Ecosystem Aces

Managing ecosystems and alliances comes with a lot of moving parts and a diverse set of talents and skills is required to make it work.   This is especially true when building the program from the ground up.   We invited Shubhra Sinha, principal at The Value Exponent, onto the #EcosystemsAces podcast, and she shared her expertise in building alliance programs from the ground up.    What we talked about:   - Why you need a strategic start.   - Why belief in the program is vital.   - Why long-term thinking is needed.   - How you measure success.   To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about alliances, he can be reached by:   Email: [email protected]   Twitter: @chiprodgers   LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chiprodgers

It’s a big world out there for the Microsoft Solution Provider (or MSP.)    There are dozens, if not hundreds of different solutions for every problem a customer might be facing, but one thing is for certain.    The cloud is here, and it’s not going anywhere.    Joseph Landes is the Chief Revenue Officer at Nerdio, and was a guest on the Ecosystem Aces podcast recently. He came on the show specifically to talk about:    - What he and his team are up to at Nerdio   - How they help onboard MSPs to Microsoft Azure   - The 3 biggest challenges that are most commonly faced by those MSPs when trying to migrate to a public cloud services like Azure.

In a global world, with a global staff, and a global product, it can be tough to keep yourself grounded in what matters to EACH partner, can’t it?    You can’t operate in a one-size-fits-all mentality when you’re operating a partner ecosystem across multiple countries, cultures, time-zones, and even continents.    This can be particularly challenging when you’re a cloud company. Because you don’t actually have a “product” in the traditional sense of the word.    So how do you operate in the partner ecosystem as a “cloud-only” company? We sat down recently with Micheal McCollough, who is the Global Vice President of Channels & Alliances at Akamai. He was kind enough to be a guest on the Ecosystem Aces podcast and talked all about how being a cloud company has impacted the way they interact with partners. leading partners in different regions of the world, and some of the things that have worked well for them as an organization.

Every company wants to grow. It doesn’t matter if you’re a mom and pop store, or a multi-billion dollar international organization.  At some point, every company wants to grow and get bigger. To serve more people. To bring in more revenue, hire more staff, and make a bigger impact on the world.  But for companies that have a large partner ecosystem, growth can present some unique challenges. A special set of headaches that, if you’re not careful, can drastically slow you down.  On this episode of the Ecosystem Aces podcast, we sat down with Cecilia Flombaum, who is the Worldwide Lead for Business Application Partners at Microsoft. We talked all about  Growing a partnership ecosystem at scale How partners are helping grow the business The biggest challenges they face in growing a partnership ecosystem And so much more.

How many partners are in your ecosystem?  Dozens? Hundreds? Maybe thousands? If you’re Microsoft, the answer to this simple question is in the hundreds of thousands. Upwards of 300,000 to be more precise.  As you can imagine, managing 300,000+ partnerships is no small task. There are a lot of things that have to go right. A lot of pieces that have to run perfectly in order to allow for an ecosystem of this magnitude to function.  That’s where Hannibal Scipio and his team come in. Hannibal manages business strategy for the global Partner to Partner team. He was a guest on the Ecosystem Aces podcast recently and talked all about  The challenges that his team faces.  What it takes to ensure a successful partnership.  The three step journey of the partnership.  And so much more.

Going from idea to app in just eight weeks sounds crazy, right? This seemingly insane timeframe is what Appian — an app development company — has built so many prolific partnerships on. Appian found what they do well and they can do it fast. Ultimately, their business model has produced numerous win/win/win situations for them, their partners, and the end customers. In this episode of Ecosystem Aces, I have the opportunity to sit down with Appian’s Commercial Partner Director (PwC), Ben Galego. Ben fills us in on:   How Appian offers partners such a quick turnaround His tips on managing a joint pipeline His #1 piece of advice for success in strategic alliances   To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about alliances, he can be reached by: Email: [email protected] Twitter: @chiprodgers LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chiprodgers

Alliance & partner managers: What if we managed our partnerships the way Amazon does? What if we created a buying, delivery, packaging, and customer success experience that was just as seamless as theirs? Perhaps easier said than done, but Justin Silvia is here to tell us his tips on building seamless customer experiences while managing complex partnerships. Justin Silvia is the Executive Director of the Strategic Partner Program at IBM. What we talked about: Ecosystems, alliances, and partnerships Trusting each other’s expertise Creating a unified experience for the customer Ensuring solutions provide value to every level of the customer’s organization Partner pricing Being an internal roadmap for your organization Alliance trust   To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about alliances, he can be reached by: Email: [email protected] Twitter: @chiprodgers LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chiprodgers

On this episode, David Herring joins us to share his 3 “Es” of success within alliances. David Herring is the Senior Channel Manager of Partner Programs at Spectrum Enterprise. What we talked about: Engage Enable Educate Connect with the strategic initiatives of the executive team You don’t have to always be a perfect fit To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about alliances, he can be reached by: Email: [email protected] Twitter: @chiprodgers LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chiprodgers

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Andrew Mackenzie, Global SI and Channel Program Leader at Pivotal.   He came on the Ecosystem Aces show to talk about Pivotal, their partners, and how they’re dedicated to “partnering differently.”   What we discuss:   A consumption-first go-to-market strategy A 3-week training program partners want to explore How Pivotal’s unique go-to-market strategy paid off How do you measure success within alliances Small boutique partners vs larger SI partners Rigid joint selling  Joint strategy adoption Potential disadvantage of a larger integrator Rapid adoption Flexible joint selling

Microsoft has built a lot of great alliances, but they’re not stopping there.   They’re constantly coming up with innovative ways to increase their engagement with them, their partners, and all products within the Microsoft ecosystem.   On this episode of the Ecosystem Aces podcast, Jeff Fritz, Senior Program Manager on the Microsoft .NET team, joined us to tell us all about it.   What we talked about: Meeting customers where they are Microsoft started hosting morning talk shows on Twitch ‘Code parties’ How Microsoft used a scavenger hunt to promote their partners