ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Partners play a key role
in ensuring a positive
customer experience
and we can shape
that by improving the
partner experience.
How have you been able to continue with enablement
during the last couple of months?
It’s been somewhat challenging as we usually try to have face-to-face
enablement sessions which obviously hasn’t been possible. But as
I already mentioned, we have a lot of online tools and I believe that
this period has provided an opportunity for our partners to take the
time to succeed in delivering the right value, through adding to the
messaging and services that they offer to their customers.
Despite the lack of cross border travel, we have helped our
partners in delivering solutions to their customers. By adding further
incentives to our partners during these tough times in the form of
rich discounts and deal registrations as well as awarding them for
online learning and certification has proven extremely valuable.
How would you describe your own management style?
In terms of managing the channel partners, I would say that flexibility
and transparency are key. As a global company, we obviously have
channel-based directives from the global HQ and EMEA teams, but
We are helping our
channel partners
with a way of
demonstrating
immediate cost
savings to their
customers.
what works for the US or European channel
may not necessarily work for the Middle East
and African channel.
It can sometimes be a challenge, but I
find that being flexible with our partners and
focusing on building and cementing strong
relationships based on patience, honesty and
trust is imperative and that has formed my
management style.
What are the latest trends that you
see emerging across the channel?
Aside from the continuing growth of Digital
Transformation and cloud adoption in the
region, I personally believe a key trend going
forward is going to be on channel enablement
– partner programmes and assisting the
channel more so they can be successful.
Building strong relationships with our
channel partners is incredibly important and I
believe that improving the partner experience
is just as important as the focus on customer
experience. As the majority of our business
goes through our partners, the channel is no
longer a resale and fulfilment function.
Partners play a key role in ensuring
a positive customer experience and we
can shape that by improving the partner
experience. Particularly with the economic
downturn in mind and considering many
of our partners facing financial struggles, I
think the smarter vendors will be focusing on
partner experience and partner programmes
to provide them more support and help
everyone through this difficult period. •
INTELLIGENT
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS TECH CHANNELS
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