Bold Journeys Podcast

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Bold Journeys Podcast episodes

March 30, 2022 Andrew Habgood: How to Develop an APAC Partner Ecosystem – CJ86
Andrew Habgood, VP of APAC Partner Ecosystems at Red Hat, shares how he's building a modern partner ecosystem across the Asia Pacific region.
42 min
March 16, 2022John Guido: Turning Partners into Ecosystem Orchestrators
Vendors, customers, and partners need an easier way to find the skills needed to implement and integrate multi-vendor solutions. That requires a next generation open ecosystem where all players can see and find each other. John Guido, founder and CEO of P2P Global, shares how partners are becoming ecosystem orchestrators and leveraging a P2P marketplace to find and team with other trusted partners with complimentary skills and resources.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are some key takeaways on fostering open ecosystems and turning partners into ecosystem orchestrators:
Having and leveraging an open partner ecosystem creates a competitive advantage, especially during a skills shortage. And it helps partners achieve higher growth and valuation.
Customers want and need partners who don’t all look the same, who don’t all represent the same vendors, who have complimentary skills and competencies. But they don’t want to do all the work finding them.
The more complex the total solution, the greater need there is for a diversity of skills, and a higher reward in value, revenue, and margins.
The old way of partners trying to find complimentary partners through their vendor or distributor isn’t working. Picking up the phone and calling their favorite guys that have service capability, waiting for a return phone call, and then getting them to say yes or no, and calling the next one just takes too much time.
P2P Global offers an open marketplace where partners can self-serve to find complimentary partners and be their own ecosystem orchestrators. Likewise, vendors and even distributors can use the platform to send out leads and find service delivery talent.
LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow John on LinkedIn
Learn more about the Arrow/P2P Partnership
Read Why You Should Leverage an Open Ecosystem
Learn more about Allbound
The post John Guido: Turning Partners into Ecosystem Orchestrators first appeared on Channel Journeys.
37 min
March 15, 2022 John Guido: Partners are the New Ecosystem Orchestrators – CJ85
Vendors, customers, and partners need an easier way to find the skills needed to implement and integrate multi-vendor solutions. John Guido, founder and CEO of P2P Global, shares how partners are becoming ecosystem orchestrators and leveraging the P2P marketplace to team with other trusted partners.
37 min
March 02, 2022Carolyn April: 2022 IT Channel Trends You Need to Know
CompTIA is a non-profit trade association that provides IT channel education, training, and certifications. They also provide valuable market research on the IT industry and channel, which is where today’s guest, Carolyn April, comes in. Carolyn is the Senior Director of Industry Analysis. Each year she works on the IT Industry Trends Report, based on surveys of both IT customers and partners. This year’s report reflects strong optimism in the IT channel with some important findings for channel chiefs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
CompTIA’s 2022 IT Industry Trends report includes 10 key trends to watch. Here are 3 IT Channel Trends Carolyn shared that you should be considering for your partner strategy in 2022 and beyond:
Channel Cybersecurity still has a way to go. MSPs have been shifting their business to security, becoming MSSPs. Yet, cybersecurity is a discipline that is table stakes for all types of channel partners, not just MSPs. It’s not a nice to have, but a need to have, for many customers. And many partners are still lagging on their cybersecurity practices. You can’t go to a customer to talk about your primary line of business and not have a security discussion that goes along with it.

Consulting is today’s channel opportunity. Customer experience is now seen as the top competitive differentiator, creating a greater need for partner-delivered services. That means that partners, who may be feeling removed from the transaction, need to insert themselves more before the transaction as technology experts and after the transaction as consultants. And it means vendors need to rethink their partner programs, incentives, training and development programs.

Partner Marketing is more important than ever. The channel has been notorious about not being good at marketing, but now partner investment in marketing is increasing. Partners realize they can now longer brand themselves based on the vendor they represent. They must make a name for themselves around customer experience and the business outcomes they are driving. That means vendors need to think beyond just throwing MDF at partners and help partners learn how to be innovative and creative with their own marketing.
LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Carolyn on LinkedIn
Get a copy of the CompTIA 2022 IT Industry Trends report
Save the date for CompTIA ChannelCon 2022
Listen to Jay McBain’s 10 Channel Predictions For 2022
Learn more about Allbound
The post Carolyn April: 2022 IT Channel Trends You Need to Know first appeared on Channel Journeys.
44 min
March 01, 2022 Carolyn April: 2022 IT Channel Trends You Need to Know – CJ84
Carolyn April, Senior Director, Industry Analysis at CompTIA, discusses the top IT channel trends channel pros should know from CompTIAs 2022 IT Industry Outlook Report.
44 min
February 17, 2022Tim Mackie: How to Build an Ecosystem Partner Program
For SaaS vendors building a stream of annual recurring revenue (ARR) with low churn, partner experience and partner success are increasingly more important than partner transactions. And a diverse, modern partner ecosystem is more important than just attracting resellers with shiny tiers of higher discounts. My guest today is Tim Mackie, VP of Worldwide Channels at Armis, a unified asset management, discovery and security company. Tim shares how their new APEX Partner Experience Program attracts, motivates and supports a modern partner ecosystem.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Tim set out to build a world class partner program that encompassed all of the different types of partners, and all the disparate ways they go to market, and tie them all together. Here are 5 things you need to do:
Build a program aligned to the sales motions, how partners are going to market. For Armis, there are four partner motions:
Sell – for partners that want to resell
Manage – for partners that want to provide managed services
Service – for partners that want to do service delivery
Build – for partners who want to integrate your technology with theirs

Rather than defining partners by partner type, allow and enable partners to go to market however they want, in one motion or a combination of motions.

If you want to reward more productive partners, you can still implement tiers. But the metrics for the tiers should align with and vary by sales motion. For example, sales tiers can be based on revenue or on an early indicator like deal registrations. Services tiers can be based on certifications and successful projects.

Have one main partner contract with all the terms and conditions, then add addendums for each motion the partner wants to use in their go-to-market strategy.

Support your partners with a incremental training programs for sales and services. Don’t expect them to spend the time to be experts out of the gate. Let partners start at 101 level, then advance to 201 and 301.
LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Tim on LinkedIn
Learn about the Armis APEX Partner Program
Listen to Sandra Glaser Cheek: Why It’s Time For A Modern Partner Program
Learn more about Allbound
The post Tim Mackie: How to Build an Ecosystem Partner Program first appeared on Channel Journeys.
42 min
February 16, 2022 Tim Mackie: How to Build a Ecosystem Partner Program – CJ83
Tim Mackie, VP of Worldwide Channels at Armis, shares how their new APEX Partner Experience Program supports a modern partner ecosystem.
42 min
February 03, 2022Karl Fahrbach: The Power of Partner Innovation
When you’ve got a horizontal platform, how do you provide customers with solutions tailored to their business? When you’re a partner looking to drive up your valuation, what do you do? Put these two needs together and the answer is partner IP (Intellectual Property). Karl Fahrbach, Chief Partner Officer at SAP, explains how SAP is making a big bet on partner innovation, helping partners build, market, and deliver IP tailored to their customers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are the top things I learned from Karl about partner innovation:
Prior to the acceleration of the Cloud due to Covid, a VAR was a VAR, an SI was an SI, an ISV was an ISV. Now those partner type lines are blurring. Partners have adopted new models. And the topic of IP, the topic of innovation is something we see in every partner type.

Partners are moving away from pure resell models to revenue sharing; sharing with the vendor and sharing with other partners.

We need to remove the barriers to partners developing IP. You can do that by making it easy for partners to access test and demo licenses, improve your technology platform to make it more partner friendly, provide partner coaching, and go-to-market assistance.

Offer a marketplace where partners can publish the IP they created and help customers find that IP. Don’t just publish, but also have a way of endorsing the partners’ solutions. For top partner solutions, put it on your price list and allow your own sellers to sell it.

Vendors can’t, and shouldn’t try, to develop everything on their own. Partern IP can be about extending the functionality of your offering, an add-on, or a specific verticalized solution.
LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Karl on LinkedIn
Learn about SAP’s Partner Co-Innovation Program
Read about the LACE model and Customer Success
Listen to Avanish Sahai: The 5 Myths Of Application Platforms
Learn more about Allbound
The post Karl Fahrbach: The Power of Partner Innovation first appeared on Channel Journeys.
40 min
February 02, 2022 Karl Fahrbach: The Power of Partner Innovation – CJ82
Karl Fahrbach, Chief Partner Officer at SAP, explains how SAP is making a big bet on partner innovation by helping partners build, market, and deliver IP tailored to their customers.
40 min
January 19, 2022Dwayne Owens: Driving Success Through NSPs
With all the talk around the modern partner ecosystem, we may mistakenly neglect an entire segment of the channel traditionally known as the Direct National Resellers, or DMRs. These national sales giants, like CDW, SHI, and Insight, have transformed their business models to look much more like sophisticated solution providers than box resellers. And now they prefer to be known as National Solution Providers, or NSPs.
In this episode, channel professional Dwayne Owens shares what he’s learned through years of experience driving channel success through National Solution Providers. Learn why they should be an integral component of your SaaS channel strategy and how to achieve success.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are 10 things you should now about the NSPs and how to be successful with these partners:
The services play within the NSP community is at an all time high, and not with just simple solutions. Through acquisitions and organic growth, NSPs are implementing complex solutions.

NSPs have huge national customer bases and are often the prefered provider for organizations looking to purchase all of the parts of an overall solution from a single source.

You have to go into the NSP with respect. Treating an NSP as a partner not capable selling your solution or not being able to do the services work around your offering will be a self-fullfiling prophecy.

Even if an NSP doesn’t have the skills to do all the services work, they can resell your services and/or partner with your services partners who have the skills needed for customer success.

Success with an NSP takes Simplicity, Profitability, and Scalability. Make it simple to work with you and to sell your solution. Have a sales message that’s easy to understand. As Dwayne says, have the Easy Button. Provide a strong value proposition with sales margins and services opportunities. And provide the sales and services enablement, along with technical support, for the NSP to scale your business.

Make your sales training easy to digest. Insted of one big 4 hour certification course, break it down into five or six 45 minute digestible modules.

Supporting an NSP requires a team approach, with folks on your team who can support sales, others who can support the SEs, and don’t forget someone to support marketing and product management. Be ready to interact and support product managers in different business segments and verticals.

Don’t just pay to play. Invest to win by having set business goals and an ROI target for your investments. Connect your marketing strategy to the NSPs marketing strategy.

Don’t put your B Team to cover the NSPs unless you want B Team results. Have an A Team with an A Team leader drive all the success that’s possible with NSPs.

With all of their relationships in companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, including state, local, and federal government agencies, and economies of scale, neglecting the NSPs is a huge mistake.
LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Dwayne on LinkedIn
Learn more about Allbound
The post Dwayne Owens: Driving Success Through NSPs first appeared on Channel Journeys.
49 min