Garth Scully, country manager for Veritas Canada
Veritas Canada is getting more autonomy and flexibility, and a new leadership team, as the company’s U.S. parent hopes a more Canada-centric strategy will boost its business in this country.
The new approach gives more “creative control” to newly-appointed country manager Garth Scully, and to his new channel lead, Rita Loncar. Scully was most recently in a similar country management role for Commvault Canada, while Loncar has been promoted from within, having most recently managed distribution for Veritas Canada.
Both executives took their roles at the beginning of the month, and the big task for Scully is re-architecting the Canadian organization to “create greater synergies” between its three divisions. Previously, Veritas had been organized so that three distinct units — sales, technical support, and channel — reported back to headquarters. Under the new structure, all three divisions will report to Scully and will work more closely together.
“In this role, Veritas is trying something different,” Scully said of his new position. “We all know the Canadian geography is quite a bit different from a sales perspective compared to the States. They wanted me to have creative control to drive similar outcomes in all three parts of the organization.”
Loncar’s role is also new, and a reflection on how important Scully says the channel will be to the company’s growth strategy for Canada. Scully is quick to point out that the Veritas Canada organization is “a lean team of 17 people, and the channel and distribution are going to be huge in scaling and reaching customers in the Canadian marketplace.”
The challenge for Veritas is around growth. While the data management opportunity in Canada is pegged at around $400 million and growing at 10 per cent per year, Veritas Canada has not been growing at that clip. “Getting Veritas back to that magical 10 per cent growth” rate is key for Scully.
Rita Loncar, channel chief for Veritas Canada
To support that, the company will both be focused on building additional business and strength with its existing channel partners, and looking for new partners in new areas, Loncar said.
“We’re investing in committed partners that know Veritas, and we’re looking at partners in other regions to provide full coverage of Canada. It’s a dual-prong approach,” she said.
While the management team is new, they’re already underway in reviewing their business with partners in the key markets of Toronto and Montreal, where it has the most presence today. From there, it will look to grow its partner ranks in the east, in the Prairies and Alberta, and in BC. To do that, especially in the SME space, Loncar said they’ll be leaning heavily on Ingram Micro Canada and Tech Data Canada.
“Distribution plays a key role for us,” Loncar said. “We’re hearing from customers in Canada that they need our help to increase data protection and reduce storage costs, and we’re looking for partners to support and deliver on that message.”
As for key partners, Scully said the goal is to identify partners “that we know are going to lead with Veritas solutions when it comes to data management” and to work more closely with them.
At the same time, he’s hoping growth will support a growing headcount in Canada, offering more support to the partner base.
“I’m starting to make recommendations as to what needs to be done here in Canada to drive revenues up,” Scully said. “So far, the U.S. has been very open to me indicating what I need to do to take the business to the next level.”
Currently, the company does 86 per cent of its business in Canada through the channel. Scully and Loncar figure that number can rise.
“I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to leverage the partner community to scale this business,” Scully said. “That partner component is critical to our success, and you’ll see us take that 86 per cent and move it up to drive the appropriate revenues.”
The two executives spoke to ChannelBuzz.ca near the end of their first Veritas Vision Day event in Canada, a roadshow approach to the company’s annual big customer and partner event which dates back to before the original iteration of Veritas was acquired by Symantec. The Toronto event aimed to reach both executives and technical people from both partners and customers, with a mix of business strategy and technology deep-dive sessions. Scully said he anticipates taking the show on the road to Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver and other markets in the months to come and into next year.
