Credit: Dreamstime
Nutanix has appointed Han Chon as managing director and Andrew Leong as channel director across ASEAN, with the double hire designed to drive customer and partner growth.
The recruitment drives follows strong growth for the vendor across Southeast Asia, including 125 per cent year-on-year growth in Singapore and a 44 per cent boost in Indonesia during 2020.
“Nutanix continues to expand beyond our cloud infrastructure beginnings and drive true business value for our customers and partners,” said Neville Vincent, vice president of South Asia Pacific at Nutanix. The appointments of Han and Andrew are testament to our unwavering commitment to continue growing with our customers and partners.”
Chon joins from Lenovo, having previously held the position of general manager of the Central Asia Pacific region. Drawing on more than 25 years of market experience, Chon also spent almost two decades at Dell Technologies, including management roles at SonicWall.
“Nutanix’s unsurpassed multi-cloud approach has clearly proven a winning proposition for customers in the ASEAN region and I look forward to helping the company further accelerate its growth and customer success,” Chon said.
Meanwhile, Leong will be focused on defining the vendor's local channel strategy as well as executing and growing channel program initiatives, reporting to Jacob Pereira as senior director of channels across Asia Pacific and Japan.
Prior to joining Nutanix, Leong headed up Partners and Alliances for Hitachi Vantara across ASEAN, following positions at Dell, EMC and Sun Microsystems.
“The channel is such a vital part of Nutanix success,” Leong added. “Following the launch of Nutanix innovative Elevate Program, there is a significant opportunity for me to support increased partner growth and profitability.”
The double appointment comes more than two months after Nutanix brought together its various partner programs into a single integrated architecture aimed at simplifying engagement for the vendor's entire partner ecosystem.
The new program, dubbed Elevate, brings in value-added resellers (VARs) and value-added distributors (VADs), service providers (SPs) and telcos, hyperscalers, independent software, hardware and platform vendors, global systems integrators and services delivery partners under a single, global platform that applies to all partners.
The move brings together all Nutanix partner organisations under the single Elevate program brand and badging structure. Broadly, Elevate is designed to simplify engagement for Nutanix’s entire partner ecosystem using a consistent set of tools, resources, and marketing platforms provided in the new Nutanix Partner Portal.
Nutanix claims that the Elevate program for the channel differs from traditional partner programs in that it features what is claimed to be a unique emphasis on partner capabilities and competencies to sell and support the Nutanix portfolio, rather than revenue targets.
As revealed by Channel Asia, the refreshed Nutanix Partner Portal is designed to provide greater access to information and insights across the partner ecosystem through custom-branded marketing materials, training tools, and personalised insights allowing for more effective data-driven decisions.
Other new elements include the ‘Performance+ Deal Registration' program, designed to increase incentive potential and opportunity protection. The company claims this offering brings greater alignment between the partner and Nutanix sellers to deliver increased discounts, more predictable deal margins and enhanced opportunity protection.
Moreover, Elevate focuses on delivering benefits to the partners that invest in expanding their Nutanix skill sets through certifications that demonstrate specific competencies, and outlines a clear roadmap on how partners can develop their desired areas of expertise.
Additionally, the program includes new mechanisms to help deliver margin-rich services, richer rebate levels for bringing new business, and a new rebate that rewards Elevate Cloud Champion partners for selling across the entire Nutanix portfolio.
It should be noted that the new program will include a ‘grandfather’ policy to avoid immediately cutting off existing incentives from partners involved in the company’s previous channel charter program.
