The nature of enterprise IT is changing. Experience, rather than infrastructure, has become the key driver of technology investments, as businesses focus on the outcomes they need IT to deliver for their customers – whether internal or external – rather than deploying solutions, and figuring out the user benefits later. Multi-cloud too is accelerating this change, offering customers unprecedented choice and complexity in how they migrate and manage workloads, in order to deliver these experiences.
Taken together, these developments present a huge challenge for partners. Customers are no longer looking for transactional, ‘one and done’ engagements with partners, but genuine collaboration throughout their relationships with one another. Their role is no longer about filling holes in IT architectures and implementing one-off solutions, but instead about providing customers with the consistently informed consultancy they need to make shrewd IT investments, and ensure technology delivers value throughout their engagements with partners.
Customers now demand advanced skillsets, and it’s therefore incumbent on partners to constantly re-evaluate their knowledge base, so they can stay ahead of the learning curve and position themselves as trusted advisors.
Introducing the Master Services Competencies (MSCs)
That’s where our MSCs come in. They are accreditations are designed to validate – and formally recognize – partners’ capacity to deliver services and consultancy relating to VMware technologies, and the reason for them is two-fold. Firstly, to ensure customers get full value from any VMware solution they adopt, thanks to the deep-rooted and robust expertise provided by our certified partners. And secondly, to help our partners continue to develop, enhance and grow their business models, and capitalize on opportunities both for innovation and profitability, as they seek to differentiate themselves in an increasingly cloud-first market.
They’re not easy to achieve though – far from it. Achieving even one MSC requires extensive training and certification of staff in key aspects of VMware’s portfolio, deep understanding of VMware products, and the submission of customer references. So we’re incredibly proud to share that comdivision, a VMware partner for more than 15 years, has become the first and only one globally to achieve all 8 Master Service Competencies.
Celebrating comdivision
Founded in 1996 in Germany, comdivision has expanded to become one of the top VMware partners globally. With one of the highest per-head certification levels in the VMware eco-system and customers including several global fortune 100 companies, it is always on the cutting-edge of innovation. As a persistent early adopter, the company was the first in EMEA to achieve 5 MSCs, and also the first to secure the VMware Cloud Management and Automation MSC in the German market. In adding the SD-WAN MSC to its portfolio, it has once again established itself as a leading light in our partner ecosystem.
Listed in full, the eight VMware Master Services Competencies achieved by comdivision are:
- Cloud Management and Automation
- Cloud Native Apps
- Data Center Virtualization
- Digital Workspace
- Network Virtualization
- VMware Cloud on AWS
- VMware Cloud Foundation
- Software Defined – Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)
We’re absolutely thrilled to share this news, and in a recent conversation with Petra Heinrich, VP of VMware’s Partner and Commercial Organisation in EMEA, Yves Sandfort, CEO of comdivision, reflected on what it meant to the business.
The fact that comdivision has earned all eight MSCs speaks volumes for its relentless focus on customer-for-life value, continued pursuit of success, and impressive portfolio of work. As Yves notes, ”Our customer-centric approach to architecture, education and operation provides our customers with a quick-win on multiple levels. Not only do we deploy faster than most other consulting organisations with our customisable, validated and standardised approach, we also deliver at a fixed price, meaning less surprises and faster adoption for our customers.” says Yves Sandfort, CEO at comdivision.
It's this obsessive focus that marks comdivision out as one of VMware’s most successful and enduring partners. And we’re excited to see what Yves and his team achieve next.
To find out more about VMware’s Master Services Competencies, check out VMware’s partner learning resources here.
Check out VMware Partnership Perspectives podcast featuring Yves Sandfort, CEO of comdivision
