PlanetOne Promotes Werpy, Schuman, Eyes New Commission Features

PlanetOne is promoting two of its top executives and teasing plans to upgrade the commissions experience for channel partners.

The Arizona-based IT sourcing partner promoted Chris Werpy to president and Jake Schuman to senior vice president.

PlanetOne’s Chris Werpy

Werpy joined PlanetOne in 2020 after spending 13 years at Masergy. PlanetOne CEO Ted Schuman said Werpy drove results in his role as chief operating officer of PlanetOne.

“He is fundamentally changing how PlanetOne goes to market. His fingerprints are all over the business. He joined us 18 months ago, and the training wheels were on for about 8 minutes,” Schuman said on stage during the company’s Partner Appreciation week.

Jake Schuman had been serving as general manager and vice president, overseeing PlanetOne’s offices in Orange County. In addition, he committed the last two years to developing the company’s business intelligence platform, Sentient. He will report to Werpy. Werpy said the promotion allows Schuman to develop Sentient with less encumbrance.

PlanetOne’s Jake Schuman

“Let us know how we can support you, but we’re clearing the road so you can go run, man,” Werpy said in a call with Channel Futures and Schuman.

Ted Schuman praised both promotees.

“Since 1992, PlanetOne has always differentiated on experience and execution, and operated with a growth mindset that if everything seems under control, we’re not going fast enough,’” he said. “I’m proud to say over the last 18 months with Werpy as COO and Jake focused on the origin and continued advancement of Sentient, PlanetOne is faster, stronger and operating with more precision and focus. The positive business impact generated and inspired by these two business leaders runs wide and deep.”

The company increased its staff by 25% in 2021, including new vice president of supplier management Karie Atwood.

Sentient Update

PlanetOne launched Sentient last fall, promoting it as a business intelligence platform that guides sales partners and suppliers through the life cycle of a deal. Executives report that average revenue order per partner has gone up by 70% for those using the platform.

Now the company is planning a Sentient update around commissions.

Jake Schuman said the channel has standardized around RPM for commissions. However, he said the PlanetOne team felt that they needed to build their own tool in order to give channel partners more real-time analytics around their commissions.

PlanetOne’s Ted Schuman

“There were no options out there to give us the amplified business intelligence feel for what we really want in our business, so we went out and built it,” Schuman said.

Werpy said the update will allow agents to see their monthly commission status as well as view projections about their sales funnel and technology portfolio. As a result, channel partners can more strategically plan their business.

“Agents are becoming more savvy. With all the M&A activity in our space, many agents are taking the time to take a step back and look at their business. What does their model look like? Even talking about things like EBITDA and operating free cash flow. They’re taking those types of things very seriously,” Werpy said.