CA Technologies says it remains committed to the New Zealand reseller channel, despite the departure of its New Zealand channel account director.

Cory Grant (pictured) left CA last week, starting in his new position of software sales specialist at Hewlett-Packard on Monday. Grant was the last account rep left in New Zealand for the IT management software company.

His departure prompted concerns from some in the channel, on the back of suggestions he would not be replaced locally, and New Zealand accounts would instead be handled out of Sydney.

However, Klasie Holtzhausen, CA Technologies senior director, sales – responsible for partners and alliances across ANZ – says Grant will be replaced ‘as soon as possible’. Holtzhausen says CA has ‘started the process internally’ to find and appoint a replacement, but was unable to indicate when that replacement might be finalised.

He says in the interim staff from Australia will be visiting New Zealand regularly to ensure the appropriate level of support is available.

"We’ve always had a rep on the ground in New Zealand and over and above that there is a lot of support from Australia,” Holtzhausen says. "New Zealand is an important market [for CA Technologies] like any other market. If you look at our strategy in Asia Pacific, having people on the ground is very important.

"Asia Pacific, including New Zealand, as a whole is part of a growth market for CA globally and it’s important that we capture that opportunity.”

CA, which has Datastor and Ingram Micro as its New Zealand distributors with resellers including Datacom, Axon, Eagle, Fujitsu and Gen-i, has two New Zealand staff, including a new customer support team member. Grant’s replacement will bolster that to three.

Bill McMurray, CA Technologies Australia and New Zealand managing director, says the company has a ‘substantial’ number of customers and many loyal business partners in New Zealand and ‘our support for them will absolutely continue’.

Check out Cory Grant's LinkedIn page here.