Channel Chat

At IGEL, Partner Enablement is Fun and Games

September 16, 2020 by Jeff Mesnik

Working from home (WFH) has gone from perk to par for the course since COVID-19 required businesses to shut down their brick-and-mortar office spaces.

To make the most of forced remote work, a lot of professionals are going the digital nomad route, embracing the opportunity to work anywhere — wherever there’s an internet connection.

Edge OS provider, IGEL, is well positioned in this new reality and seeing more million-dollar-plus deals as a result. But as a 100 percent channel-driven business, IGEL has traditionally relied on the energy sparked at its annual partner event, Disrupt, to make connections and motivate engagement.

With the mass move to remote work, the IGEL channel marketing team has had to come up with new strategies to motivate partners in ways that are both engaging and fun — a fresh take on fun and games.

Carl Gersh, IGEL Senior Director of Marketing and Kimberly Nicola, IGEL Senior Marketing Manager, shared some of these “fun” channel marketing strategies in an interview with Channel Marketing Journal. This video shows highlights of our conversation centering on three of IGEL’s most creative and successful channel enablement programs.
Watch the video to learn how IGEL captured the energy generated at its in-person partner event in January and adapted it to a remote work world.

Building Partner Enablement Programs on a “Tsunami of Cash”

September 16, 2020 by Jeff Mesnik

Before the COVID pandemic, Infoblox would kick off its partner summit events with a keynote on the “tsunami of cash” the partner organization was there to help drive.

Although the cash is still coming in — with 95% of it being driven by partners — the face-to-face interactions between partners and the Infoblox global partner organization aren’t happening for reasons we all know.

Lori Commesser, Infoblox VP of Worldwide Partner and Alliance Sales, and Sandy Janes, Infoblox Senior Director of Global Partner Programs, talked to me recently about the challenges of keeping partners motivated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This video shows highlights of our conversation, which centered on the elevated importance of loyalty and connections, and finding innovative ways to incentivize partners to continue driving cash in the new, post-COVID normal.

Lori shared valuable feedback she got from a partner during the early stages of COVID office shutdowns. “In these times, this is where loyalty is formed,” she recalls the partner saying.

Sandy talked about an enablement approach focused on “helping partners make money while having fun.” (Not unlike the message conveyed in one of my favorite songs from the ’80s, “Opportunities”, by the Pet Shop Boys.)

Watch the video for a closer look at Infoblox’s three-pronged channel enablement strategy which includes incentives, training, and face-to-face time with company leadership committed personally to taking the pulse of how partners are doing.

Message to IBM Partners: We Want to Listen. We Want to Learn. We Want to Be Generous.

August 4, 2020 by Jeff Mesnik

IBM has always been really good at establishing trust — a strength the IBM cloud ecosystem team draws on to help partners drive growth by supporting clients’ modernization journeys.

Cameron Clayton, IBM Cloud Ecosystem and Weather General Manager, shared IBM’s formula for channel enablement in an interview with PartnerOn Journal.

Watch this video for insight and other highlights of our conversation including the value of certifications, IBM’s approach to partner training, what clients need from a public cloud solution and the song Cameron hears when he imagines stepping into the batter’s box!

And if you’re an IBM partner, check out all the great content IBM provides to support your digital marketing and sales engagements at PartnerOn!

How Menlo Security Channel Partners Doubled Quarter-Over-Quarter Pipeline Growth in Under One Year

June 9, 2020 by Karen Dasey

Since the November 2019 launch of the Boost channel program at Menlo Security, top-performing partners have seen 100% quarter-over-quarter pipeline growth.

Congratulations to Danielle Wilson, Menlo’s Director of Americas Channels, for her leading role driving these wins. The cloud security leader brought Danielle on board last summer to build out a channel program focused on margin growth and partner enablement.

PartnerOn Journal caught up with Danielle over video to learn about the strategies behind the program, its goals, what Menlo Security looks for in a partner, the opportunities for partners and how the program aligns with customers’ needs for remote work support.

With the company’s focus on VPN tunneling, web and email threats and recruiting partners that have strong integrations and security vendor relationships, Menlo Security has been able to align channel strategy to remote work. Danielle told PartnerOn Journal, “Watching partners come to truly understand the value of Menlo Security and we integrate with other technologies is an exciting win.”

Watch this video for highlights of Danielle’s conversation with PartnerOn Journal’s Jeff Mesnik.

IBM Expands PartnerWorld to Help Partners Grow Their Cloud Business

May 13, 2020 by Karen Dasey

The announcement that IBM expanded its PartnerWorld offering was big news at last week’s Think Digital online conference. Chris MacLaughlin, IBM Global Partner Ecosystem CMO, talked to PartnerOn Journal’s Jeff Mesnik about the significance of the expansion, and how it aligns with IBM’s strategy to meet clients where they are in their cloud journey.

Watch this video to catch highlights of Chris’s conversation with Jeff — including the specifics of the new PartnerWorld offerings to help partners create solutions and services on and around the IBM Cloud. Learn about the steps IBM is taking to respond to partner feedback for less friction and more digital tools across the buying cycle.

We’re planning to catch up again with Chris another time to talk about the future of online events in the post-COVID world. In the meantime, please get in touch if there are any topics you’d like to see covered in PartnerOn Journal.

How Cisco Helps People Survive & Thrive in a Remote-Work World

March 31, 2020 by Jeff Mesnik

In our last edition of PartnerOn Journal, we were only just starting to consider how the unexpected shift to remote work would evolve into new normals that when embraced, would lead to new opportunities and even wins.

Two weeks later, we’re seeing new paradigms and viewpoints rise from a shared commitment to help people and business not only survive, but also thrive in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. The mission of Cisco to frame business around solutions that ‘help’ and ‘connect’ employees, communities and individuals is an excellent example.

In a recent conversation, John Moses, Cisco VP of Americas Partner Organization, shared some of the specific ways Cisco is helping customers connect people to the support and resources they need to get and stay well. These include free Webex licenses to healthcare providers transitioning to telemedicine, as well as responding to the exploding demand for security solutions to protect remote workers.

Watch this video for highlights of our talk.

I’m not alone in thinking that many of the remote-work trends emerging from our Coronavirus coping efforts will stick. So why not embrace them? You might find some inspiration from my talk with John — particularly the part where he describes how Webex use is going through the roof. I’ll raise a glass to that!