Changing Channels

Mary Beth Walker joins Channelnomics’ Changing Channels host Larry Walsh to discuss how HP’s new Amplify program is leveraging data shared by partners to improve channel sales and productivity.

As many say, data in the digital age is the fuel of business. By gathering, organizing, and analyzing data, businesses of all sizes – from large enterprises to small Main Street shops – are making more informed decisions and improving their operations and productivity. Although the technology industry has pushed the concept of “Big Data” for years, the application of data and analytics in the channel is sparse. In the crafting of Amplify, its new channel program, HP made data collaboration with its partners a cornerstone. HP is acting as a refinery of partner-supplied data. Partners will get detailed intelligence to target sales, manage inventories, and anticipate customer needs. Data collaboration is part of an evolving effort by HP to help make its channel partners smarter, more effective, and profitable. One of the architects of this initiative is Mary Beth Walker, the head of global channel strategy at HP. She joins Changing Channels to discuss the imperative of data collaboration between vendors and partners, and how data-driven operations will transform partner relationships in the coming years.

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Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production

Follow the new @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, best practices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics – the voice of thought leadership – we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.

Episode Resources:

Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa

Larry’s Blog: http://bit.ly/3rZ1WtT

Guest Mary Beth Walker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-beth-walker-a276b2184/

2021 Channel Forecast and 2021 Channel Chief Outlook: Discover what your channel peers and partners are doing in 2021 and beyond. Get your copy of both reports for insights that inform your strategy

Frank Rauch joins Channelnomics’ Changing Channels host Larry Walsh to discuss best practices for gaining top-down support from corporate executive leadership for channel strategies and programs. 

Executives from the CEO to sales leadership at technology companies often talk about the value of their channel partners in their success equation. Many corporate executives say that they couldn’t achieve their goals without channel partners’ contributions. In reality, faith in the channel is elusive. According to Channelnomics’ annual Channel Chief Outlook report, one in five channel chiefs is under high pressure to demonstrate the value of channel programs. Most channel professionals say they’re challenged in proving to their company’s leadership that the channel has value. Seasoned channel chiefs say a critical factor in operating a productive channel program is having the support of the C-suite. Frank Rauch, head of worldwide channel sales at Check Point Software Technologies, has made gaining executive support a hallmark of his career. At Check Point, and at HP and VMware, Rauch used strategic alignment, key performance indicators, personal relationships, and demonstrable results to prove the value of the channel and earn executive support. Rauch’s tips are relevant to every current and aspiring channel chief.

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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics

Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production

Follow the new @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, best practices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics – the voice of thought leadership – we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.

Episode Resources:

Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa

Larry’s Blog: http://bit.ly/3rZ1WtT

Guest Frank Rauch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankrauch/

2021 Channel Forecast and 2021 Channel Chief Outlook: Discover what your channel peers and partners are doing in 2021 and beyond. Get your copy of both reports for insights that inform your strategy development, guide your decision-making, and help you benchmark performance: https://channelnomics.com/library/.

Credits:

Production: Changing Channels is produced by Modern Podcasting. For virtual content capture and video-first podcasts, check out http://www.modpodstudio.com.

Host: Larry Walsh https://bit.ly/3beZfOa

Voice-Over: Denise Quan

In this episode of Channelnomics’ Changing Channels, Chad Cardenas of TSG joins host Larry Walsh to discuss his model for getting partners to put skin in the game with start-up technology companies through investments and channel commitments.

The lore of Silicon Valley was written with venture capital money. The start-up engine that brought iconic brands such as Google, Palo Alto Networks, and CrowdStrike to critical success made scores of millionaires and billionaires. In the process of their development, tech start-ups provide innovative products and services that feed the channel with new opportunities.

Chad Cardenas, a tech industry veteran who worked in sales and channels at NetApp and co-founded the successful systems integrator Trace3, has a career that follows a seam of finding and capitalizing on innovation. He’s always looking for ways to challenge the status quo. His latest venture, The Syndicate Group, looked beyond technology innovation to rethink the way start-ups get funding and find success. TSG, as it’s known, works with solution providers and channel partners to pool money for investment in innovative technology start-ups. The model gives TSG investors a way to reduce their risk and increase their potential returns by supporting the start-ups in the channel. Cardenas and his team of channel and tech industry veterans are on the leading edge of reshaping the equity equation between vendors and partners, rewriting the value chain to market so that partners have skin in the game.

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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmv4IY_w4x_AqvH-g4EDz6w

Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production

Follow the new @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, best practices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics – the voice of thought leadership – we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.

Episode Resources:

Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa

Larry’s Blog: http://bit.ly/3rZ1WtT

Guest Chad Cardenas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-cardenas/

Chad’s Blog: https://syndicategroup.com/blog/

2021 Channel Forecast and 2021 Channel Chief Outlook: Discover what your channel peers and partners are doing in 2021 and beyond. Get your copy of both reports for insights that inform your strategy development, guide your decision-making, and help you benchmark performance.

Credits:

Host: Larry Walsh https://bit.ly/3beZfOa

Production: Changing Channels is produced by Modern Podcasting. For virtual content capture and video-first podcasts, check out www.modpodstudio.com.

Executive Producer: Laila Kaiser: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laila-kaiser

Voice-Over: Denise Quan

Channel Chief Meaghan Sullivan of SAP joins host Larry Walsh to recount the marketing lessons learned during the pandemic and how those learnings will shape digital go-to-market strategies for years to come!

COVID-19 changed everything in the way vendors and partners generate demand, curate sales, and cultivate productive customer relationships. At the beginning of the pandemic, SAP’s Meaghan Sullivan was among the first to wonder openly what would become of sales pipelines and partner productivity if tried-and-true marketing techniques like live events were no longer available (at least for an extended period). As the global vice president of ecosystem marketing, Sullivan’s job is to ensure partners are enabled and supported with marketing to find customers and convert sales. To keep the sales engine humming - and SAP evolving - Sullivan turned to digital transformation. Over the past year, Sullivan and her team adapted to the pandemic conditions by rewriting customer journeys, rethinking customer experience and sales engagement, investing in digital marketing tools and techniques, and training partners to leverage social marketing and virtual collaboration platforms. The outcome is an ongoing evolution that allows SAP to rise to the challenge of operating in a virtual world, overcome obstacles, and leave legacy marketing and sales techniques behind.

Follow us, Like us, and Subscribe!

Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics

Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production

Follow the new @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, best practices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics – the voice of thought leadership – we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.

Episode Resources:

Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa

Larry’s Blog: http://bit.ly/3rZ1WtT

Guest Meaghan Sullivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meaghansullivan1/

2021 Channel Forecast and 2021 Channel Chief Outlook: Discover what your channel peers and partners are doing in 2021 and beyond. Get your copy of both reports for insights that inform your strategy development, guide your decision-making, and help you benchmark performance: https://channelnomics.com/library/.

Credits:

Production: Changing Channels is produced by Modern Podcasting. For virtual content capture and video-first podcasts, check out www.modpodstudio.com.

Host: Larry Walsh https://bit.ly/3beZfOa

Executive Producer: Laila Kaiser https://www.linkedin.com/in/laila-kaiser/

Voice-Over: Denise Quan

Technology is making the world move faster through analytics and automation. Businesses and individuals leverage the power of cloud computing and collaboration tools to interact without meeting face to face. In recent months, the value of these resources came to the fore as the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to shut down, send their staffs home, and initiate crash courses in socially separated working organizations. Even before the social unrest roiled the United States, business guru Tom Peters was thinking about the need for “Extreme Humanization,” in which businesses and people actively try to get closer through empathy and understanding. Peters argues that now, more than ever, we need humanization in our business world, communities, and politics. Peters, the author of several best-selling books, including “In Search of Excellence,” joins POD2112 to talk about the need for Extreme Humanization.

If we learned anything during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that cloud computing is the resilient resource it was always billed. Businesses leaned heavily on cloud-based resources and services to maintain operations as their staff shifted to work from home postures. At the same time, businesses – particularly SMBs – leaned on managed service providers to help them adopt, setup, and support their cloud services. The underlying challenge of cloud computing is setting up various services and understanding the total cost of ownership. A company helping MSPs simplify their path to the cloud is Nerdio. The company’s chief revenue officer, Joseph Landes, joins Pod2112 to discuss getting more MSPs into cloud services.

Over the past several years, vendors and solution providers have come under pressure to change their sales strategies and processes to meet evolving customer expectations. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn are forcing a crash transformation as sales teams find themselves disconnected from partners and customers absent the usual communication venues such as events and face-to-face meetings. The COVID-19 crisis is compelling vendors and solution providers to rethink sales in the short and long term. The pandemic will change the way businesses and consumers buy, their expectations for sales and post-sales support, and how they measure value in the supplier-customer relationship. Tiffani Bova, global customer growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce, former channel chief and Gartner channel analyst, and best-selling author of the book Growth IQ, joins POD2112 to talk about the changing nature of sales and growth during and after COVID-19.

No business is immune to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite having long-term and recurring contracts, managed service providers (MSPs) are feeling the pinch of the downturn as customers curtail or shut down operations. Many MSPs are reporting customers canceling contracts, downgrading services, or simply not paying. Fred Voccola, CEO of managed services tools provider Kaseya, says MSPs are resilient to economic downturns, if not resistant to recessions. However, he caveats his point of view that the world is experiencing depression-like economic conditions that will adversely affect MSPs as much as their customers. It’s when the world improves to more “recession-like” conditions that MSPs will recover and thrive faster than most businesses. Voccola shares more of what he sees in the managed services segment and his long-term outlook for MSPs in this episode of Pod2112.

COVID-19 displaced tens of millions of office workers around the world. Overnight, companies went from cubicles teeming with activity to distributed workforces operating from makeshift desks, dining room tables, and couches. The displacement took many companies by surprise, forcing them to hastily equip their work-from-home employees or allow staff to use personal devices. The situation created a security nightmare by exposing businesses and corporate data to increased risk. Managed service providers (MSPs) are working around the clock to help their customers secure devices and data during social distancing. SolarWinds, a provider of IT automation and managed service software, is among the vendors supporting MSPs with resources to aid customers in this crisis. SolarWinds’ Tim Brown, vice president of security architecture, joins POD2112 to discuss the security implications of work-from-home and how MSPs are coping with this surge in demand for support.

Customer experience is the metric that an increasing number of technology companies are using to define success. Customers are less interested in ROI and technical features, and more interested in the sum of their experiences with technology and the outcome of their technology investments. SAP has been reorienting its go-to-market philosophy and strategy around becoming “customer centric” – putting the end user at the center of its endeavors, including its channel initiatives. In this time of massive disruption and economic uncertainty, customer-centricity is even more important in ensuring that vendors and partners don’t lose touch with their clients. Karl Fahrbach, chief partner officer at SAP, joins POD2112 to discuss the customer-centric model, how it applies to channels, and why it’s important even as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.