Avaya Vet Dennis Kozak Switches to Cybersecurity as Ivanti's New COO
Ivanti's new COO will help advance Ivanti's partner program momentum.
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Channel Futures: You’re switching from UC to cybersecurity. Does that present different challenges?
Ivanti’s Dennis Kozak: While the markets are different, the challenges of driving sales growth, establishing top-tier partnerships, integrating acquisitions, and achieving operational excellence through innovation and cultural transformations are the same. As such, my experience integrating sales, operations, channel functions and delivering innovation are a direct match for the next evolution of Ivanti.
Plus, prior to Avaya, I spent 22 years at CA Technologies, which has a very similar profile to Ivanti in that it’s very acquisitive and has a portfolio of products in similar spaces. Like both prior companies, the drive to leverage the installed base for adoption of our cloud and subscription-based services is paramount to our customers, partners and ultimately Ivanti’s success.
CF: How will your previous experience come into play in this new role?
DK: My track record of helping organizations in a similar growth pattern to Ivanti will come into play in this new role. And my experience integrating acquired organizations — working with sales, channel sales, marketing and operations organizations to fully integrate into one cohesive group — will add value to Ivanti’s strategic growth.
CF: Will you be involved in Ivanti’s channel sales and with partners? If so, how?
DK: Yes, I plan to leverage my channel experience to help advance Ivanti’s partner program momentum. Approximately 70% of Avaya’s revenue was driven through channels, where I served as the global channel chief.
CF: What’s your take on Ivanti’s channel strategy and partner program? Any changes needed?
DK: It’s clear that partners are vital to Ivanti’s success, and we must continuously improve our engagement with partners and help them drive growth. We must make it as easy as possible to do business with Ivanti. We have a fantastic product portfolio and partner ecosystem, and now it comes down to execution.
Looking ahead, Ivanti must continue to increase its investment in the Ivanti Partner Program to offer more benefits and support. Ivanti is currently bolstering its enablement and onboarding capabilities, and developing additional tools and resources to allow for partners to drive their own net-new demand generation, which is great. I look forward to working with the channel team to continue to build trust and help our partners drive even more success in 2022. I firmly believe that partners can serve as a force multiplier to drastically improve Ivanti’s business outcomes.
CF: What are the biggest challenges facing Ivanti and its partners, and how will you address them?
DK: The new remote work landscape has presented new IT and security challenges for organizations as their employees use various devices to access corporate networks, data and services from different locations. The biggest challenge facing Ivanti, and our partners, is helping customers enable and secure the everywhere workplace.
The good news is that the Ivanti global partner program provides access to Ivanti’s unique and differentiated portfolio of end-to-end solutions that make the everywhere workplace possible. The Ivanti Neurons automation platform connects industry-leading unified endpoint management, security and enterprise service management solutions, providing a single pane of glass for companies to discover, manage, secure and service all endpoints and IT assets.
What I find interesting is that as companies are undergoing a transition from on-premises to cloud, our partners are also undergoing a similar transformation. And as partners go through their own transformation, they become critical in helping solve customers’ business problems.
CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?
DK: I just joined on April 25. My No. 1 priority is to begin building relationships with my team. And my overall mission is to bring the key learnings and best practices I have gained in my 25-plus years working in the industry to bring the next chapter of Ivanti to reality.
CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?
DK: I just joined on April 25. My No. 1 priority is to begin building relationships with my team. And my overall mission is to bring the key learnings and best practices I have gained in my 25-plus years working in the industry to bring the next chapter of Ivanti to reality.
Dennis Kozak, formerly Avaya’s global channel chief, has made the jump to cybersecurity. He’s joining Ivanti as its new chief operating officer. Part of Kozak’s focus will be accelerating Ivanti partner program momentum.
Ivanti’s Dennis Kozak
As COO, Kozak will oversee Ivanti marketing, global sales, customer experience and operations. Ivanti is backed by Clearlake Capital Group, TA Associates and Charlesbank Capital Partners.
Kozak previously was Avaya‘s senior vice president of strategic operations, and global cloud and channel sales.
Jeff Abbott is Ivanti‘s CEO.
“Dennis’ track record of helping organizations in a similar growth pattern to Ivanti will be beneficial for us this year as we continue executing on our mission to secure and enable the everywhere workplace,” he said. “With the momentum from five acquisitions over the past 16 months, Dennis will provide operational excellence and best practices to further catapult Ivanti to the next level. Our ultimate goals are to help our customers and partners achieve their business outcomes while providing an incredible opportunity for our employees to flourish. Dennis is the right executive to lead this mission.”
Before joining Avaya, Kozak spent more than 22 years at CA Technologies, which was acquired by Broadcom in 2018. There, he led organizations such as global sales, global channel sales and strategy, sales operations and global transformation.
Scroll through our slideshow above to learn about Kozak’s plans involving Ivanti partner program momentum.
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