Alliance Aces

Strong partnerships don’t magically form overnight. “It takes work to effectively manage a partnership.” So says Chris Selland,the Vice President of Strategic Alliances & Corporate Development at Unifi. Chris has been in his role for about 18 months, and he oversees three specific types of alliances: Technology partners, Professional Service partners, and OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) partners.   Chris has learned to pay the most attention to partnerships that are driving the most business.  He has found the traditional 80/20 rule to be more like 95/5 for Unifi right now in terms of the percentage of business coming from a small amount of partners. He’s also learned the importance of figuring out what makes a great partner from the get-go.  The companies that ask the right questions in meetings early on are going to be the best long-term strategic partners.Chris joins us for this episode of Alliance Aces to discuss his role at Unifi, OEM Partnership challenges, lessons he’s learned along the way,

Bob Breitel, Director of the Global SAP Alliance for IBM, met with Chip Rodgers, VP of Marketing of WorkSpan, at SAPPHIRE NOW to talk about creating global alliances.

In the modern business environment, end users across the spectrum need rapid business solutions tailored to their industry. Expertise, functionality, maintenance and often times customization, are all necessary components of these solutions. Creating such a wide variety of dynamic applications is nearly impossible for any one company. Alliances, then, become vital. Take a technically sound platform, add an alliance network of industry-specific domain-level experts. Then, within that ecosystem, you can drive dynamic solutions that can be developed rapidly, productized and maintained for the end-user. How do we know? We asked Drew Quinlan, VP of Strategic Alliances for IoT at PTC. Drew leads the strategy and execution team responsible for expanding the functionality and capabilities of PTC’s ThingWorx IoT platform. He joined us on our most recent Alliance Aces Podcast to share how he develops alliances within PTC’s network and constantly expands the functionality of their IoT platform.

Having multiple alliance partners within an ecosystem supplies additional resources, intellectual property, access to technology, more ideas. Alliances can also create additional challenges -- no longer are you working with one set of developers, one sales team -- everything is multiplied. We spoke with Bluefin Solutions’ Global SAP Alliance Director, Robert Walmsley, at the SAP Global Partner Summit, to learn some of his best practices in alliance leadership. His team works closely with SAP to create powerful Bluefin solutions built on SAP technology. Robert joined us at the summit on Facebook Live to share his best practices on Alliances.

Ecosystems should deliver dynamic solutions that enhance customer experience. Joint solutions should make problem-solving easier, not harder, for customers. It all starts, and ends, with customers in mind. This is the philosophy of Manoj Bhatia, the Worldwide Sales and Business Development Manager for Partner Sales at Cisco. With degrees in electrical Electrical Engineering, as well as an MBA from UNC at Chapel Hill, Manoj is equipped with a unique perspective in alliance management. Manoj is also the Research Triangle Park-chapter president of ASAP, from which he’s been awarded the prestigious CSAP certification in recognition both from ASAP and his peers for his excellence and expertise in alliance management. He accompanied us on on our Alliance Aces Podcast to address the customer experience and other issues within alliances and ecosystems.

Products, solutions, and go-to-market strategies have endless possibilities within alliances and ecosystems. As an alliance professional, how do you determine the appropriate solutions to develop and then take those solutions to market? Those are real questions needing expert answers. So we asked a pro. Phil Sailer, a leading enterprise alliance strategist, joined us on our recent Alliance Aces podcast . As Director of Software Defined and Cloud Group at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Phil leads strategic alliances, tech solutions, and go-to-market enablement.

Complex alliance partnerships can seem insurmountable sometimes. Hundreds of products, thousands of customers, and dozens of team members from two companies coming together to provide customer solutions. How does an alliance professional juggle and succeed with such a large forest of issues? Roland Wartenberg joined us on our podcast to discuss success in alliance partnerships. Roland’s resume includes his current position as Sr. Director of Strategic Alliances at NetApp, dealing with global strategic alliances in enterprise solutions, Big Data, and IOT. Previously, Roland worked for Citrix as the Director of Strategic Alliances for a number of years, and he also spent over a dozen years at SAP in various capacities in both the US and in Germany. Roland shared five challenges Alliance Pros face in their field. You don’t want to miss how he overcomes them.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if a true alliance leader just handed you their manual for success? Thankfully, someone did. Madhav Ranganathan, Director of GSI at Hitachi Vantara is a strategic alliance professional, who did just that. With 20 years of experience from managing alliances and business development for Intel, VMware, OpTier, and others,  Madhav delivered groundbreaking advice on our podcast for alliance professionals. He shared his best practices for alliance professionals, including how to align your day, how to disrupt your role, and execution strategies for driving revenue.

Customers and clients want solutions. They want solutions they can obtain quickly and deploy quickly. They need solutions that add agility and increase their competitiveness in their respective markets. A single company simply cannot deliver a product that meets all these criteria. That’s why partnerships, strategic alliances, are driving the future, and that’s why Subs joined us on our latest podcast episode. Subhashish Acharya, or Subs (pronounced “soobs”), knows about alliances. He works with PTC as the Director of Global IoT and AR Strategic Alliances, building global partnership ecosystems between PTC and Hewlett Packard Enterprises. He’s learned a few things along the way. Subs joined us to tell us his brilliant alliance philosophy.

Partnerships can drive 30 percent of enterprise revenue. Yet, so many partnerships fail, leaving trillions of dollars left untapped. While CEOs and other executives believe in the value of alliances, they often the lack the confidence partnering will provide a true ROI. So, partnering executives find themselves relegated to the cheap seats, away from the C-Suite table, and trillions of dollars are left tapped. Allan Adler, managing partner at Digital Bridge Partners, joined us today to help solve this problem, and, hopefully, get back some of those trillions of dollars missing. Allan brings 25 years of experience in development and execution of go-to-market, and partnership strategies from a variety of leading enterprise and technology companies.

In global partner marketing, success is predicated on reliance on the field marketers at the local level. Ask Steve Asche. He knows. As VP for Digital and Partner Marketing at SAP, Steve worked with over 160 campaigns across the world last year alone. His team drove pipeline results for both his company, and a main enterprise partner, Intel. How does Steve coordinate such a large number of campaigns across the world? Listen in as our latest guest gave us his top tools on driving successful partner-marketing relationships from the large scale, down to the local level.

Alliance Aces is a podcast about how to win. Specifically, it’s about how to win at building partnerships and ecosystems. In our new show, you’ll hear from professionals in the industry who are doing just that—building successful strategic alliances that are driving revenue and taking customer solutions to the market. Maybe you’re a professional breaking ground on a joint solution with your company and an enterprise partner. Perhaps you’re building a joint marketing campaign around a co-created product. Maybe you are developing an ecosystem in which strategic alliances can thrive. Or, perhaps you’re an enterprise leader diving into the potential of partnerships. You’re in the right place. Welcome to the Alliance Aces Podcast.