SUSE’s Sachin Vig wants deeper, more specialised partners as India channel expands beyond top eight cities

The company is expanding its partner focus to the next 15–20 cities while prioritising deeper skills, specialised capabilities and new industry opportunities.

SUSE is looking to deepen its engagement with selected partners and extend its channel reach beyond India's top eight cities as it targets the next phase of growth across emerging geographies and industry segments.

Speaking to CRN India, Sachin Vig, director – strategic channels & alliances (Indian Subcontinent), SUSE, said the company is prioritising partner quality, skills and specialisation rather than simply expanding the number of partners in its ecosystem.

SUSE's roadmap for the next 12 to 18 months includes the next 15 to 20 cities, according to Vig, as the company looks to build on the foundation it has established in India's top metros.

“We have already laid the foundations. Now it's all about executing those plans on the foundation,” he said.

The strategy is built around a distinction between focused partners, where SUSE invests more deeply, and a broader coverage model supported by distribution and regional system integrators.

Vig said, “If I have a focus partner who's working with us primarily on the SAP workload, I want to look at how we can scale the business with our focus partners to capture either a new segment of the market, a new geography, a new industry vertical or a new technology focus.”

That makes partner expansion an important part of SUSE's channel growth model, he said.

Rather than treating partner recruitment as the primary measure of ecosystem growth, the company wants its existing partners to increase the depth and breadth of their business.

Vig said the relationship also requires investment from both sides.

“We want a partner where we invest with the partner, and the partner also reciprocates back to SUSE. Investment should go from both ends,” he said.

SUSE's investment includes upskilling partners, demand generation, marketing development, capturing new market segments, and launching new services.

Distribution provides breadth while focused partners provide depth

The focus on selected partners does not mean SUSE wants to limit its market coverage. The company is using distribution and regional SIs to achieve broader reach, while its partner managers focus on a smaller set of partners where deeper investment can drive growth.

“We really leverage our distribution ecosystem to give us that coverage, so that we have enough and more coverage,” Vig said.

This creates a deliberate distinction between focus and coverage within SUSE's partner strategy.

Focused partners are expected to build deeper capabilities and grow their business with SUSE, while distribution and regional SI networks help the company reach customers across a wider geographical footprint.

Vig said SUSE does not want every prospective partner to join simply to increase partner numbers.

Instead, the company evaluates the profile of partners that are willing to invest in building their SUSE business.

“Who counts eventually, the quality of partnership does really count,” Vig said.

Vig said SUSE has a formula where 90 percent of the business should come from 20 percent of partners, while still maintaining enough coverage to secure revenue opportunities across the country.

Next partner opportunity moves beyond the top eight cities

SUSE's geographical strategy is also changing. Vig said the company had previously consolidated its business around the top eight cities but is now looking at the next 15 to 20 cities based on business potential and total addressable market for its channel offerings.

“The reason we have a channel ecosystem is to look at giving us the length and breadth of the country,” he said.

The next phase is focused on expanding into additional cities where small and medium enterprises have their own technology requirements and where SUSE sees business opportunities.

Vig said the company's roadmap covers the next 12 to 18 months. The geographical expansion is not, however, a move towards building an indiscriminate partner network.

Instead, SUSE wants to identify the categories of partners that match the technology and customer requirements in each market.

“Any infrastructure partner, any partner selling infrastructure or a platform today can be a potential or prospective partner for SUSE in the country,” Vig said.

But he added that SUSE does not want to focus on bringing everybody into the ecosystem because the quality of the partnership matters.

MSMEs create a volume opportunity for smaller partners

SUSE also sees MSMEs as an important part of its channel opportunity, particularly for partners operating towards the tail end of the ecosystem.

Vig said MSMEs have a strong appetite for adopting newer technology as they look to scale their businesses.

“There is a hunger among MSMEs to adopt the latest technology,” he said.

The challenge, according to Vig, is less about willingness to adopt technology and more about technical skills.

“They don't lack the vision. They have the right vision. They lack the skill set,” he said.

Many MSMEs operate with relatively small IT teams, with a single IT manager potentially responsible for a broad range of technology requirements.

SUSE therefore runs specialised programmes through its partner and distribution network to build the skills required to support these customers.

The objective is to make more IT specialists capable of working with SUSE technology and helping MSMEs connect technology decisions with their intended business outcomes.

“The more skill sets are available, the adoption of your technology will become very easy,” Vig said.

For partners, that makes MSME business a combination of technology adoption and capability building.

Vig said the segment is important for the volume side of the business, with the tail end of the partner ecosystem helping SUSE reach these customers.

BFSI, manufacturing, government and healthcare emerge as focus areas

Alongside geographical expansion, SUSE is identifying specific industry segments where partners can build deeper expertise.

BFSI is the company's top priority, according to Vig, followed by manufacturing, government and healthcare. Banking covers large national banks, private banks, foreign banks and digital-native businesses, he said.

“Banking for sure is the topmost priority,” Vig said.

Manufacturing is another major focus because of SUSE's existing relationship with SAP.

“We are the only one who provides the certified platform to SAP,” he said.

Government and IT services are also areas SUSE is looking to develop, along with healthcare.

This vertical focus gives specialised partners another route to expand their SUSE business rather than simply adding more customers within an existing category.

Government creates a specialised partner opportunity

SUSE sees government digitisation as an area of activity, including government cloud deployments and digital transformation projects.

Vig said the government is looking at digitising its data and citizen services, with smart cities and command-and-control centres representing examples of that broader transformation.

He also said the government is setting up its own cloud, with data sovereignty and data security becoming important considerations.

SUSE is engaging government-focused partners across different routes to market, including resellers, MSPs and cloud service providers.

Importantly, Vig said SUSE does not engage directly with the government on these opportunities, instead working through partners.

“There are real RFPs in the country where these PSUs and these large government organisations are engaged, and we are engaged with the partners,” he said.

He also cautioned against treating the government opportunity as a universal market for every partner.

“Not every partner today is going to focus on government because that requires a special skill set,” Vig said.

For SUSE, that reinforces the importance of specialised partners that understand the requirements of government customers and can build the necessary capabilities around them.