Ecosystem Aces

The meaning of partnership has changed over the course of this year. Without trust, empathy, and the right perspective about a problem, we aren’t going to be able to cooperate, much less innovate to make a difference in the world. In this episode, I interview Parul Patel, Managing Director, Customer Love at Slalom, about partnership trends and wins this year. Parul talked with me about: Working wi...

Managing a global alliance program presents new sets of challenges.     You need enough structure to keep everything running smoothly while still offering partners enough flexibility to accommodate their unique needs.      To succeed, your operating model needs to be “globally defined, regionally aligned.”      In fact, that’s the mantra at ServiceNow, where our latest guest, Dan Gallivan, is Vice...

Your ability to build solutions together with partners determines your ability to deliver on customer success.      Because a healthy ecosystem with win-win partnerships drives value to customers, as well as your business.     In this episode, Abhay Kumar, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development and Ecosystem at SAP, explains SAP’s approach to a holistic ecosystem.      Abhay also expla...

When you want to test the health of your ecosystem…      You need to look at more than sales.     In this episode, PJ Bishop, Vice President of Partners, Accountants and Alliances: Africa and Middle East at Sage, explains why Sage is reengineering the entire way they measure ecosystem success.     PJ explains:     - How to reengineer a partner program to prioritize more than sales     - How Sage i...

How do your partners measure up?     Whether you’re measuring every one or just your largest…      The more of the data you can share with your partners, the more successful they will be.      It’s something Meg Brennan learned as Sr Director of Global Channel Operations at Riverbed Technology, where the dashboards she shared drove successful behavior for partners.      In this episode, we discuss...

The ecosystem has changed a lot over the past 30 years.      The democratization of technology has allowed for IP creation at scale and demands continuous enablement.     It’s all about bringing the right solutions to the customers and innovating with partners.      In this episode, I’m speaking with someone who has been a vital part of that change: Rob Sparno, Head of Strategic Alliance - North A...

Everyone knows to keep an eye on their competitors...     But how many of us are on the lookout for threats outside our industry?     Our guest today is Leslie Shannon, Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting at Nokia, a company that knows all too well what happens when you ignore these threats.      And now Leslie is heading up the team making sure it can never happen again.      In today’s episode,...

It’s inevitable that most companies will move to the cloud.      But COVID-19, government adoption and other worldwide events have conspired to ensure that transition will come faster than anyone predicted.     And alliance ecosystems are going to play a pivotal role.      To explain why, I spoke with Shivkumar Subramaniam, former Vice President and Geography Head at Mindtree.     Shiv went over: ...

If you want to learn the best ways to do something, you need to turn to the experts.      You need to turn to the people and organizations with the kind of wisdom that can only be gained through years of experience.     So, when it comes to managing partnerships, you turn to Microsoft.     That’s why I am so happy I got a chance to sit down with David Totten, Chief Technology Officer, US Partner E...

The COVID-19 crisis has changed things for everybody.      The race for innovations to guide us through to safety includes everyone.     Interestingly, security, innovation, and inclusion are also key elements of any successful alliance program.      On our show today, I spoke with James Gordon, GM of Ecosystem Strategy & Business Development at Intel, to discuss how these very topics guide Intel’...

We call it social distancing, but that’s a misnomer. It should be physical distancing.     In reality, we’re using every digital tool available to make sure the social world keeps going strong.     And these same tools are poised to shape the future of alliance ecosystems.      Though he’s recently moved into a new role, my guest today, Vinodh Raghunathan, PhD, spent over 3 years as Director of Gl...

The best alliances rest on a foundation of successful alignment, but building it can be difficult if you spread yourself too thin.     So, freeing up resources by concentrating on fewer, higher-impact partnerships can be a rewarding strategy.      And having a framework for the full lifecycle of customer engagement keeps you on track, aligned, and able to scale.     My guest today is Preseetha Pet...

Over the years, managing alliances has evolved.      But many of the key insights from older models sill bear fruit when it comes to today’s cloud-based alliance programs.      Our guest today, Christine Puccio, VP of Global Cloud Alliances at F5 Networks, has had tremendous success in her 20+ years of experience managing partner programs.      And Christine shares some of her most valuable insigh...

It’s no secret successful partner delivery is a vital part of any thriving ecosystem.     So, it’s imperative to make sure your partners are trained and capable to deliver quality total solutions to your joint customers.     And when your company derives 90% of your business from partners, partner delivery is your lifeblood.      Our guest today is Winnie Zeliger, Partner Delivery Executive at Cis...

How should you approach building a partner advantage program from scratch?   Should you focus on the leveling — your Gold, Silver or Bronze designations? And who should the program center on?   Well, if you want to succeed like Google, you need to marry a partner-focused and a customer-focused approach and highlight capabilities.   That’s how our guest today, Nina Harding, Chief of Global Partner...

Rapid growth is the epitome of the saying “it’s a good problem to have.”   Still, this doesn’t discount the very real challenges breakneck scaling involves.   And as the market landscape gets ever more dominated by SaaS companies experiencing explosive growth, it’s important we learn from their experiences.   That’s why we sat down with Katie Ecklund, Director of SI alliances at Snowflake, to see...

In many of the conversations we have about alliance partnerships, a few key things crop up.    Any healthy alliance program relies on aligning your needs with the needs of partners, enabling their success and making sure you can quantify your shared success.    Olav Schluter, Director of Global Services Channel Programs at Dell, has orchestrated these key building blocks into a symphony of ecosyst...

Modern software ecosystems have changed.   Ecosystems are no longer valued for the sheer quantity of solutions they offer — they are valued for, well, the actual value their solutions provide.   More doesn’t mean better; better means better.   It’s a key insight from our guest today, Tom Roberts, Senior Vice President at the Global Partner Organization over at SAP. Tom has had incredible success a...

When discussing ecosystems, often the conversation revolves around what your alliances can do for you.   Yet, the conversation is incomplete without discussing your responsibility in the ecosystem. If you want a thriving ecosystem, you need to ask yourself: How am I adding value to my alliances?   Today’s guest Jenni Flinders, VP and Channel Chief at VMWare, says a great way to add value is to ana...

As in life, the only constant in managing ecosystems is change.   A company’s needs change as it grows and matures. Market patterns shift and evolve.   A successful ecosystem is one that adapts in the face of rapid change. And while adaptation can mean different things to different organizations, it’s something every ecosystem will reckon with at some point.   Holly Whalen is director of the Globa...

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...

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 specifi...

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...

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 spe...

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 ecosyste...