Ecosystem Aces

Global alliance management invites complexity. Multiple sales teams, cross-cultural concerns, value propositions, differing visions …. The list of challenges alliance managers and ecosystem manager can face is nearly endless. But there is a solution: Create a joint value proposition. On this episode of the #Alliance Aces podcast, we interviewed Aslam Jamal, Sr. Director for Strategic Alliances in...

The modern era demands rapid development. But to create a timely solution that meets demands, companies need a network of long-standing partnerships they can rely on. So ... should an alliance manager invest in long-term relationships, or seize revenue opportunities and develop partnerships as needed? It’s a real question, and it deserves a thorough answer. We brought in Ard-Pieter de Man, Profess...

The number of alliances needed for a solution has grown: Joint solutions that have traditionally required 1 partner, now may require 4 or 5. Managing an ecosystem that has all the available partnerships for each solution, can be quite a challenge. On this episode, Helen Morin joins our host, Chip Rodgers, to share 5 quick tactics you can use right now to manage your expanding alliance network. Hel...

Jay McBain, a Principal Analyst for Channels, Partnerships & Alliances at Forrester, gave an incredible keynote at the ASAP Global Alliance Summit about the coming wave of new alliances. In short, traditional partnerships have evolved, because buyers have changed. This new wave of B2B buyers isn’t struggling with their superiors to deal with red tape and a slow approach. They’re going right around...

Mike Nevin understands the principles of success in alliances better than probably anyone. Back in the late 90s, he and a few colleagues went all-in on alliances. They predicted that considering the continued waves of technological innovation, alliances were the future. Like we said … he went all-in on alliances: He became Founding President of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (...

Your success isn’t only predicated on your ability to sell or commercialize your offerings. Your success is dependent on the success of your alliance, especially in any industry with tech at its core (read: every industry). We caught up with Marc Geall at SAP InnovationX in London. He's SVP of Global Platform & Technology Ecosystems at SAP. He came on the Alliance Aces podcast and told us this: Th...

Every alliance professional has had some form of this happen: Your boss asks for influenced revenue within a specific alliance or joint solution. The truth is: You don’t have an answer. The information is simply unavailable, because it’s buried in outdated spreadsheets, and hidden across you and your alliance’s businesses. Sound familiar? It’s not just you — every alliance professional has faced t...

Validating and deploying a joint solution can often start to drag far past intended deadlines. The usual technical, marketing, and bureaucratic issues any deployment faces increase exponentially within alliances. But that doesn't have to be the case, says Joan Morales, Director of Partner & Technology Alliances at Nutanix. Consistently, his team has managed to validate joint solutions in a matter...

Alliance management can be a somewhat lonely field. On one hand, you’re surrounded: You’re managing personnel from not only your own team, but you’re also working with team members from the other companies within the ecosystem. On the other hand, very few people understand your role — as an alliance manager, you’re in a high-level, critical thinking, strategic position between entities. It’s as if...

Sometimes it’s good to sit down with a true pro, and ask the tough questions. On this episode of the Alliance Aces podcast, we sat down with Stuart Kalman, the Director of Global Alliances for Hitachi Vantara at Veritas. He has a long list of alliance experience credentials, including HP, as the director of their Microsoft enterprise alliances, and at Thomson Reuters as VP of Strategic Alliances....

Back at FKOM in Las Vegas we had the chance to talk with RJ Bibby, Global SAP - System Integrator Digital Transformation Officer with NetApp. In this role, RJ must create fluidity among hyperscalers, SI partners, SAP, and Net App, with consideration of the customer experience. On our latest episode of the Alliance Aces podcast, RJ talked with us about the challenges he faces as an alliance profess...

If you want to unleash the full potential of your partner network, building alliances is the name of the game. There are few people who know more about alliance building than Amit Tiwari, Vice President of Strategic Alliances & Systems Engineering at Affirmed Networks. Affirmed Networks is the leader in virtualized mobile networks, which brings together mobile operators, service providers app make...

An Ecosystem can have a variety of alliances: tech partnerships, strategic partnerships, ISVs, MSBs, SIs …. the list goes on. Determining how to leverage each of these partnerships for maximum ROI requires a complex set of skills in resource management. On this episode of Alliance Aces we invite Tony Beller to explain how he manages his complex ecosystem at Anaplan, a SaaS company with over 175 pa...

Imagine you're sitting down with a potential alliance in Tokyo. This is a time when someone like Rana Kahl shines. Rana is multilingual and multicultural. She's lived abroad in Europe and in the Middle East. Just to give you a glimpse of what her life has been like, Rana went to five different high schools and lived in seven different countries. These experiences give Rana a very unique perspectiv...

Not every company includes alliances in their strategy. But strategies change. As companies grow, their methods of deployment, sales, marketing, or even their product or service, can evolve, pivot, or change altogether. Take sales. If your sales begin to outpace your deployment capabilities, new partnerships become a necessity. Yes, that’s a good problem to have. But it’s still a problem. And it’s...

The importance of alliances cannot be overemphasized in today’s fast-moving technology space. The good news is, if you are open to forming new partnerships, they can be found in almost any avenue of your business. This week we explore 3 fundamentals of a healthy ecosystem: Key Strategic Alliances, Micro-Partnerships, & nonprofits. Someone who’s an expert in all 3 is hard to find. But we found him....

Every business has expectations…expectations for their clients, their revenues, and their alliances. But things rarely go as planned. Joel Maloff is Senior VP of Strategic Alliances and Chief Compliance Officer at Phone.com. He came on the Alliance Aces podcast to share about how expectations shifted for him: Some of his most valuable alliances came from the least expected verticals. He shared how...

Alliances aren’t about providing your best solution. They’re about providing (and marketing) a solution that is greater than than the sum of what each alliance can provide — a packaged solution that solves a wholistic problem that is giving ample pain to your end-user. On this episode, we interview Peter Yost, Director of Partnerships at FourKites, a supply chain real-time tracking solution. Peter...

If you grow up in Southern California, the chances are high you spent a lot of time at the beach. That’s definitely true for Dustin Avol, our most recent podcast guest. Dustin Avol is a professional beach volleyball player turned alliance expert. During the first part of his career, Dustin invested in pro volleyball. After playing professionally, he turned to broadcasting and commentating. He then...

Despite the automation of today’s tech-heavy workforce, many mundane, repeated processes are still performed by humans. Robotics process automation may just be the solution to reducing tedious tasks. Meet UiPath: an RPA company that began in Romania. They’re changing the game in the enterprise world. We brought in Chris Morgan, Global VP of Partners & Alliances at UiPath for the Alliance Aces Podc...

If you are not working in close proximity with your partner, you can start to drift apart. But making an effort to constantly share information in an open environment is easier said than done. Pieter Van Heck is the Global Strategic Partner Manager for SAP at Dynatrace, which is a close partner of SAP.  Part of Pieter’s job is ensuring that Dynatrace and SAP have an open relationship and they are...

We often hear phrases like, “the customer is always right.” But do our actions prove that we believe that is true? Thomas Iseler is EVP/Managing Director Americas for DataVard Inc, an SAP Partner, and he is a huge advocate for listening to what your customer really wants. As Thomas likes to say, DataVard is one of the many (many) smaller SAP partners.  They have traditionally been well established...

The desired outcome of any alliance is for companies to come together and make each other better together. Co-innovation is one of the ways to make this magic happen. Sven Denecken is the SVP and Head of Product Management & Co-Innovation S/4HANA at SAP SE, and he is an expert in all things co-innovation.  His job is all about balancing the needs of customers and partners to keep both happy and he...

As a fast-growing customer data infrastructure company, Segment has relied on partnerships throughout its evolution as a company. Paul McCord, Segment's senior manager of EMEA partner alliances, talks with Chip Rodgers on the Alliance Ace podcast about customer data infrastructure and treading the line between partnership and your own company's needs.

Here’s an idea for creating tangible value for your alliance partners: Give them a platform in front of their peers and make them a superstar. Lisa Box is the Vice President of Strategic Alliance at WP Engine which is a digital experience platform for WordPress.  Lisa and her team look at the opportunities that are within that ecosystem make sure their partners (including developers, marketers, et...