Did you miss the Virtual SMB Partner Town Hall & Summit on May 17^th? If so, it’s not too late to view the videos or download the presentations directly from our Partner Virtual Event Platform. We’re giving partners 24x7 access to this material. You’ll find sessions covering a variety of topics, including my review of VMware’s SMB business, an update on Partner Program incentives, and training on VMware’s SMB Solution Stack.  Tune in to our guest speakers delivering their best strategies for successful sales demonstrations, creating compelling customer proposals and increasing deal size.  I found a lot of value in those sessions and I think you will too. In addition, we’ve posted a variety of SMB sales resources such as whitepapers, calls scripts and “cheat sheets”. In short, you’ll find all the enablement training and tools you need to help you successfully sell VMware solutions to your sub 1000 employee sized customers!

For all the Partners that were able to attend the SMB Summit – Thank you for making the time and please send us your feedback on the event. We’re always working on making things better and your guidance certainly helps. Click here to get view the material. Good Selling and let's finish Q2 strong!

Brandon Sweeney - VP, Channel Sales Americas

I would like to follow up on an article we posted last month, which introduced Federal Partner Exchange. The third annual VMware Federal Partner Exchange took place on April 5^th. This all-day event was dedicated to our Federal Channel Partner community and is designed for sales, business development, technical and professional services personnel. The partners who attended this successful event were provided with valuable and action-packed tips, best practices, tools and contacts to help increase the velocity of their Federal sales. 

We heard great feedback from our partners about this event: Jason Chung, VP of Software Alliances, at MicroTech said, “Fantastic event to help us win in the Federal marketing with VMware” and Brittany Bigelow, Account Executive at August Schell said, “Great learning how to advance our partnership with VMware Federal on Cloud sales opportunities.” 

Missed out on attending the event? You can view photos from the event here or view the presentations here. The username is vmware and password is vmwarefedpex2011.

Reminder: US Federal Prospecting Day is confirmed for Tuesday, May 24! Save the date and expect more details in the next week.

If you have any questions about this event or other Federal segment marketing-related topics, please contact Giovanni Estrada at gestrada@vmware.com.

Alex Hart - Sr. Director, Public Sector Channel Sales

VMware is hosting our first SMB Partner Quarterly Townhall on May 17th and all of our SMB partners are invited to participate in this online event!  I’ll be kicking off the Townhall with a “State-of-the-SMB-Business” address, including an overview of VMware’s SMB strategy, our commitment to Partner incentives and investments, a look at the competitive landscape and the launch of our SMB Enablement Program. We’ll also have Russ Stockdale, VP & GM, Small and Mid-Size Business Products, deliver a presentation on VMware’s SMB Solution Stack.

We are especially excited about our guest speakers at the SMB Townhall: Dr. Tom Sant, Author of Persuasive Business Proposals; Founder and Principal, Hyde Park Partners; and Peter Cohen, Founder and Principal, The Second Derivative. Peter and Tom are two of the industry’s leading experts on sales & business development and we’ve invited them to share their expertise and discuss sales best practices for winning new business and increasing your profitability!

VMware’s success in the SMB space is dependent upon the success of our SMB Partners – so be sure to take advantage of this unique opportunity to get the latest SMB news and updates from VMware, as well as gain insights on sales strategies to help you close more business and increase deal size! There is enormous market opportunity in the sub-1000 employee segment as, together, we help our customers and prospects on their Journey to the Cloud.  We also have some great Customer, Partner and Partner Rep incentives to help close business in Q2 so please join on the 17th to learn more. Details can be found at www.vmware.com/go/partner/virtualexperience/smb.

Good Selling and see you on the 17th!

Brandon Sweeney - VP, Channel Sales Americas

Earlier this week you heard the announcement of how VMware Advances VMware View™ and End-User Computing Solutions for the Post-PC Era. The VMware end-user computing portfolio seeks to free employees and IT organizations from more than two decades of complex, device-centric computing, and delivers a more user-centric experience for the connected enterprise.

We know that many of you have customers who are anxiously awaiting the new capabilities and availability of View 5.1  and  VMware Horizion Application Manager 1.5. With this release, partners, you can help your customers:   

• Significantly improve what they have now by virtualizing Windows applications and desktops with  View 5.1 and ThinApp.
• Securely embrace the cloud at the pace of their business with the new VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 for policy management of public and private cloud assets
• Escape to their cloud with new ways to manage data, deliver legacy applications and adopt new social applications, such as: 
  • Project Octopus - IT managed, secure data share and sync. Public Beta will be available in May.
  • Zimbra – Extensible email and collaboration platform
  • Socialcast - Enterprise social networking

 New on-demand video training sessions are now available – visit the Partner University EUC Home Page to find a list of on-demand video training sessions for Sales, Technical Pre-Sales and Technical Post-Sales.

The VMware End User Computing Learning Paths enable partners of all types to reiterate the EUC vision and articulate a unified VMware strategy as the leader in End User Computing and demonstrate our progress towards this goal. We wish you success and encourage you to get trained today!

Vivek Chhabria, Director, Global Partner Readiness

On April 23, 2012, our security team became aware of the public posting of a single file from the VMware ESX source code dating back to 2004, and the possibility that more files may be posted in the near future. Ensuring customer security is our top priority. As a matter of best practices with respect to security, VMware strongly encourages all customers to apply the latest product updates and security patches made available for their specific environment. As part of its regular program of providing patches for security and other issues, VMware has accelerated the delivery of a set of software patches for specific product releases that may be exposed to increased risk. We encourage all customers to view the following links to determine if appropriate patches are available for products in their environment: kb.vmware.com/kb/2019941 and www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2012-0009.html.

By applying the combination of the most current product updates and the relevant security patches, we believe our customer environments will be best protected. As is our practice, VMware will continue to assess any further security risks, and will continue to provide updates and patches as appropriate. 

As always, we welcome any security-related concerns to be shared with VMware via the following channels: 

• Support requests - www.vmware.com/support 

• Community forums - communities.vmware.com 

• Twitter - @VMwarecares 

• Calling Customer Service at 1-877-486-9273 (option 4) or www.vmware.com/support/us_support.html for global numbers 

My VMware had a successful first week with our partners and customers across the globe. Early in the week, customers and partners experienced some issues with access and stability of the environment due to high-volume traffic. We are committed to providing an exceptional experience and are continuing to work through these matters.

 We appreciate your patience and support. Please continue to send us feedback! We’ve already made a lot of progress and your input is helping us target specific areas of concern, and guiding our improvement roadmap.

It is important for Partners to understand My VMware and its impact on your business. Learn more with My VMware: Partner Basics, a short five minute introduction to My VMware that covers the key things to you need to know. Then follow up with role-based training available on Partner University.  

Top Things You Need To Know:

1. Understand New Terms:

• Entitlement Account (EA): All existing VMware customers have an account number that is crucial to all orders placed.
• Super User (SU):  Every account must have a SU who is the primary contact between the customer account and VMware.
• Procurement Contact (PC): This individual manages products and support information. Responsible for support levels & status compliance, renewal

2. Include the Entitlement Account (EA) Number with Orders

3. Use the EA Lookup Tool to find your customer's EA number

To learn more, Partners should start with the My VMware Partner Basics presentation, a five-minute training video that covers the basics they will need to know about My VMware.

Additional training, including role-based training is outlined below:

My VMware: Partner 101
A 20 minute eLearning course; pre-requisite for role-based My VMware training courses for Order Management, Tier 1 Customer Support and Customer Product Licenses/Support. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French)

My VMware: Order Management Overview
A 10 minute eLearning course recommended training for all order desk personnel handling VMware orders and licensing. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French)
 
My VMware: Providing Tier 1 Customer Support
A25 minute eLearning course recommended for partners delivering Tier 1 support to VMware customers. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French)
 
My VMware: Managing Customer Product Licenses/Support
A 25 minute eLearning course recommended for partner managing licenses and support on behalf of their customers. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French) 

vmLIVE  
 To date,  we have hosted 16 My VMware vmLIVE sessions. All vmLIVE recorded sessions can be found on Partner University

VMware License Expert 1.1 (VLE) has been updated to include My VMware. Current holder of the VLE accreditation will be encouraged to complete the upgrade path. Please visit Partner University for more information.

Additional Resources:
o   Partner Central
o   My VMware Partner Microsite
o   Partner FAQs  

Sandra Glaser Cheek, Director, Global Partner Communications and Programs Marketing

Yesterday, April 23, 2012, our security team became aware of the public posting of a single file from the VMware ESX source code and the possibility that more files may be posted in the future. The posted code and associated commentary dates to the 2003 to 2004 timeframe.

The fact that the source code may have been publicly shared does not necessarily mean that there is any increased risk to VMware customers. VMware proactively shares its source code and interfaces with other industry participants to enable the broad virtualization ecosystem today. We take customer security seriously and have engaged internal and external resources, including our VMware Security Response Center, to thoroughly investigate. We will continue to provide updates to the VMware community if and when additional information is available at http://blogs.vmware.com/security/

Iain Mulholland
Director, VMware Security Response Center

My VMware, the new integrated self-service site, ensures that your interactions and that of your customers, will be simplified and streamlined when engaging VMware in the ordering process.

vmLIVE training is available beginning Monday morning with a My VMware – Overview (see vmLIVE schedule below for details)

To get started, complete:
 
My VMware: Partner Basics
A short five minute training module that covers the basics you need to know now. This training is required for all partners.
 
Follow up with a deeper dive into My VMware with the following course available on Partner University:
 
My VMware: Partner 101
A 20 minute eLearning course; pre-requisite for role-based My VMware training courses for Order Management, Tier 1 Customer Support and Customer Product Licenses/Support. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French)
 
My VMware: Order Management Overview
A 10 minute eLearning course recommended training for all order desk personnel handling VMware orders and licensing. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French)
 
My VMware: Providing Tier 1 Customer Support
A 25 minute eLearning course recommended for partners delivering Tier 1 support to VMware customers. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French)
 
My VMware: Managing Customer Product Licenses/Support
A 25 minute eLearning course recommended for partner managing licenses and support on behalf of their customers. (available: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and French)
 
VMware is also hosting a global vmLive series dedicated to My VMware training.

vmLIVE Schedule
 
PLEASE NOTE: Some of the vmLIVE session dates have changed. If you previously signed up for a vmLIVE session, please validate that you are signed up for the correct session

VMware License Expert 1.1 (VLE) has been updated to include My VMware. Current holder of the VLE accreditation will be encouraged to complete the upgrade path. Please visit Partner University for more information. Also note that log-in credentials for My VMware are different than your Partner Central credentials. Email myvmware-help@vmware.com with any questions about this. 

Don’t miss Federal Partner Exchange (FEDPEX) taking place on April 12th at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner!

This all-day event is dedicated to our Federal Channel Partner community and is designed for sales, business development, technical, and professional services personnel. Come gear up your business and your team to win in the federal market as we enable our federal customers to transform their organizations and optimize their cloud and virtualization needs.

Meet our featured speakers and view the full agenda!

Brian Gammage, VMware Chief Market Technologist, End User Computing, works closely with customers and our product teams to define the customer journey to a modern end-user computing model that leverages cloud computing to securely deliver access to applications and data from any device, where and when a user needs it. He will be speaking on VMware's vision and strategy for end user computing.

David S. Linthicum, CTO and Founder of Blue Mountain Labs, is an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader, and the author and coauthor of 15 books on computing, including the best-selling Enterprise Application Integration. He will be speaking on the path to cloud migration.

Agenda - Click here to view the full agenda with speakers!

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012

Time: 7:30AM - 6:30PM

Location:
The Ritz-Carlton Tysons
1700 Tysons Boulevard
McLean, VA 22102
703-506-4300
Map and Directions Register Now!

 Sandra Glaser Cheek - Director, Global Partner Communications and Partner Programs Marketing

My VMware will dramatically improve the way you and your customers manage your VMware product licenses and support. Using this new, integrated, account-based site, you’ll be able to view and manage your product licenses and support through intuitive step-by-step screens for faster access to critical functions. My VMware will provide easy, logical navigation to the information you need, and the tasks you need to perform.

One of the key benefits of My VMware is the ability to access and manage product licenses and support at a company account level, versus the current email domain structure. This will make it easier to keep track of VMware products and support as your organization grows or changes. The new folder structure will give you the freedom to organize your products and licenses in a manner that makes the most sense for your organization.

My VMware integrates several previously separate portals and presents your order history, product licenses, support contracts, support requests and more, through this one site. You can easily assign permissions for viewing and managing license keys, creating support requests, and performing various other tasks within the account for more control and better security.

As a VMware partner, you’ll have all the same benefits as customers using My VMware to manage your NFRs, IULs and other VMware products.

My VMware Partner Training

My VMware Partner FAQ

The TAP team is standing by to answer your questions and help you through the transition.

Sheela Toor
Program Manager, TAP Program Communications

CRN celebrated their annual Channel Champions awards at an event in Los Angeles Tuesday night as part of the XChange Solution Provider conference where technology vendors that achieved the highest Partner satisfaction scores were honored. In a survey of more than 2,000 solution providers across 27 technology categories, awards were presented to the overall technology category winners as well as subcategory winners in the areas of technical satisfaction, support satisfaction and financial factors.
 
We are honored to have won in the in the Virtualization and Cloud Solutions categories. Many thanks to our incredible Solution Provider community for voting for us – your satisfaction with our products, solutions and our Partner programs is paramount to our success. We are committed to working hard to earn your confidence and your votes for this and other industry awards in the coming year!

Check out our award, and others here!

-Sandra Glaser Cheek
Director, Global Partner Communications 

Two weeks ago, while in Las Vegas for VMware Partner Exchange, I was arranging a dinner with a vendor and some of my colleagues. I knew the restaurant I wanted to go to and I went to their website to get some basic information. The website was designed beautifully, but finding the basic information I was looking for  was a frustrating  experience and I gave up.   This experience was a great reminder  about how finding the right information you need when you need it is crucial to how companies do business with customers.

The entire sales process, from initiating a conversation with a prospect to closing a deal, is always easier when the services and resources are readily accessible-where you need them, when you need them, in the format you need them in. So, when we started hearing buzz about a toolbar that one of our Partner Business Managers had created to do just that-we pounced.  

The VMware Partner Network toolbar started as an easy navigation destination for our partners who needed quick links to pages within Partner Central for deal registration, and contact information for their VMware renewals representative.  The toolbar went viral – over 1000 users in 18 countries - and before we knew it global partners and VMware channel teams were asking us to add more links and develop local version toolbars. So, we did.

Today, the newly updated VMware Partner Network toolbar gives you access to sales, marketing and technical tools, support contacts and quick links to Partner Central pages. The toolbar is available in seven languages and tools and links are updated automatically by the global VMware Partner Team.

When you download the toolbar you gain quick access to:

• Key sales, marketing & technical tools available on VMware.com & Partner Central-TCO Calculator, Prospecting Day, Customer Success Story, SnS T&C 
• Access to critical sales, support and marketing phone numbers by geographic region- Access to Distribution, Partner Support Center, Partner Marketing Bureau
• Top Partner Central destinations  to perform daily tasks  - Opportunity Registration, Promotions, Renewals Portal
• Key VMware & VMware Partner Network Twitter feeds

Get started now –download only takes a few of minutes! 

-Sandra Glaser Cheek
Director, Global Partner Communications 

The Hands-On Labs are awesome here at PEX, and you only have two days left to get in on them. Choose your own topics, set your own schedule and get your questions answered. 

The remaining labs are open Wednesday 9:00a-6:00p, and Thursday 9:00a-2:00p and are located in Bellini.

Promotions going on:

• Complete all 27 labs and be entered to win a complimentary pass to VMware Partner Exchange 2013.  Limited to 2 participants.
• Complete 20 labs and be entered to win Noise Cancelling Head Phones. Limited to 20 participants.
• Complete 15 labs and be entered to win a VMware Partner University Fleece. Limited to 25 participants.
• Complete 10 labs and be entered to win a VMware iPad Leather Cover or VMware Partner Network iPhone cover. You choose. Limited to 75 participants.

Drawings will take place after the event and the prizes will be shipped post-event to the winners.  Winners will be notified by March 16, 2012.

The Hands-On Labs are awesome here at PEX, and you only have two days left to get in on them. Choose your own topics, set your own schedule and get your questions answered. 

The remaining labs are open Wednesday 9:00a-6:00p, and Thursday 9:00a-2:00p and are located in Bellini.

Promotions going on:

• Complete all 27 labs and be entered to win a complimentary pass to VMware Partner Exchange 2013.  Limited to 2 participants.
• Complete 20 labs and be entered to win Noise Cancelling Head Phones. Limited to 20 participants.
• Complete 15 labs and be entered to win a VMware Partner University Fleece. Limited to 25 participants.
• Complete 10 labs and be entered to win a VMware iPad Leather Cover or VMware Partner Network iPhone cover. You choose. Limited to 75 participants.

Drawings will take place after the event and the prizes will be shipped post-event to the winners.  Winners will be notified by March 16, 2012.

Greetings from Las Vegas, where our partner community has converged to learn about our 2012 direction, connect with other partners and share best practices.
 
More than 4,300 partners, press, industry analysts and employees have joined us for VMware Partner Exchange. They are attending over 190 unique breakout sessions, working on 20+ hands-on labs, meeting with 91 sponsors and exhibitors in the Solutions Exchange, and networking with their peers.
 
I kicked off General Session today with a discussion on how VMware is enabling partners to grow and differentiate themselves through special partner programs, incentives and enablement:

•          Three new solution competencies: Virtualization of Business Critical Applications (VBCA, available today), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS, available today), Management (available later in Q1)
•          New specialization for the SMB vertical
•          Lucrative advantage+ and Solution Rewards optimizations
•          Launch of the VMware Solution Exchange
•          New Consulting and Integration Partner Program (CIPP)

CEO Paul Maritz then outlined his vision for the new generation of IT and how, together, VMware and our partners can help customers extract real business value and competitive advantages. Finally, CTO Steve Herrod provided a sneak peek into some disruptive technologies and how we can collectively enable customers to transform their business through IT.
 
We are excited to share these and other announcements with all our attendees as well as journalists an analysts from around the world, including representatives from CRN, eWEEK, Gartner, IDC and TechTarget.

The next two days will further show that the cloud era is here and VMware is enabling our partners to lead the way. Watch live chatter and photos by searching Twitter for #VMwarePEX.

It’s going to be a great week.
 
-Scott Aronson
Senior Vice President, Global Channels and Alliances