7 Channel People Making Waves at IBM, Dell, Vonage, More
IBM wants to add 100,000 new customers within four years.
May 12, 2023
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The leaders of Procure IT are looking to form a new type of technology advisor that centers the sourcing model around data.
Four companies have merged to create Procure IT, which seeks to bring together data-focused partner firms with its own proprietary platforms. Four former RapidScale executives – Randy Jeter, Andrew Laughter, William Hiatt and Dylan Bouterse – are leading the company as managing partners, in addition to Jordan Solender.
The company is targeting a future midmarket private equity group for an event in the next 12-24 months. In the meantime, Procure IT is building a platform for management of the customer life cycle, as well as the management of vendor spend and risk. In addition, the partner is building a customer-facing education platform, with the stated intent of coaching IT leaders and IT buyers.
Also, learn how Procure IT is also investing to build a customer-facing educational website.
From navigating the new normal of work to predicting what’s on the horizon, four big-name vendors took to the stage at Channel Partners & Expo to talk about their vision for channel. Verizon, T-Mobile for Business, Vonage and Hewlett Packard Enterprise each joined Channel Futures’ Kelly Danziger and Bob DeMarzo for “The Future of the Channel: The Ultimate Vendor Power Panel.”
“MSPs are becoming more of a part of the partner ecosystem where it was once separate,” said Reggie Scales, senior vice president of global sales applications at Vonage. “[W]e’ve all had to evolve,” he said, similar to his peers.
Scales made waves when he said that “we’ve all gone from being telco leaders to now being more SaaS-focused, value selling, solution selling. We can’t do that without the partner ecosystem, with the value an MSP brings.”
Find out what the panelists had to say about cloud marketplaces and 5G.
Dell Technologies is encouraging a hybrid work environment for its employees in the UK. It is also urging greater collaboration between its own channel teams and partners to pursue customer wins.
Those are just two updates from Dell’s new UK leader, Steve Young. In a wide-ranging conversation with Channel Futures, Young outlined his plans for the business. He also commented on the recent departures of some top Dell leaders in EMEA, and how he came to secure the top spot in the UK.
Appointed SVP and GM for Dell in the UK in February, Young replaced Dayne Turbitt, who now heads up Anaplan in EMEA.
On Dell’s channel partners, Young made waves because he was full of praise. He said the vendor has “some incredible partners in the UK. We’re very, very fortunate. A lot of our growth over the last few years has been driven by our partners. I firmly believe partners give us relationships we don’t have. Given us skills and scale we don’t have and allow us to bring outcomes to customers.”
However, Young would like to see the firm “do a better job of getting out and telling more people, more often about the Dell story.”
To see more from Christine Horton’s interview, go here.
We gathered some of the most memorable, wave-making quotes during the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, an atmosphere which set records for sponsors and exhibitors and number of attendees (more than 8,000 in fact).
During the “MSP M&A Superstars,” panelists continuously hit on the same point: The sale of an MSP should start on day one of the company’s existence.
People involved in the M&A process, including advisors, legal counsel and actual buyers, encouraged MSPs to get their governing documents and agreements in order.
“Run your business as though you’ll never sell,” said Tim Mueller, president of martinwolf. “Invest in that back end. Invest in solid principles and core values. But at the same time, run as though you’re always going to be for sale.”
Read more memorable quotes here from other conference sessions.
IBM ecosystem partners now generate 40% of the company’s software revenues, up from 15% just two years ago. Now IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna would like its partners double that figure within the next three to five years, generating 80% of its revenues.
Krishna discussed that goal while speaking to 1,000 partners gathered for Partner Plus Day, held on the eve of the IBM Think conference. Overall, 4,000 have registered to attend the Think event, marking IBM’s largest gathering in four years, before the outset of the pandemic.
The partner event was also the first significant gathering of partners since IBM revamped its partner program at the beginning of 2023, replacing IBM PartnerWorld with the new IBM Partner Plus program.
Besides aiming for 80% of revenues from its ecosystem, IBM wants to add 100,000 new customers within that time frame.
“By definition, this is a partner play,” said Rob Thomas, IBM’s senior VP of software and chief commercial officer. “When you all hear 100,000 new logos or focus on new client acquisition … to some extent, it’s our way of getting all of IBM to get behind this even faster.”
Find out what percentage of IBM’s sales go through the channel compared to other vendors.
RingCentral has unveiled its next generation of RingCentral for Microsoft Teams 2.0. The solution brings RingCentral’s cloud PBX capabilities into Microsoft Teams with a fully native experience, and without requiring a second application.
End customers can now experience RingCentral’s reliability, global availability, features and third-party integration capabilities entirely within Teams’ single pane of glass, the company said.
Irwin Lazar, president and principal analyst at research firm Metrigy, caused some ripples when he said most Microsoft Teams users do not have access to integrated calling capabilities. This means they can’t use Microsoft Teams to place calls outside the organization or to customers.
“As Teams users evaluate alternative telephony approaches, more than 47% are choosing to use a UCaaS provider … to enable calling capabilities for Microsoft Teams. [Options in] RingCentral for Microsoft Teams provide flexible, and highly reliable, deployment options and the ability to integrate enterprise-grade telephony and SMS, fax, analytics, CRM integrations and other capabilities into a Microsoft Teams deployment.”
Learn about the innovative features RingCentral for Microsoft Teams 2.0 provides.
Akamai layoffs are impacting nearly 300 workers as the company focuses on its highest growth areas and sustaining profitability.
The Akamai layoffs were reported as part of the company’s financial results for the first quarter that ended March 31. Nearly 300 workers are losing their jobs.
“Akamai had a strong start to 2023, with both revenue and earnings above our expectations,” said Tom Leighton, Akamai’s CEO. “We reached a significant milestone during the first quarter when, for the first time in Akamai’s 25-year history, security became our largest revenue stream. Looking ahead, we remain committed to driving efficiency and profitability as we focus investment in areas with the strongest potential for future growth.”
Find out how much profit, or lack thereof, Akamai made for the first quarter of the year.
Akamai layoffs are impacting nearly 300 workers as the company focuses on its highest growth areas and sustaining profitability.
The Akamai layoffs were reported as part of the company’s financial results for the first quarter that ended March 31. Nearly 300 workers are losing their jobs.
“Akamai had a strong start to 2023, with both revenue and earnings above our expectations,” said Tom Leighton, Akamai’s CEO. “We reached a significant milestone during the first quarter when, for the first time in Akamai’s 25-year history, security became our largest revenue stream. Looking ahead, we remain committed to driving efficiency and profitability as we focus investment in areas with the strongest potential for future growth.”
Find out how much profit, or lack thereof, Akamai made for the first quarter of the year.
This week’s Channel People Making Waves includes individuals at IBM, Dell, Vonage, Metrigy and more. They are the people featured in the top news stories you’ve viewed on the Channel Futures website during the last seven days.
Let’s start with the bad news first. Akamai has laid off 300 workers in the company’s attempt to focus on the highest growth areas, according to its CEO. As much as layoffs are hated, this wasn’t a scenario in which a tech company was making record profit. Find out more in our slideshow above.
When it comes to actual growth, IBM has much to brag about. Partners now generate 40% of the company’s software revenues, up from 15% just two years ago. Rob Thomas, IBM’s senior VP of software and chief commercial officer, said this was definitely a “partner play.”
Finally, experts had a lot to share during the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. This included Reggie Scales, SVP global sales applications, at Vonage, who said that “we’ve all gone from being telco leaders to now being more SaaS-focused, value selling, solution selling.” He added that this can’t be accomplished without the value MSPs bring. Learn more from other panelists and sessions highlighted in this roundup.
And that’s a wrap. If you didn’t catch the previous edition of Channel People Making Waves, you can find it here. Until next time.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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