„Stronger together“ in sales channels

• Over 70 partners discussed edge technology, Blockchain and new business models in Dublin
• Strengthening each other and making use of individual expertise for synergy effects
• Expanding the Rittal IT Ecosystem for joint growth

“Every partner has different strengths and brings along its own individual capabilities.” Host Andrew Grace, Head of Global IT Channel & Partnerships at Rittal, invited participants at the second partner conference to “use these opportunities for synergy effects.” Under the motto “Discover the Edge”, Rittal invited its European partners, including over 70 IT resellers, distributors and system integrators, to Dublin at the end of September. There they were able to gain insights into ground-breaking data centre market trends, innovative business models such as Blockchain, as well as Rittal’s solutions and IT ecosystem.

One main objective of both the event and the Rittal partner programme is for the partner companies to improve their international market opportunities and make growth easier through intensive cooperation. Among other things, Rittal provides its specialist expertise from the industrial sector, enabling partners to create new business prospects, said Mr Grace, motivating the partners to collaborate with each other.

Industrialising data centres

Alongside cooperation at company level, standardisation is also a decisive factor in order to remain technologically competitive in the dynamic data centre market: “Today, storage manufacturers and data centre planners are already struggling to keep pace. Data volumes are growing faster than the storage systems can be produced or the data centres can be planned and built,” added Jason Rylands, Director International Sales at the German cloud start-up iNNOVO Cloud. “Standardised, modular data centre containers, constructed as modular systems, can be implemented quickly and represent a reliable solution for meeting these demands, thanks to the short preparation time involved. This allows us to drive industrialisation forward in data centre construction,” Mr Rylands continued. This is another important prerequisite for data processing in the course of 5G. The new mobile telecommunication generation is an immense driver of digitisation.

Blockchain, the “trust machine” for reduced costs

Another digital trend topic is Blockchain. The “Trust Machine”, as expert Dr Rudolf Mauch called the technology in his keynote speech, offers companies many benefits, including cost savings ranging from 50 to as much as 80 percent, according to statistics.

“Who would not want to save fourteen percent when transferring money from Switzerland to Germany? Dr Mauch asked the participants. Fees for international bank transfers could become a thing of the past thanks to Blockchain. According to the World Economic Forum[1], it was precisely the advantages such as high transparency and security that would ensure that ten percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) would be stored via blockchain or in Blockchain-related technologies by 2027. A secure, faster and more transparent provision of information is an important confidence-building factor, something that is particularly relevant for industries such as finance and insurance where security is relevant. The consequences of and the opportunities offered by the channel were discussed during the course of the presentation.

Intelligent resource use for growth

The second Rittal Channel Partner Conference showed that companies could only meet the challenges and requirements of the dynamic data centre market successfully through cooperation and the intelligent use of resources. In the context of “Focus on Partner Growth”, Rittal will continue to expand its ecosystem for IT partners in order to promote collective growth.

“First-class solutions, as well as reliability and availability are essential to satisfy customers and when selecting partners. With Rittal, we have been combining these factors, as well as a trusting, partnership-based, eye-level collaboration for over four years. The summit has made it clear that we can continue to count on Rittal and achieve our growth targets together,” sales manager Theodoros Sakellariou of the Greek “FSysTel” system integrator explained.

The next Rittal Partner Summit IT will take place in the summer of 2019.

[1] World Economic Forum report predicts that by 2025 10% of GDP will be stored on blockchains or blockchain related technology.: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/05/27/how-blockchain-technology-could-change-the-world