Sandy Hogan on SADA Move: ‘Surprised I Haven’t Gone This Route Earlier’
As Hogan prepares to take on the new role of chief revenue officer post VMware, we dove a little deeper with her.
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We asked SADA’s Sandy Hogan to talk about the differences when it comes to serving as chief revenue officer versus the head of a channel program. Here’s what she said:
“Being a channel chief, my No. 1 focus was partner-first, partner-led. And that obviously led me to some incredible learnings and capabilities … but my sole focus was ensuring that VMware was leading with that partner-led mentality. I think in a CRO role, what’s unique and what I hope to bring to the table at SADA is that it is very holistic. You have the ability to not only influence but lead in how partners play a role — how you lead in bringing solutions to market, how you lead in the entire growth strategy. That, to me, is all-encompassing. I think that’s most critical for customer success versus the silos.”
Channel Futures is keen on furthering the conversation about the evolving partner ecosystem. Hogan, as many readers know, has stood at the forefront of that discussion for some time. We asked what about how the “ecosystem” might change from her perspective as she moves from a vendor to an MSP.
“When you think about all of the technology out there today — all of the different clouds, edge computing, all of these fundamental elements — it’s increasing the complexity of how our customers digitally transform their ability to accelerate time to value. So when you think about all of those elements, the ecosystem in the role I was in, it was about, how do you connect all partner capabilities to deliver that customer value? Through the lens of SADA, I look at value creation, unleashing the power and business value of Google Cloud and bringing all of the end-to-end capabilities — advisory, selling motion, various professional services, multivendor capabilities through the ISV alliances. It’s the same point of view, but it’s bringing it through a different perspective, and having been in the role that I was in, that’s what got me excited about a company like SADA. I saw just how much growth potential there was and is, partners reinventing their business models to align and adjust. We’re very early in this cloud journey and the more expertise, the more acceleration of time to value — that’s where the action is. That’s where I want to be.”
Company culture means everything. An organization can offer all the bells and whistles to support its employees — but those add-ons mean little without real investment in, and passion for, people. As Hogan moves from VMware to SADA, she takes with her a great appreciation for the connections she made over two-plus years at the vendor. Yet there was something about the SADA culture that really drew her to the MSP. We asked her to expound on that.
“When I met with Tony [Safoian, SADA CEO], what was immediately evident were his words around building a forever company and customer for life. You know how personally important that is for me. But when he talked about building a forever company, what really resonated with me … was building the caliber of talent, the quality and sustainability for value creation, and what that means to customers and employees. And to see Tony and the legacy of the company and what his family has built … speaks volumes to how important people are [at SADA].”
There’s another aspect of that culture lure. Go to the next slide for more insight from Hogan.
Of course, company culture isn’t just about the present or the future, it’s about where an organization has come from. As Hogan evaluated joining SADA, she looked at its past as well.
“When you look at the longevity of SADA, how they have evolved and pivoted, that says to me they have a keen eye on the market, on the customer, on the people, how they adapt, how they’re agile. That was very important for me, to be part of something where you’re always learning, you’re always evolving. You can’t be set in your ways and afraid to take on new challenges.
“And then I think it speaks to the level of talent that they’ve been able to recruit — their curiosity, the way that they engage and support each other. You can see it all over social media, the way they support each other through their posts and what they’re excited about. I think that energy speaks for itself.
“And this leadership team — I already feel like they have my back. That gives me comfort; it gives me motivation to work even harder to come up with new ideas and also maintain the incredible culture that SADA has.”
As Channel Futures and Hogan dove deeper into her newly announced career move, parts of the conversation shifted toward the philosophical. Here are some additional thoughts from Hogan pertaining to the shift from vendor to channel partner:
“Many of the companies I’ve been with have been the product company, not the partner delivering the products and the solutions. When I reflect on my career, I’ve been focused on customer for life, this outcome-based selling. … I’m actually surprised I haven’t gone this route earlier. That is the core of the partner differentiation — how do you take the best capabilities and now multiple vendor products and bring that all in a way that is most meaningful to the customer? That’s what I care about the most. … And it’s the power and allure of what SADA’s been able to do. They’re a leading Google Cloud partner, they have been innovating, and they’ve established incredible customer loyalty all while they’ve been reinventing themselves.”
Hogan mentioned to Channel Futures on July 13 that part of her plans as CRO include furthering SADA’s work with independent software vendors (ISVs). ISVs, of course, are a huge part of the cloud marketplace phenomenon. They’re the developers bringing capabilities to life. Knowing that, SADA recently kicked its Marketplace Integration Service into high gear, with former Googler Adam Massey at the helm. Hogan talked more about her intentions for the ISV community as she takes on the new CRO role at SADA.
“Marketplaces are in many ways a force and force multiplier. They’re changing the dynamics of resale and transactions, and they’re a force multiplier because they’re really creating what is the next level of capabilities — vendor-to-vendor, multivendor solutioning. With all of the ISVs that are now on the Google Marketplace … that opens a huge window of opportunity for SADA to expand its capabilities and really connect the ISVs to SADA services and capabilities, and to bring more holistic solutions. … I see that as nothing but massive opportunity ahead.”
Hogan is big on tailoring technology to meet organizations’ business needs. That’s compared to talking about technology for the sake of technology. As such, Hogan intends to introduce more use-case-based orientation as she embraces her role as CRO. We asked her to explain more about that initiative.
“That’s a longstanding focus that has been important and is even more prominent in the market today. It’s about asking, what are the business problems customers are looking to solve? How do we map that across industries, across key digital transformation initiatives, and do that in a way that really can be holistic? That gets back to ISV partners — and they could be point-of-sale in retail, could be omnichannel or remote health. … Again, looking at it through the customer lens is the main message, and how we scale and create our services … to bring holistic solutions to the customer. … That should be at the core of how you bring unique value.”
As CRO, Hogan also intends to scale SADA’s intellectual property. We asked what she can discuss there.
“SADA has recently rolled out SADA Power. … What I intend to do is dive really deeply into that portfolio. That will be an opportunity to expand some of the use-case offerings.”
Most Channel Futures readers know that SADA now only works with Google Cloud Platform. The MSP jettisoned Microsoft in 2019 to align solely with Google Cloud. For her part, during her years at VMware and Rackspace, Hogan interacted with each of the hyperscalers. As she moves to a single-vendor MSP, we were curious about the differences at Google Cloud that make the jump to SADA an even more solid decision.
“I have a lot to learn, because in the VMware world and in the Rackspace world, it was very much multicloud. … Multicloud is clearly here; it is prominent. But what’s also important and what customers have been very clear about is, they want specialization. They want the expertise, because as they’re implementing different workloads on different clouds, they can’t be an inch deep. … You have to find a way to bring that unique capability and specialization. This whole partner-to-partner ecosystem is growing rapidly and I think that’s one of the main reasons. Partners can complement each other across the customer life cycle.
” … As it relates to Google Cloud Platform, in particular, I’m looking at more customer-centric solutions and use cases — say, connecting Google Maps with Google Workspace with Google Cloud Platform. That, to me, has unique areas of opportunity. … Where you’re connecting the retail space, for example, and the last mile via inventory selection, and seeing where the product is being shipped to and sending alerts to the employee or to the warehouse, and having that all operate on Google Cloud. … I see that as a window of opportunity to really connect all of the capabilities.
” … And while I still have much to learn, what I’ve continued to hear Tony talk about … is customers who are really focused on transforming their businesses, they’ve really centered on Google Cloud vs. just moving workloads from on-premises to cloud. … That speaks to the customer transformation, the solutions, and now you add on top of that the hundreds of ISVs on the Google platform — that’s just nothing but green-space opportunity. … My challenge will be to make sure we stay focused.”
As Hogan prepares to start her new job on July 18, Channel Futures wanted to get an idea of what Day 1 might look like for her. Here’s what Hogan told us:
“I’ve sort of done a little sneaky thing where I’ve made day one the last couple of weeks. I’ve done as much as I can to introduce myself, get to know people, learn what they’re working on. That’s how I view my day one or week one. I already have sessions set up with employees across the whole organization and key Google leaders to understand how we’re going to market together, what’s working, and I’m reaching out to key … SADA customers. … It’s really important to me to be in full discovery mode and not get too anxious to execute. The team’s already executing flawlessly; I don’t want to distract from that. … I’m listening very intently.”
Finally, as Hogan prepares for Day 1 and beyond, we were curious how she might be planning to maintain all the channel partner relationships she built during her time with VMware and Rackspace. Here are Hogan’s thoughts:
“I made a point of connecting with partners as I was exiting VMware … We have the same thing in common — how do we bring value to customers and solve their business problems? … At VMware, partners were sharing best practices, even in the competitive landscape. … Many partners are going to complement each other … in different markets and skill sets across that customer for life. So I view [this career change] as an even greater opportunity to share best practices. … It’s a small industry at the end of the day and talent is scarce, and how we jointly connect and share with each other is only going to grow … I look forward to maintaining those relationships with some incredible partners. … You can probably feel my excitement.”
Finally, as Hogan prepares for Day 1 and beyond, we were curious how she might be planning to maintain all the channel partner relationships she built during her time with VMware and Rackspace. Here are Hogan’s thoughts:
“I made a point of connecting with partners as I was exiting VMware … We have the same thing in common — how do we bring value to customers and solve their business problems? … At VMware, partners were sharing best practices, even in the competitive landscape. … Many partners are going to complement each other … in different markets and skill sets across that customer for life. So I view [this career change] as an even greater opportunity to share best practices. … It’s a small industry at the end of the day and talent is scarce, and how we jointly connect and share with each other is only going to grow … I look forward to maintaining those relationships with some incredible partners. … You can probably feel my excitement.”
By now, cloud channel partners have heard about Sandy Hogan’s new career move from VMware to SADA. Hogan led VMware’s channel program for a little more than two years. She has worked in the tech sector for more than 20.
SADA’s Sandy Hogan
But this role with SADA – she’s accepted the position as the MSP’s first-ever chief revenue officer – marks a departure for Sandy Hogan. It’s the first time she will have worked for a channel partner rather than a vendor. And that is a little surprising to her. After all, Hogan has been involved with the channel for a while — and she loves and champions the value and expertise partners bring to organizations.
Because of that, she told Channel Futures on July 14, “I’m actually surprised I haven’t gone this route earlier.” (She made a similar observation in our initial discussion with her yesterday: “The opportunity is really on the partner side,” she said.)
We’ve got that takeaway, and more, in the slideshow above. Click to find out more from Sandy Hogan about her next steps, and plans as SADA’s CRO.
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