Channel Chat

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.

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.

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!