Meet 10 Vendor Execs Who Personally Solved A Partner's Problem

Problem Solvers

The era of digital transformation is creating an increasing need for solution providers that can cast an ever-expanding net of IT services. And while the continuous evolution of customer demands creates ample opportunities for new business, it of course introduces of a variety of challenges.

Enter the channel chief - the key stakeholder in the success or failure of a channel partnership.

A mutually beneficial channel partnership in 2018 requires a forward-thinking chief, one who can anticipate changes in business processes and understands the value of enablement resources.

We asked the honorees of the Channel Chiefs 2018 list to tell us how they personally helped solve a problem for a solution provider partner in the last year. Here's what they had to say.

Cisco

Nirav Sheth

VP, Partner Solutions, Architectures, Engineering

A hot topic of conversation with many partners is how to best capitalize on the cloud opportunity. One partner, a traditional consultative solutions provider, wanted to grow their capabilities in public cloud, specifically in the areas of cloud integration and software programmability. I introduced them to a non-traditional and complementary company in the Cisco partner ecosystem, continuing to advise both companies as they worked together. The relationship evolved into an acquisition, where I was able to participate in the formal due diligence process. The integration has been a big success, leading to significant talent, customer and pipeline growth.

Cloudian

Lisa Sensmeier

Sr. Director, Channel Marketing

A large partner was unable to fund a lead-generation campaign, and our budget had no funds left to provide. I was able to creatively work with a third party to create a campaign that benefited all three parties, leveraging funds from the third party. The lead-gen campaign resulted in real opportunities using services and products from each party. Sometimes taking the chance to voice new ideas, pushing the boundaries of existing programs, and a little extra work will lead to huge successes.

Cohesity

Joe Barnes

Head, Americas Channels

A partner in Hawaii learned about Cohesity and immediately signed on with us. They began telling multiple customers about our solution, but realized they were dependent upon Cohesity resources in the [continental] states. We realized advanced training would make them more effective and self-sufficient. We flew in their key resources to our headquarters, and held an all-day private training for them. This helped them to close two deals immediately and add eight more to their next quarter pipeline. We will do everything necessary to make our partners successful.

CrowdStrike

Matthew Polly

VP, Worldwide Business Development, Channels

In July, a solution provider partnered with CrowdStrike on an incident response engagement for a customer suffering from the WannaCry attack. CrowdStrike provisioned a license for the customer's entire 60,000 endpoint environments in a matter of hours. Because of the size of the customer's problem, it became clear that partner consultants on-site needed assistance to ensure damage was mitigated timely and effectively. I put together a team from CrowdStrike's Professional Services, Sales Engineering, and Product to work side-by-side with the partner consultants on-site. After a month, the incident response was complete.

Dell EMC

Jay Snyder

SVP, Global Alliances, Service Providers, Industries

Our newest global systems integrator partner (multibillion dollar firm) was having significant contention with Dell EMC services in the Field, limiting our mutual success. I personally met with the partner's leadership team on multiple occasions, including the CEO and the COO, to really understand the root problem. In parallel I met with our services leadership, including our President. I facilitated a collaborative work stream that resulted in clear operational swim lanes whereby we could leverage each other and ensure that both teams were properly compensated. We documented the specifics in a FAQ and I rolled it out to the teams.

Exabeam

Ted Plumis

VP, Channels, Corporate Development

I worked with an MSSP partner that was interested in creating a new analytics offering to complement their managed SIEM solution. The partner was having issues finding a solution that was market-leading but also fit from a licensing perspective. I worked with the partner to develop licensing and pricing models that would allow the partner to seamlessly add advanced analytics on top of their managed SIEM solution, generating more revenue per customer for the partner and increasing the stickiness of their offering.

IFS

David Eager

VP, Global Alliances

A partner came to me to discuss challenges in gaining momentum with our solutions in their target regions. After evaluating their activities, I was able to determine they were taking too broad of an approach and recommended they focus on fewer solutions and build their expertise before expanding into other service areas. We discussed a learning path and I connected him with the proper stakeholders to build out their go-to-market plan. Upon implementing this new approach, they instantly saw improvement.

Intsights

Jessica Couto

VP, Worldwide Channels & Alliances

One challenge a solution provider had which I helped to resolve pertained to transitioning his customers from owning the software to his business providing the solution as an MSSP. We developed a plan to transition the licenses, including the creation of multi-tenant configurations for a seamless transition for his customers. The plan also included quarterly billing to his business to reduce upfront costs.

Masergy Communications

William Madison

VP, Global Channel Development

There was one particular VAR partner whose overall business was declining, as was their revenue. I personally took it upon myself to help increase our joint business with them. We started by creating a joint business plan with them and strategizing target accounts in a specific vertical. I met with their business leadership team to enhance their sales training and business development programs. The targeted business plan along with a comprehensive sales training program and joint lead generation effort resulted in an overall increase of large deal wins and they became one of our top five revenue-producing partners.

Skyhigh Networks

Judy Kent

Director, Partner Marketing

One of our key global system integrators wanted a mechanism to track their investments in our training solutions as we conduct sales training across the U.S. in several of their locations. The goal was to identify who was taking our training and how that knowledge was translating into new opportunities. We created an enrollment process that captured attendee training to correlate it against salesforce custom opportunity data and regional growth. Now we can measure conversion trends on a quarterly basis to evaluate deal registration data and impact on sales opportunities, illustrating the value of training time with our security experts.