‘The channel is looking for a company that has an AI solution that enterprises can adopt and use to drive productivity,’ says new DevRev executive Adnan Bhutta. ‘The product is here, and it’s ready.’
Adnan Bhutta, a channel-savvy sales leader who has held vice president of sales positions in hybrid cloud, storage and data center at HPE and Dell Technologies, has taken a senior leadership position to help drive partner sales at highly regarded AI startup DevRev.
DevRev, which was founded by Nutanix co-founder Dheeraj Pandey and former Nutanix Senior Vice President of Engineering Manoj Agarwal, has developed a groundbreaking conversational AI “Computer” that unifies all of a company’s structured and unstructured data from spreadsheets to emails to customer records.
Bhutta said he could not be more excited about the opportunity ahead working with partners to drive the adoption of the DevRev Computer in the enterprise market.
“This is an opportunity for the channel to help customers embrace AI with the [DevRev] Computer as a teammate to drive better business outcomes and make businesses more efficient and productive as they adopt AI in the enterprise,” said Bhutta, a 24-year IT veteran who was most recently vice president of sales hybrid cloud software and AI managed ops at HPE.
The DevRev Computer, billed as the “only AI teammate with answers you can trust,” helps businesses in a wide variety of areas, from resolving support issues to assisting sales teams in closing deals.
Use Cases For DevRev Computer
Among the use cases for the DevRev Computer are service desk automation (“resolving IT tickets without human intervention”); customer support resolution (with a “proven AI-native customer service agent”); assisting support teams (connecting all “current tickets, past resolutions and your entire knowledge base”); Sales teammate (summarizing pipeline and upating CRM); and Operations teammate (updating project status and tracking progress).
DevRev has a channel program that includes referral or resale partner (the “dealmaker”); technology partner (the “master builder”); and implementation partner (the “rollout hero”).
Bhutta said building the DevRev channel is a “high priority” for the AI startup. “The channel is looking for a company that has an AI solution that enterprises can adopt and use to drive productivity,” he said. “The product is here, and it’s ready. We believe it is an exciting time to work with the channel to drive scale.”
Bhutta, an 11-year Dell veteran who was vice president and general manager of Dell data center sales in EMEA before joining HPE in September 2021, said building enterprise AI solutions is a “huge” opportunity for partners.
“AI is changing the way we work and driving better outcomes for customers,” he said. “It’s making businesses more efficient and productive. The technology is here, the AI revolution is happening, and customers need channel partners and product companies that are going to help them embrace this journey and be with them as they embrace this transition. We are very excited to work with the channel and be one of the pioneers that will help them and their customers be successful by driving solutions, value and productivity. We are bringing AI as a real use case using the DevRev Computer as a teammate.”
A Strong Technology And Channel Track Record
Bhutta said the strong technology and channel track record of Nutanix veterans Pandey and Agarwal was a big factor in joining the company. “Dheeraj and Manoj have a track record of building successful enterprise companies, driving value to the channel and customers,” he said. “We intend to build on that.”
Bhutta this week thanked HPE in a LinkedIn post announcing his new chapter. “What a great run,” wrote Bhutta. “I learned so much and grew in ways I couldn’t have imagined. A special thank you to [HPE North America Managing Director] Paul Hunter and [Senior Vice President, Worldwide Hybrid Cloud Sales] Gilles Thiebaut for their mentorship and for giving me the opportunity to thrive.
To my colleagues at HPE—thank you for the collaboration, the laughs, and the shared wins. Wishing you all nothing but the best.
To my customers and partners—thank you for your trust and collaboration. Those relationships meant everything.”
C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Independence, Ohio-based Advizex, a Myriad360 company, said he is looking forward to reconnecting with Bhutta, who he called a “passionate channel leader” who worked closely with partners to close deals.
“Adnan is a strong channel advocate,” said Howdyshell. “He was a strong, active and visible presence in the channel, helping Advizex close deals. He made channel commitments and followed through with us. When senior leadership makes a sales commitment like he did, it makes a big difference to partners.”
Howdyshell said he is looking forward to learning more from Bhutta about the DevRev channel opportunity. “This looks like something that could fit into our Advizex AI road map,” he said. “Congratulations to Adnan on the new opportunity.”
