Veeam talks further growth and three-way opportunities

Veeam Software is adding Kiwi headcount as the company gears up for another big year locally.

Don Williams, Veeam Software vice president for APAC, says New Zealand was one of the vendor's fastest growing Asia-Pacific regions last year and now makes up 10% of total revenue in the region.

Williams says New Zealand clocked a 63% year-on-year increase in total revenue bookings for 2013, and the company is aiming for 'somewhere in the 50% range' in the coming year.

With that in mind, an Auckland-based systems engineer started work at Veeam this month, and the company is currently interviewing for a territory manager.

Williams says last year's appointment of Matt Harrison as New Zealand channel manager based in Wellington, has had a big impact on the company's growth here, particularly in helping drive the company's offerings into the larger mid-market and enterprise accounts.

“The perception of Veeam is that we are SMB only,” Williams notes. “But one of the messages I'm trying to drive home is that that's not true.

“We are already in many Fortune 500 companies and in half of the Global 2000 accounts. SMBs are a very good segment for us, and in New Zealand there's plenty of room to grow there and we will continue to focus on that market.

“But having a local presence has really helped drive us into the larger mid-market and enterprise accounts, and we had some really big wins by Veeam standards last year and expect more this year.”

Williams says cloud is also proving 'really strong' for the company locally, with cloud licensing the fastest growing product group.

He says with investment in the local team and channel partners Veeam, which is holding its annual ProPartner Kick Off Conference in Auckland today, can 'absolutely' continue its high growth here.

“One of the big drivers for the year ahead is our alliance relationships, not just with VMware and Microsoft, but with the likes of HP and newer storage players such as Nimble.

“Cisco is another big focus for us and we're adding headcount for alliances – we've already got someone focused on Microsoft based in Sydney and will also have one for HP, Cisco and a few others.”

As part of that alliance focus, Williams says partners are being encouraged to look at three-way marketing opportunities, combining Veeam's offerings with partner offerings.

“One of the challenges is that if you're just selling a license as a standalone, it often comes down to price point.”

But if you offer the licensing plus other offerings such as storage, it becomes harder to compare on a price only basis and provides greater value for the customer, he says. Partners can also then leverage funding from both Veeam and the alliance partner, he argues.