Industry Report Confirms Hitachi Data Systems Commitmentto Deliver Superior Programs for Channel Partners
Santa Clara, California— February 11, 2003— Hitachi DataSystems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT),today announced that storage resellers have named it number oneamong hardware vendors for the best services policies and programsin a recent report from Gartner Research, "Storage Resellers: TheFront Line of Storage Service."
In a related finding, storage resellers cited resolving channelconflicts with suppliers as their number one challenge. The studyalso underscored the importance of the channel to storage hardwarevendors, reporting that forty-four percent of storage resellersincreased storage hardware sales between 2001 and 2002. Gartnerestimates that indirect sales of RAID storage will continue to growin 2003.
According to the Gartner report, "Indirect sales channelscontinue to grow in importance to storage hardware and softwarevendors. In 1998, 32 percent of external RAID controller-basedstorage was sold through indirect sales channels. In 2003, GartnerDataquest estimates that indirect channels will be nearly 40percent of external RAID sales." ("Storage Resellers: The FrontLine of Storage Service," January 8, 2003.)
"Services are a key component of our growth strategy, so it isgratifying to hear from our reseller partners that they consider usnumber one in services policies and programs," said Scott Genereux,vice president, Global Marketing and Business Development, HitachiData Systems. "To further strengthen our commitment to the channel,we recently introduced the TrueNorth Solutions Alliance program.This program is designed to solidify the training, certification,support, and incentives our reseller partners need to besuccessful."
The TrueNorth™ Solutions Alliance unites all Hitachi DataSystems partners under one umbrella, providing consistent policies,programs, and processes across all relationships. Through theTrueNorth Solutions Alliance, Hitachi Data Systems aims to ensurethat partners have the necessary information, training, support andincentives to service its increasingly sophisticated customers.
Hitachi Data Systems enables organizations worldwide to exploitthe full potential of information. Adhering to our TrueNorth™vision and strategy, we provide customers with a broad range ofstorage solutions to simplify, protect and optimize theirinformation infrastructures. Our offerings include centralized anddistributed storage solutions complemented by best-of-breedproducts from channel partners and industry alliances.
With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts businessthrough direct and indirect channels in the public, government andprivate sectors in over 170 countries and regions. Our customersinclude more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For moreinformation, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leadingglobal electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employeesworldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated salestotaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion). The company offers awide range of systems, products and services in market sectors,including information systems, electronic devices, power andindustrial systems, consumer products, materials and financialservices. For more information on Hitachi, please visit thecompany's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
Contacts: PR
Jodi Reinman, Hitachi Data Systems, (408) 970-1050, jodi.reinman@hds.com
Freedom Storage, Lightning 9900, andThunder 9200 are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.
TrueNorth is a trademark of Hitachi DataSystems.
© Hitachi Data Systems isregistered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademarkand service mark of Hitachi, Ltd.
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