Matthieu Brignone, VP Partners, EMEA at Pure Storage, a developer of all-flash data storage hardware and software products, who strongly believes that people need to be empowered to make decisions to give the best of themselves. Brignone outlines here how he is working with the channel ecosystem in the EMEA region.
Describe your current job role and the parts that are challenging?
As VP of partners across EMEA, my role entails consulting with customers, our partner ecosystem and our internal teams to deliver the right solutions at the right time. I am here to enable partners to grow their business and match customer needs with partner expertise. Not being able to meet people face to face has been challenging for the last 18 months. I enjoy the relationships built by spending time with people. Like everyone else, I have had to adapt how I do this.
Can you explain how your company works with channel partners?
Pure is a 100% channel focused organisation so everything we do has to enable them to succeed. Our partner pool has deliberately been kept focused. We collaborate with partners that are willing to invest time and resources into building a Pure practice — driven, enthusiastic about technology and most importantly, committed to helping customers solve real world data challenges.
Additionally, we continue to innovate and invest in our partners to ensure they have the products, skills and resources to be successful. This makes for good business, is key to survival and helps partners differentiate.
How do you ensure channel partners flourish in a highly competitive market?
Pure believes in one simple credo: the success of our partners is the success of Pure Storage. The Pure Partner Programme is designed to empower channel partners with everything they need — from sales resources and technical training to marketing support and incentives and rewards — to accelerate their business and drive customer impact. By listening to partner feedback on what they need most, Pure delivers continuous programme advancements to help partners thrive and move their business forward.
What are the latest trends you see emerging across the channel?
One of the biggest trends we are seeing in the channel is the pivot to As-a-service offerings. Organisations are looking for flexible consumption models that deliver agility and additional services beyond simply a financial model. In fact, a recent study by IDC predicts that by 2024, 43% of organisations expect consumption of As-a-service models to increase as a direct result of the most recent economic crisis. We see more partners selling flexible consumption models as customers respond positively to these offerings.
What will it take for partners to thrive in 2022?
We are seeing an acceleration in customers demanding true flexible consumption models when looking for data management solutions. The pressures of the pandemic have only accelerated this need — business services need to be scaled and made available on demand, to provide both financial flexibility and real competitive advantage.
The truly standout channel partners of the future will be those that recognise that everything-as-a-service (XaaS) is about much more than financial concerns. The value comes not just from subscription-style costing models, but from the full-service nature of the offering — where vendors and partners deliver a seamless business function that integrates perfectly and non-disruptively, with other business operations. These partners will ensure that customers do not have to wrestle with their XaaS acquisition, maintenance, upgrades, expansions and contractions are all invisible, while adding continual value to the business.
Partners who differentiate themselves, as described above, will be the ones who thrive.
What is your management philosophy?
I strongly believe that people need to be empowered to make decisions in order to give the best of themselves. However, I expect them to make decisions as if it was their own company and own money. We operate as a team and so will always back my team.
When you look back at your career, what has been the most memorable achievement?
I was working in EMEA marketing for a small security company and was competing with a bigger and well-known competitor. My team and I came up with an idea to raise our profile in the market making our competitor look weak. With a US$1 million campaign we took market share and customers away from our competitor and built a huge prospective pipeline.
What made you think of a career in technology?
After studying literature for many years, I fell in love with one of the very first domestic computers and step by step it led me to the IT world. Like any love story, I cannot completely explain the exact reasons behind that journey!
What are your personal interests and where do you like to spend most of your time after work?
It may sound strange to many people, but I find motorcycling relaxing as it forces my brain to focus on the road rather than on work related topics. I also enjoy the adrenaline associated with motorcycling. Then movies and off-road cycling fill whatever free time that is left.