Alok Ohrie: Our idea is to present digital as an opportunity for unprecedented possibilities

Dell EMC evolved its sales strategy – how has it fared from a business perspective in India. What will be the deep focus areas for 2018?

It was a great 2017 for Dell EMC. Fueled by strategic cross-selling and robust business wins, in Q3 we recorded 4x the market growth in India. As we continue to see success in digitization projects with the Government, in 2018, BFSI and Government will top the list in terms of priority verticals. Additionally, we also see a big opportunity in fulfilling the digital transformation needs of web tech and that is a big growth area for us. Customers are looking to transform their IT landscape. Our portfolio strength coupled with our ability to deploy such transformative projects have resonated with the customers leading us to be best poised for 2018.

How will the vision of Digital India pan out for Dell EMC?

India has been in the limelight owing to progressive implementation of technology for citizen services. Starting in 2015 when the Government launched its flagship Digital India initiative, to the recent roll-out of GST and demonetization, all programs have had both the citizen and technology infrastructure at its core. Banking on robust tech infrastructure, financial inclusion, digital payments and digital citizen services have been key to India’s digital transformation agenda. Simply put, if Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile is JAM, then IT infrastructure is the BREAD!

At this juncture, we are very optimistic about the potential of India’s digitization journey. As a global technology company with the most diverse portfolio from cloud to PC, we are best positioned to optimize the digital transformation opportunity in India – specifically the $150b IT infrastructure opportunity. From PCs (consumer & commercial), Data Protection, Storage, Converged Infrastructure, Networking – we are the only consolidated technology company in the industry and are leading among all these segments.

What are the major partner conversations and milestones post the launch of the combined channel program last year?

The unified Dell EMC channel partner program has received positive feedback from all partners. The program has been created from ground-up based on a strong feedback mechanism, thereby differentiating it in various ways. The unified program combines the best aspects from both programs – legacy Dell and EMC, and is based on the three core tenets of being – simple, predictable and profitable.

The program is comprehensive and has more than 4000 registered partners in India. This has strengthened the go-to-market strategy and has impacted the partner community positively. We understand the importance of developing our channel ecosystem in order to be able to cater to our growing customer base. We now have a team called ‘Emerging Channels’ that looks to bring new partners into the fold while we build and sustain the relationships we have with existing partners in the program.

Since the launch of the combined channel program, we have witnessed several developments. An important one is our strategic partnership with SAP to provide ERP-ready servers to enable GST compliance targeted at Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across India. Additionally, we also collaborated with Ingram Micro to launch HaaS (Hardware as a Service) to help accelerate IT adoption among organizations across the country and accelerate digital transformation. We want partners to work with us over the long term and we want to equip them with the skills and capabilities and relationships to stay competitive in the market.

In your conversations with CXOs, what are the major challenges that come up for discussion?

A recurring theme that surfaces in our conversations with companies is how, in this era of digital disruption, the seminal challenge for every enterprise’s chief information officer is to help create the digital DNA needed to compete in a rapidly changing industry. To better understand the challenges our customers face, we commissioned an independent survey of 4,000 business leaders — from mid-size to large enterprises — across 16 countries and 12 industries. The survey was done by by Vanson Bourne, and 300 respondents were from India. The insights from the study shed light on the following concerns:

• 68% experienced significant industry disruption over the last 3 years (Global: 52%)

• 62% don’t know what their industry will look like in 3 years (Global: 48%)

• 62% concede they may become obsolete in 3-5 years’ time (Global: 45%)

• 81% have witnessed new competitors (Global: 62%)

Our endeavor is to focus our energies on addressing these insights. Our game plan is to have an obsessive focus on customer engagement and satisfaction, enable innovation as the central piece of this puzzle and finally provide the best-in-industry solutions to partner customers’ digital transformation journey. Our idea is to present digital as an opportunity for unprecedented possibilities rather than being a hindrance/ challenge.

If there were to be three things your customers should look up to in 2018, what would those three things be – your recommendations?

Digital technologies are dramatically revolutionizing entire industries, enabling new business models while disrupting familiar ways of doing business. The digital age is already here and to thrive in this era, customers MUST evolve and embrace digital transformation.

As customers embark on a new year, they should look forward to –

Leading the disruption – be the change agent and set the agenda rather than following the industry, Invest in emerging technologies such as AI, Blockchain, Machine Learning, and Embrace digitization in every aspect of the business starting from customer outreach to customer response and customer resolution