“I’ve never ever had a customer say they have had a bad experience with Everpure tech ever,” says Leon Scott, National Practice Manager, Datacentre, Data#3

“We've tried to help our customers navigate and give them as much information and passing information from vendors when we get it around pricing and supply chain,” says Leon Scott, National Practice Manager - Datacentre, Data#3.

When Everpure announced that it had to increase prices earlier this year because of the challenges in the supply chain globally, it was not an easy situation for partners in the Asia Pacific region to adapt. While the vendor continues to see strong growth from APAC, some partners in the region had to pivot or even re-strategize their approach and priorities with some of the customers here.

According to Andrew Fisher, partners in Australia seemed to embrace the price change quickly, having accepted its reality and moved forward. However, the other markets in the region did take some time to fully accept the changes.

“India was a little slower to accept the reality of it, not because they didn't see the announcements, but I think there was this potential that it might have been a short-term bubble, but it really doesn't look to be that way. Japan was similar as well. I think the broader Asia was a bit of a mix. I would say earlier to accept it, and we saw some forward ordering and some things, but realistically, it did vary across the market. But we did have an exceptional Q1 across the organization, and I think while we don't disclose individual markets, we saw a reflective growth of that as well,” Fisher said.

One partner in Australia that was able to make the most of the situation was Data#3. In a conversation with CRN Asia during the Pure Accelerate summit in Las Vegas, Leon Scott, National Practice Manager - Datacentre, Data#3 shared that the partner only started to double down and focus with Everpure about 18 months ago.

“As a result of that, we've seen such massive growth between both organizations. We're seeing a lot of opportunities in the storage space, and it's led by the Everpure team. So, yeah, it's been really good. And I'll be honest with you, we do do storage from NetApp, Dell, HPE, and Everpure. Let's just say some of those other vendors have seen the effects of our partnership blossoming. So, it's been really good,” Scott said.

Partnership with Everpure

According to Scott, one of the value adds Data#3 has had from Everpure that they haven't got from any other partner is the Accelerated Growth Program which they have been enrolled in. Scott explained that it not only gives Data#3 extra targets and extra gates to hit, but it also gives them extra rebates and payments in the back end, which they have done very well with over the last couple of years as well.

“We see that definitely as a value add, and it's positive. From a change of program perspective, I don't see any negatives that affected us. On the naming, it was a bit of a surprise, the name change. It was sort of an overnight thing. But I understand it. Obviously, it's a change and a shift into some of the product line naming and all that sort of stuff,” he added.

From a sales perspective, Scott highlighted that the Everpure team was easy to engage and deal with. It allows both companies to go a customer as a unified front, which adds creditability to the conversation with the customer.

“We've seen a lot of benefit from that joint collaboration. Apart from the ease of dealing with the Everpure team, the technology is also easy to articulate. There's not a thousand and one different products or SKUs. It's a very simplified portfolio, but in a good way, which is easy for us to articulate about value props to customers,” he said.

Scott also pointed out that Data#3 is excited about some of the new offerings, especially in the cloud integration capabilities which he believes will complement Data#3’s large Microsoft partnership. He added that this is only going to further enhance the partnership with Everpure because now they'll have more product lines and more solution lines which they can go after together.

“Customers like Everpure because they are easy to deal with, and the technology is just easy, and it works, and it's fast, and it gives them the outcome. And the programs that they have around Evergreen//One and lots of things as well are very relevant in market in this particular climate, we're in. They’re also easy to transact. It's not war and peace. It's not a thousand different contracts where some of these other vendors do have that in that model. So, yeah, all that combination just makes it an easier thing to do,” Scott added.

For Fisher, Data#3 has also been incredible to deal with as well.

“We don't just rely on our partner to do all the work, but it has been incredible. And it really does make it so much easier to do business with people who are committed and open and progressive, and that's where Data#3 are. And no doubt, we'll see great success together. But a lot of credit goes to Data#3 and the executives and the team that have just led right in,” Fisher said.

Impact of price increases

While the partnership has been positive, Scott also shared that the price increase announcement did have an impact on the partner and customers as well. Specifically, customers who had the budget to do certain projects were now parking their budget.

“They're not spending anymore. But then on the flip side, there's customers who need it. There's a requirement especially when it's a business-critical application or workload or AI. And so, we're seeing customers increase spending. For me, with the market issue, there's less opportunity, but the opportunity that is there is much bigger than before. So, it's sort of two sides of the coin,” Scott said.

Scott also explained that Data#3 had to adapt to these changes, which he clearly pointed out was not only an Everpure impact as other vendors were also having changes.

“We've tried to help our customers navigate and give them as much information and passing on information from vendors when we get it around pricing and supply chain. I'll say that the Everpure price rises are not out of line with anyone else. Everyone is doing roughly the same sort of thing. So, there's no better or worse. It is what it is. But, yeah, we've had to shift on how we add value to a customer now. In some cases, it's talking about leveraging existing investment to do other things,” he said.

“The longer you stall, it's probably going to get even more expensive. And that's been messaging. So, we actually engaged some executives from Everpure to come in and have the conversation with the customer jointly again. And we managed to, I guess, convince and articulate the reasons why the price rises were there. And then we closed the deal. So, the budget was parked, but we managed to bring it forward at a much higher rate than we expected,” Scott explained.

Overtime, Scott also stated that customers are aware of the current market and are now navigating through offerings like Evergreen//One, financing, and such to help them get an outcome, and be more creative with the commercial constructs than what they had in the past.

At the same time, Scott also pointed out that Everpure competitors are also trying to provide different alternatives and programs as there's enough opportunity out there in the market to address.

“But I honestly do feel that because Everpure is so easy to deal with, both on a partner level and a customer level. And the tech just works. I’ve never ever had a customer say they have had a bad experience with Everpure tech ever. The channel-only focus that they have, it's a massive differentiator to it from all their other competitors. Because we find, in some cases, we're competing with the vendor and there's no reason for it. Whereas with Everpure, every day of the week, it's just going to be channel. There's no drama. It just goes to that ease of engagement and it's showing commitment to the channel,” Scott concluded.