Ex-Microsoft Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster Talks Open Systems Role
The longtime partner advocate might be closer to the channel than ever.
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Gavriella Schuster explains her decision to join the Open Systems board this way:
“What Open Systems is doing is really leveraging Microsoft 100% — Azure Sentinel and Defender — and making real use of that in a way I don’t see anyone else in the market doing,” she said. “So the customer already owns [that] and then [needs] services.”
For instance, more end users need help protecting against phishing and other email threats, as well as more expertise in safeguarding data and privacy. Open Systems “has a lot of those threat vectors covered, so the customer doesn’t necessarily have to buy other tools and can actually shed some of the other tools they’ve purchased. Then the partner can really focus on the expertise that Open Systems offers to them and be that frontline.”
In this scenario, partners manage the assets and do Tier 1 support. That’s a plus, Schuster says.
“One of the things Open Systems does is … help the customer identify which assets they want to most heavily invest,” she said. From there, ensuing guidance comes from the partner.
“The partner can then be the CISO, in some cases, for some of these midmarket customers,” she said.
When you consider what Schuster says on the very last slide, this approach makes perfect sense.
As an Open Systems board member, Schuster provides feedback and insight to executives. That’s a big deal. Schuster brings years of Microsoft and channel experience to Open Systems. If the company is as intent as it seems on beefing up its partner program, leaders will listen to, and act on, Schuster’s input.
“I see a huge opportunity at Open Systems for the partner community to build on the skillset they have around Microsoft 365,” Schuster told Channel Futures.
For example, as Microsoft invests more in security, Open Systems will direct that expertise into its own managed detection and response platforms, Schuster said. From there, partners can “expand and provide even greater services to the customer … and build some of their own added services.”
Schuster has been helping Open Systems assess its channel approach. Together they have been evaluating channel partners and figuring out more ways “to meet the needs of that partner community.”
In other words, Open Systems and Schuster are finding more avenues to help partners increase profitability and sustainability, while lowering the cost of customer acquisition. A lot of people would call that a win-win.
Schuster has a lot of praise for Open Systems, but she’s also on the board to guide the company toward improvements. When it comes to the channel program, Schuster sees room for growth.
“They have an opportunity to provide a lot more support to the partner ecosystem and to get much closer through the sales cycles of those partners,” she said.
One “gimme” way for that to happen comes via upgrades to Microsoft 365 E5.
“Open Systems gives the customer a no-brainer reason to make that move and immediately see the benefits of that upgrade,” Schuster said. “This will really boost the sales of the partner community in the easy way.”
Schuster also is advising Open Systems to build more of the right connectors into its tools and technology. That way, partners can, with little effort, integrate APIs into their own systems — and boost income.
“This allows more operational excellence to decrease the overall cost of doing business,” Schuster said. “Sometimes when you have three parties engaged in a customer — in this case, Microsoft, the partner and an overlay of additional technology with Open Systems — that can be more difficult. But if Open Systems is seamlessly integrated … [it’s] easier integration and easier for sales reps to consume.”
Achieving this is not hard — the issue lies more in Open Systems being aware of some of those APIs they could connect into, Schuster said.
Channel partners face the same hurdles as everyone around them: seemingly nonstop inflation and unending supply chain hiccups, and more. Schuster has some predictions for other obstacles channel partners will have to overcome this year.
“We’re going to continue to figure out what it means to work in a hybrid workspace,” she said. “Customers … still may be hesitant to allow people to come on site to their buildings.”
That puts managed services providers, VARs, consultants, agents and other channel partners in the tough position of “continuing get better at remote selling,” Schuster said. “Engagement and support are, I think, big challenges the channel continues to face.”
Alongside those challenges lies the ongoing question of how partners can distinguish their practices from those of peers. Many partners still are searching for ways to “differentiate beyond infrastructure and move into areas of value to the customer,” Schuster said.
“That’s another reason why I’m excited about security and Open Systems,” she said. “Customers are well on that path for IaaS and are looking at redoing their apps and app road maps, and so partners really need to think about what is going to be their area of expertise.”
It’s a slow process, though.
“One of the challenges is that partners still make a lot of money doing the infrastructure and they haven’t really worn it out,” Schuster said. “But at this point, with the last year and a half and acceleration customers have had, I do think a lot of the profitability has left that business. … And those partners that haven’t really defined that differentiation are having a hard look at their businesses.”
Alongside those challenges lies the ongoing question of how partners can distinguish their practices from those of peers. Many partners still are searching for ways to “differentiate beyond infrastructure and move into areas of value to the customer,” Schuster said.
“That’s another reason why I’m excited about security and Open Systems,” she said. “Customers are well on that path for IaaS and are looking at redoing their apps and app road maps, and so partners really need to think about what is going to be their area of expertise.”
It’s a slow process, though.
“One of the challenges is that partners still make a lot of money doing the infrastructure and they haven’t really worn it out,” Schuster said. “But at this point, with the last year and a half and acceleration customers have had, I do think a lot of the profitability has left that business. … And those partners that haven’t really defined that differentiation are having a hard look at their businesses.”
Gavriella Schuster has been out of her role as Microsoft’s channel chief for about six months now. But that doesn’t mean the longtime partner advocate has stepped away from the world of indirect technology sales. Instead, because she has taken on multiple initiatives, her new ventures seem to be bringing her closer to the community. Consider her latest appointment as a board member for Open Systems. And she’s delivering a keynote address at Nerdio’s upcoming conference in Cancun.
Schuster has a lot more going on, too. She holds a chair advisory seat with the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, spearheads diversity, equity and inclusion efforts (including with Channel Futures) and sits on several boards. To that last point, her work with Open Systems really hits home with a lot of channel partners because of the company’s focus on security.
Gavriella Schuster
“The value that Open Systems has to offer to an MSP is to actually become more like an MSSP, without having to invest in overhead, and add security in, to think beyond the desktop and infrastructure and how that wraps the whole customer’s environment together,” Schuster recently told Channel Futures.
Click the slideshow above to learn more about Schuster’s decision to join the Open Systems board; plus, the direction in which she hopes to guide the company, and challenges she expects partners to face in 2022.
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