Ultimate Partner®

For the 97th episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering, I welcomed Nikki Harley, Director of Strategic Alliance at SADA, a global leader in business and technology consulting services, and a Google Cloud Premier Partner. In this episode, Nikki and I discuss the focused growth investments by Google Premier Partner, SADA, pioneering its own Alliance Program.

In her role, Nikki oversees technology partnerships across North America and is responsible for steering strategic initiatives that advance enterprise transformation through innovative cloud-based solutions. Prior to joining SADA, Nikki led channel partnerships and technology alliances for a B2B SaaS company, focused on document management and business processes in the cloud. 

I was excited to have Nikki as a guest as I worked very closely with SADA while at Microsoft and recognize their leadership as a partner that "got it right" working with tech giants like Microsoft and Google. SADA has become a preeminent partner and trailblazer in the Google Ecosystem and recently focused on growth through investment in its own Alliances Program to drive increased client value and market differentiation.

In this episode, you'll learn more about SADA as a top Google partner, how Nikki's team is building out its own Alliances and Partner Strategy, why Saas Companies and ISV's choose Google, Nikki's Personal and Professional Journey thus far, and why SADA is a great place to work.

Please join me in welcoming Nikki Harley to Ultimate Guide to Partnering.

Other Episodes with Google and SADA:

* 64 – TWENTY YEARS, LEADERSHIP IN BIG AND MEANINGFUL WAYS, WITH TONY SAFOIAN

* 20 - GOOGLE CLOUD’S CHANNEL PARTNER VALUE, WITH ERIC ROSENKRANZ.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Nikki Harley on Linked In.

* Learn more about SADA

* Partnering with SADA

* Crossbeam's '21 State of the Partner Ecosystem Report (refer to page 13).

* About Enneagram's

* About Vince Menzione

* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, 

For the 96th episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering, I welcomed Dr. Julia Glidden, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector, for Microsoft Corporation, where she is helping to deliver on Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. In this episode, Julia shares how to lead mission-focused, outcome-oriented solutions, delivered by partners.

Dr. Julia Glidden is an internationally recognized expert on Digital Government, specializing in identifying and piloting emerging technologies such as AI, Cloud, and Blockchain in the GovTech space. Julia pioneered the concept of Cognitive Government and has delivered many of Europe's leading innovation projects. She is currently serving as an expert advisor to the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the European Commission. In addition to being named in Apolitical's inaugural list of the Top 100 most influential people in digital government, Julia was recognized as one of the Top 40 GovTech Influencers in the 2019 e-Governance Global Industry Landscape Overview

I was excited to have Julia as a guest as I worked very closely with her predecessors while at Microsoft. It was great to get her perspective and point of view on the business and how it has evolved, including a renewed emphasis on partners to drive mission-focused, outcome-oriented solutions.

In this episode, you'll learn more about the mission of her organization and the broad reach they have driving transformation and innovation in government, defense and public safety, education and so much more. We also have a really insightful discussion regarding her personal and professional journey and how she dealt with and learned to overcome a form of dyslexia.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Julia Glidden to Ultimate Guide to Partnering.

Recent Episodes with Public Sector Industry Thought Leaders:

* 93 – TRANSFORMATION, CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE US EDUCATION SECTOR

* 80 – AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP, FOCUS, AND GRIT TO LIGHT UP GREAT FIELD PARTNERSHIPS

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Julia Glidden on Linked In and Twitter.

* Partnering with Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector

* Cloud Computing for Government | Microsoft Industry

* Microsoft Government (@Microsoft_Gov) / Twitter

* About Vince Menzione

* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, 

I was delighted to welcome a friend and fellow channel leader for the 95th episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. Marc Monday is Citrix Global Partner Go to Market Program Leader. In this episode, Marc and I catch up on a discussion we have both been having about the current state of the channel and partner business and issues that continue to plague channel chiefs. In this episode, Marc sees three areas where channel leaders can have the most impact; be known, for one thing, embrace digital marketing and change the conversation.

Marc Monday is currently Managing Director at Citrix, leading the Global Partner Go-To-Market & Ecosystem Strategy.  Marc is a recognized channel innovator and has been named to the CRN Channel Chiefs Annual 5 consecutive years.  An active member of the ChannelFocus Community and former advisory board member of CompTIA, in 2017 Channelnomics awarded Marc and his team at SAP with the Cloud Program of the Year Award. 

In this buoyant and provocative conversation, Marc and I discuss Citrix and their value to partners, the state of the channel, what we have both seen since the transformation, lessons he's learned, and advice for Channel Chiefs and all of our listeners on optimizing for success this year.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed my time with Marc Monday!

More Episodes on 2021 Channel Trends from Industry Thought Leaders:

* 85 – OPTIMIZE FOR SUCCESS 2021 – FIND AND EMBRACE THE ECOSYSTEM DELIGHTING YOUR CUSTOMER* 87 – EMBRACE REALLY IMPORTANT CHANGE HAPPENING IN THE WORLD OF PARTNERS* 91 – IMPORTANCE OF AGILITY TO PARTNER SUCCESS AND OPTIMIZATION IN 2021.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Marc Monday on Linked In.* Marc's Blog* The 6 Traits That Make an Effective Chief Channel Officer * Brene Brown - The Power of Vulnerability Ted Talk. * Dr. Michael Gervais Interview referenced - First Principles. * Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates | Official Trailer | Netflix.* About Vince Menzione* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher,

Welcome to the 94th episode of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. It was a pleasure to welcome to the podcast Microsoft's Vice President for Partner Development, Carlos De Torres. Carlos's organization is responsible for ISV's Industry and Private Equity for the US Business. With a servant leaders mindset for partner growth, Carlos asks partners, "where can I help?"

As the Vice President, US for ISV, Industry and Private Equity within Microsoft, Carlos' US Partner Development Team is charged with driving growth with ISVs (Integrated Software Vendors), Industry verticals (i.e. Financial Services, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Retail and Public Sector) and Private Equity Partnerships. He is responsible for a multi-billion dollar business, accelerating Microsoft Partners transformation to the Cloud, building the Industry Partner capacity & capability, and driving strong Partner preference on Microsoft’s platform.  

Carlos is fairly new to his role and it was refreshing to spend time to get his perspective and point of view on how he hopes to further serve this critical group of partners and organizations. In this episode, we discuss his business priorities, his view of his role, and how he is applying a servant leader lens to how he supports his partners. The importance of partner to partner as a vehicle to success for partners and how the transformation has changed how we work.

I particularly enjoyed my time with Carlos and hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I enjoyed getting to know Carlos De Torres.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Carlos De Torres Gimeno on Linked In.* The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership. James C Hunter.* About Vince Menzione* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher, Player FM, almost anywhere you get your podcasts!* Follow or reach Vince – Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.* Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook * Drop me a line – 

Welcome to the 93rd episode of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I was delighted to welcome to the podcast a former colleague Jamie Harper, Microsoft's Vice President for the US Education business, to discuss Transformation, Challenges, and Opportunities in the US Education Sector.

I had the chance to work with Jamie while we were both leaders in Microsoft's US Public Sector business and again while supporting top partners in my business. Jamie runs a large, diverse, and complex business representing roughly 50% of Microsoft's Worldwide Education revenue.

I was excited to feature Jamie on this First Anniversary of the Covid Shutdown to share his insights on the transformation, challenges, and opportunities in the Education sector. I also want partners to understand the immense possibility of working with Microsoft in the US Education Market.

MICROSOFT'S US EDUCATION BUSINESS 

In this episode, Jamie and I discuss the US Education business, its complexities, and the wide range of priorities across students, teachers, and the business of schools. We also discuss his observations since the pandemic. You will learn:

* The big remit across K12, Higher Education, and Libraries includes Academic Medical Centers and various government entities. Microsoft aligns organizational goals, including student success and graduation rates.* A dedicated engineering team focuses on education solutions, features, and capabilities specific to the market. An example is making Microsoft Teams more useful to Education.* Partners shouldn't focus strictly on Account Sellers in the US Education business; many additional resources overlay and support core Microsoft Solution Areas and Customer Success.

MICROSOFT RISING TO THE CHALLENGE 

* Microsoft rose to the challenge of Covid, helping institutions shift and pivot multiple times, leaning into remote learning, remote work, remote healthcare. Front-line workers - teachers, administrators, healthcare workers - did a fantastic job, rising to the challenges. * Teachers needed to bootstrap and solve the divergence of access to keep the train on the tracks with learning. They also needed to solve for the delivery of additional services to students, such as student meals.* School layoffs call for increased productivity and reducing complexity to drive down costs and improve efficiencies.* The future state includes solving student success through personalized learning while addressing access as there remains a gap in accessibility to high-speed broadband, devices, and safe and productive environments in which to learn.

PARTNERSHIPS & MICROSOFT 

As a 20 year veteran of Microsoft, Jamie has been around successful partnering for some time and discusses the opportunities and how partners can showcase their work. Both Jamie and I agree on these areas for partner focus.

* Go-to-market: Educators share success stories, ensure you showcase how your solution is helping to solve a particular set of outcomes. Promote your relevant success so customers can see the value of your offers.* Technical: It's essential to stay close as Microsoft builds new capabilities to solve education challenges.* Microsoft: Develop a deep understanding of the operating model, business goals, and how each team aligns and measures against priorities and goals. Resources like Ultimate Partnerships can help here.* Relationships: Build wide and deep, instead of relying solely on the people assigned to partner development.  

LEADERSHIP, MINDFULNESS & CAREER 

Mindfulness plays such a critical role in individuals and organizations' success,

For this podcast episode, I was excited to welcome a friend and former colleague, Aletha Noonan, the Senior Vice President of Product and Partner Management at CDW. In this partner spotlight of CDW, Aletha shares her focus to solve for customers and do the right thing.

Aletha is responsible for managing CDW's relationship with its community of industry-leading technology partners. Also, she directs the day-to-day operations of CDW's procurement team, keeping a broad selection of technology readily available to customers. She and her team orchestrate the integration of partner solutions into CDW's omnichannel sales organization.

I've known Aletha since we worked together at Microsoft. I invited her because I focus on helping partners team with organizations like CDW to scale better and deliver their solutions. I was also very interested in her career journey.

In this episode of the podcast, Aletha and I discuss:

* How to partner with CDW* Her view on the transformation and what we see at this time* As a successful woman of color, she shares her perspective on how she advanced her career to a senior role at a Fortune 500 company. * Advice for partners on how to optimize for success.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed my time with my friend, Aletha Noonan.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Aletha Noonan on Linked In, Twitter. * Contacting Aletha - [email protected]* More About CDW* Bryan Stevenson - Just Mercy.* Stephen Covey - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People* About Vince Menzione* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher, Player FM, almost anywhere you get your podcasts!* Follow or reach Vince – Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.* Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook * Drop me a line – [email protected].

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about 

For this episode of the podcast, I am pleased to welcome Anne McClelland, the Vice President of XaaS Channel Optimization Research for Technology & Services Industry Association or TSIA. In her role at TSIA, Anne works closely with member companies to deliver research and advisory services that help them achieve success and optimization for their partner channels and drive incremental revenue at scale for XaaS offerings.

I invited Anne because she focuses on the emerging XAAS (as a service) market and has a perspective valuable to this ecosystem, including the importance of Agility to Partner Success and Optimization in 2021.

Anne and I both came from Partner Leadership roles at Microsoft and she has over 25 years of experience focused on channel and partner transformation to deliver innovative go-to-market strategies and develop new models to drive incremental revenue and reach.

During her career as a global partner and channels executive, Anne has built new partner organizations from the ground up, driven revenue from new partner communities, and launched programs and tools to support these partner efforts. She has held leadership roles in a diverse set of companies including Blue Prism, Cisco, Red Hat, Microsoft, and IBM.

In this episode we discuss what she has seen since this past year, trends and research her company has created that will be of great value to our listeners, and where organizations need to focus to optimize success in 2021.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed my time with Anne McClelland.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Anne McClelland on Linked In, Twitter. * More About TSIA.* Access to Anne's work at TSIA - XAAS Channel Optimization. * About Vince Menzione* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher, Player FM, almost anywhere you get your podcasts!* Follow or reach Vince – Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.* Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook * Drop me a line – [email protected].

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about 

For this episode of the podcast, I am pleased to welcome Cassandra Gholston, the Co-Founder & CEO of PartnerTap. I've known Cassandra since the early days of PartnerTap, so it was great to have her as a guest to discuss the success of her company and a topic we are both passionate about, Partner Co-Selling. In this episode, Cassandra and I both agree that trust, commitment, and focus are critical factors to successful co-selling and partnerships.

As CEO, Cassandra is responsible for the strategic vision of PartnerTap. Before founding PartnerTap, Cassandra spent her career in sales as a top performer in SaaS companies. She obtained multiple President's Clubs and awards. She drives to make the jobs of channel and sales teams more lucrative through PartnerTap. Cassandra is passionate about giving back with a focus on charities around autism and youth.

I was an early fan of Cassandra and PartnerTap, so it was great to have this discussion on how technology has become a key enabler to the process of getting results. We both agree that overlook partnership first principles is often the kryptonite to successful partnering.

In this episode, Cassandra and I go deep on co-selling fundamentals for successful partnerships, how customers use her technology for success, her perspective and journey as a woman CEO in the tech sector, and trends she sees in the partner universe.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed my time with Cassandra Gholston.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Cassandra Gholston on Linked In, Twitter. * More About PartnerTap* Above the Line / Below the Line * About Vince Menzione* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher, Player FM, almost anywhere you get your podcasts!* Follow or reach Vince - Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.* Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook * Drop me a line - [email protected].

As with each of my episodes,

For this episode of the podcast, I am pleased to welcome Phil Sorgen, the Chief Revenue Officer of Ring Central and a former Microsoft Corporate Vice President to Ultimate Guide to Partnering. In this episode, we discuss the Transformation, RingCentral's Capabilities, and Partners.

As RingCentral’s Chief Revenue Officer, Phil Sorgen leads global sales including all direct, service provider, channel, and strategic partners.

Sorgen is a 30-year industry veteran and spent the last 20+ years at Microsoft in a variety of leadership roles and that's how I met him. Prior to joining RingCentral, Sorgen was responsible for Microsoft’s US Enterprise Commercial Group, an organization responsible for helping the company’s largest commercial customers in the US navigate digital transformation. In this role, Sorgen led US enterprise sales and customer success teams including national, industry, and technical teams.

Prior to that, Sorgen served as the Corporate Vice President of the Worldwide Partner Group and was responsible for setting the channel strategy for a broad network of diverse partner companies worldwide.

I've known Phil for many years and it was great to have him as a guest as partners have played a critical role throughout his career including his role as Microsoft's Channel Chief.

In this episode you'll learn more about RingCentral's capabilities and value, their role in the rapid transformation we are seeing since the pandemic, the role of partners in their business and why customers and partners chose Ring Central.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I enjoyed spending time with Phil Sorgen.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Phil Sorgen on Linked In, Twitter. * More About Ring Central* Join Ring Central's Partner Program* About Vince Menzione* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher, Player FM, almost anywhere you get your podcasts!* Follow or reach Vince - Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.* Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook * Drop me a line - [email protected].

For this episode of the podcast, I was delighted to welcome Alysa Taylor - Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for the Cloud Marketing Business Applications and Global Industry divisions at Microsoft. For 2021, Alysa advises us to keep listening, keep understanding, keep knowing where the world is going. She suggests agility and customer-centricity will be driving forces for partner success in 2021.

In her role at Microsoft, Alysa leads the product marketing teams responsible for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform (Power BI, Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Automate) as well as the global industry product marketing team.

Alysa's previously led the Cloud and Enterprise business marketing group in Microsoft’s U.S. subsidiary, where she was responsible for the U.S. business, marketing, and operations across the cloud, and the infrastructure portfolio of products, including Windows Server, Azure, System Center, SQL, and Visual Studio. Taylor came to Microsoft with a background in consulting and advertising account management and design.

It was great to have Alysa come share her career progression, the progress of her organization, and the innovation. I also had the chance to work with Alysa in the US Subsidiary and so it was great to catch up and learn more about her career journey.

​In this episode, Alysa and I discuss:

* The innovation, change and transformation coming from her organization.* How data, business processes, and industry are at the core of the transformation in Microsoft's approach. * Her recent announcements - Healthcare Cloud and Retail Cloud and what that means for partners. * Why partners are more important now than ever and why they need to drive with agility and customer-centricity. * Lessons for our listeners from her amazing career journey.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed spending time with Alysa Taylor.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Follow Alysa Taylor on Linked In, Twitter. * What is Dataverse? * Retail Cloud Announcment* Healthcare Cloud Announcment* About Vince Menzione* Subscribe and listen to this podcast on Apple,  Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher, Player FM,