Ecosystem Aces

Citrix isn’t your grandpa's Citrix anymore. They’ve made a lot of transitions over the past several years and have made a major pivot toward employee engagement.  What they’re delivering today is all partner based solutions. Obviously, that means alliances are key to enabling the success of these pivots and strategic efforts.  On this episode of the Alliance Aces podcast, we had the chance to talk with Steve Blacklock, Vice President, Global Strategic Alliances at Citrix. He talked us through issues like, how alliances are helping to drive success for Citrix today, what metrics Steve and his team are focused on, and how they vet potential alliances.

Successful relationships are founded on give and take. You may be thinking that partnering with a non-profit organization is all give and no take.  Think again. GitLab’s Director of Technical Evangelist, Priyanka Sharma, fills us in on the benefits of partnering with a nonprofit in your industry. In this episode, we also cover open-source ecosystems, measuring alliance success, telling a meaningful story, and more.

In this episode of the Alliance Aces podcast we look at the exciting career of an industry icon, Mike Thomas.  Mike is the GM of Ecosystem Practice at ActiveWorld, a company that has transformed the ecosystem and alliance processes for tech companies. On this exciting episode we hear from an industry veteran who has worked with companies such as IBM, MIcrosoft, Cisco, and many other tech giants.  As he’s helped titans of tech create fulfilling partnerships, he’s also created a fulfilling vision with his company that will continue to create lasting change in the industry for years to come.

Are your strategic alliances turning stale? Oftentimes, we end up putting in more work to obtain strategic partnerships than we do to maintain them. It can be difficult to find the value we saw in them at first. Luckily, Airship’s Senior Director of Global Alliances, Forest Yule, recently discussed some key methods to cultivating more value from your partnerships. Listen here.

The IoT world expands exponentially almost daily. Companies are rapidly innovating and combining their technologies together to deliver on increasing customer expectations. So, how can IoT companies optimize their entire ecosystem to deliver joint solutions? We asked Bill Johnson this very question at IoT World 2019 on our #AllianceAces podcast. Bill is the Marketing Director at Teledyne LeCroy, and we asked him about how their partnering with amazing companies (like BMW!) to deliver powerful IoT solutions.

Alliance opportunities abound. Finding them can be tricky.  On this episode of the #AllianceAces podcast, Gary Bernier joined us to share several ways to find and succeed with alliance opportunities. In this episode, we discuss: Where to find alliance opportunities The necessary ingredients for alliance success How to use coopetition to your advantage

If you’re fortunate enough to be with a company that values alliances, the next task is to expand your ecosystem. It can be challenging to find the right partners, onboard them, and ensure the quality of the product and support is maintained across the delivery chain. Andrew Lezon met that challenge (and succeeded). He’s the Senior Director of Channel Sales & Partner Programs at LivePerson. He came on our #AllianceAces podcast to share how he scaled his ecosystem from 40 to 200 partners.

Why should you trust WorkSpan with your partnerships and alliances? That’s a great question. We don’t have 1 reason for you. We have 5. For this episode of the #AllianceAces podcast, Chip and Guarav did a special Facebook Live interview from SAPPHIRE in Orlando, Florida. They talked about transparency, the success of the entire ecosystem, how value differs from company to company, driving results, and sharing a single view of metrics. Gaurav Saini is VP of Network Success at WorkSpan. Chip Rogers is VP of Marketing and Alliances at WorkSpan, and host of the #AllianceAces podcast.

Any business wants to have good solid partnerships. Nobody gets successful all on their own, and establishing a good partner program is crucial to the success of any company, particularly in the software and technology field. But how do you go about building a partner program? How do you bring the right people along, provide the right levels of support, and structure your program in a way that’s beneficial for everyone involved? Matt Alvarez, Manager of Partner Alliances at SalesLoft, was recently a guest on the Alliance Aces podcast, and had some great ideas and examples that he and his team at SalesLoft have been focusing on as they build out their partner program.

If you’re wanting fast insights into the future of alliances, this is the #Alliance Aces episode for you. We interviewed Chris Webber, a true Alliance Ace. He’s the current Director of Strategic Alliances at IDC. PReviously, he worked with Cisco and Nortel to manage global business plans and alliances. On this episode, he discussing the emerging trends of alliances, including the growing necessity of trust due to cloud implementation, the need for differentiation even with ecosystems, and the power off generalization.