Commvault Appoints Global Channel Chief

Commvault has appointed John Tavares to be its global channel chief as part of an ongoing effort to rely more on an indirect sales model.

The long time Dell EMC veteran will be assuming responsibilities previously held by Mercer Rowe, former vice president of the Global Partner Organization at Commvault. Rowe is now vice president and general manager for Commvault Systems Japan.

Rowe deserves a lot of the credit for putting the foundations of the current Commvault channel program in place, says Tavares. Those efforts began when new Commvault leadership shifted the company away from relying heavily on direct sales beginning in 2019. Going into 2021 Commvault will expand that program to incorporate more managed service providers (MSPs), adds Tavares.

In addition, Commvault will look to energize existing partners that are committed to Commvault, better align sales cultures, strengthen marketing by focusing on additional use cases for data protection offerings involving, for example, combatting ransomware, and establishing deeper ties with the technology leadership with channel partners.

“You have to win the hearts and minds of the technical community within the channel to succeed,” says Tavares.

Tavares joins Commvault as the company continues to revamp its product portfolio to rely more on cloud offerings. In its most recent quarter, Commvault posted revenues of $171.1 million, a 2% increase of 2% year over year. Software and products revenue for the quarter was $72.3 million, an increase of 5% year over year. The increase in software and products revenue was driven by an 8% increase in larger deals valued at more than $100,000. Services revenue in the quarter remained flat at $98.8 million.

Commvault for the quarter posted a loss of $42 million, which included a $40.7 million non-cash impairment charges of intangible assets recognized associated with the acquisition of Hedvig, Inc., a provider of a software-defined storage platform, in 2019.

It may still be a while before Commvault realizes the full benefits of its increased reliance on channel partners. However, like most vendors making a transition to the channel progress is generally made in a slow but steady fashion.