.
Key Takeaways
Vighnesh Taunk: What key takeaways would you like to leave with our audience regarding Hitachi Vantara’s partner focus and growth strategy in India?
Darsshan Somaiya: At Hitachi Vantara, our partner focus revolves around relentless innovation and the protection of customer data. We bring unique features to our solutions that ensure data security and integrity, and our partners have consistently confirmed that we are on the right path. We are committed to creating value through our solutions and delivering that value to our customers with the help of our partners.
We encourage our partners to stay with us for the long haul, as we continue to invest in building Centers of Excellence at our partners’ offices across India. Currently, we have nine such centers spread across the western, northern, and southern regions. These centers enable our partners to conduct technical workshops, proof-of-concept demonstrations, and ultimately, win deals with customers. The collaboration between Hitachi Vantara and our partners has been instrumental in our success, and we look forward to continuing this journey together.
Vighnesh Taunk: Thank you, Mr. Darsshan Somaiya, for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with the IT Voice audience. It was a pleasure speaking with you.
Darsshan Somaiya: Thank you very much for having me. It was a pleasure to be here.
