All change in the channel?
23
1-2-1 SIMON RA
Continuing our Channel series, Phil Alsop talks to S3’s Managing Director,
Simon Ragg, about how the company has evolved to date, what
opportunities he sees ahead, and how the Channel market is changing to
address some of the end users’ major pain points.
PA: Please can you give a to supply mainline storage resellers to specialise/offer
little bit of background to products. In summary real expertise in one or more
your business – its innovation supported by key IT discipline to survive/
development and successes strong customer services has thrive into the future?
to date? been at the core of our SR: It depends on the model
GG
SR: S3 has been around for growth. you choose to operate under.
over twenty years. It focused For S3 the answer is yes. We
on dealing with a relatively PA: Do you think that the focus on storage and aim
small number of customers days of the generalist reseller to meet the continuing needs
but knowing their storage are numbered, or will there of our customers for all
requirements intimately and always be a place in the their storage needs, including
delivered very constant Channel for such volume ‘box highly commoditised products,
revenues until acquired by a shifters’? but we always aim to be
new management team in SR: I think they will always first to market with new
late 2005. Since then we have a place and I don’t want innovations.
have broadened the customer you to think that we consider
base, but not overstretched ourselves above box shifting, PA: Do you find that your
our resources, and as long as it is profitable. As customers are increasingly
concentrated on bringing new product categories gain more asking you to supply a
solutions to our customers. market penetration, in other solution to a specific
In the process our revenues words as they move along problem, rather than simply
have almost trebled in four the adoption lifecycle curve, sell them some hardware
years. they become more and more and/or software?
commoditised. Late adopter SR: Our customers tend to be
PA: How do you think that customers, or those replacing large organisations and are
you’ve managed to be existing installations, expect usually pretty sophisticated,
successful in what is a very that more and more but sometimes we go back
competitive market sector? functionality will be built into and present something other
SR: We have focused on the product, when did you than they originally asked for.
taking on new technologies last hear of somebody buying Our first Data Domain sale
early in their lifecycle so that a maths co-processor for a back in 2005 was an example
we could bring ‘step function’ PC? At this level box shifters of this. The customer came
improvements for our will always have a role to to us for a large tape library
customers. The two primary play. I guess this is evident but it was clear that being
example of this, I guess, are in the tape market, backup able to hold de-duplicated
Data Domain and Isilon. We software and perhaps even data on nearline disk was a
invested resources in these increasingly in SATA and NAS more appropriate solution.
companies earlier than any of storage. So that was what we
our competitors and became proposed and the fact that
their biggest UK partners but PA: In other words, do you they didn’t subsequently
simultaneously we continued think that it is important for disagree with us was
WWW.SNS-UK.CO.UK OCT 09
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