Former Dell man Blackall to tune Violin's channel

Ex-Dell Software channel boss to head up flash memory vendor's EMEA partner strategy

Violin has appointed former Dell software man Vince Blackall to lead its channel across EMEA.

Blackall (pictured) had been running Dell Software's channel and alliances in EMEA since November last year, but began work at Violin at the start of this month.

Before his stint at Dell, he held a similar EMEA channel role at Informatica for three months, after a six-year stint at Commvault – also running its EMEA channel.

Blackall said channel consistency was top of his to-do list at the flash memory vendor.

"My plan is to review what we have and build a consistent model," he said. "If you engage with Violin in France, for example, you're going to see the same proposition, structure and accreditation – consistency is key. We will always offer the same terms, products and so on – it is much more attractive to multinational [channel players and customers]."

Blackall added that although he wants a consistent and simple approach, smaller or less-developed territories will get the same model but on a scale which suits the market size in order to satisfy natural variation across the diverse region.

Violin currently has 72 EMEA reseller partners, 30 of which are UK based and are served via disties Commtech and Diamond Point.

Blackall said he has not made any decisions on whether or not the distie line-up or number of channel partners will change, but that he knows a bigger channel is not always better.

"I have never wanted a big channel just for the sake of having a big channel," he said. "It is very easy to pick [resellers] up and say ‘I've got 1,000 partners' but I am much more interested in getting them qualified and committed. I also believe in value-added distribution."