Channel Enablers Partner Manager Resource Center

Anna Johnson of 'Channel Management Insights' sat down with Bill Griffin, vice president of worldwide channel sales for Autodesk to discuss their global deal registration program.

As technology vendors have moved solutions from an on-premise service model to a cloud-enabled model, many have found that existing channel partners have been slow to embrace this new direction. CCI’s Anna Johnson sat down with Steve Hale, practice director with Bridge Partners Consulting, to discuss how the relationship between vendors and their sales channels are evolving as technology services move to the cloud. Hale, former channel chief and VP at F5, Novell and Sophos and 17-year Microsoft veteran shares insights into making the transition to the cloud a bit more effortless for the channel.

Gleaning insights from partners to help shape go-to-market strategies reaches beyond collecting partner feedback. It requires a targeted approach to build an influential forum between a vendor and its partners where the forum's purpose is to strengthen the relationship between the company and its customers through the channel. With this purpose in mind, the idea of the Partner Advisory Council is born.

CCI are conducting a survey to discover what channel incentive programs are producing greatest economic returns to vendors. By participating in the survey and providing CCI your contact details you will receive an advance copy of the survey results and enter a draw to win a prize.

Co-op and MDF programs are the most popular channel marketing programs offered by vendors. Despite their popularity, these programs are often ill conceived by vendors and consequently misused by channel partners. Vendors often leap before they look by implementing and executing these programs without asking themselves two simple questions. “What are our objectives and how do we design marketing programs to meet them?”  

Anna Johnson of CCI sat down with Mike Haines, Director of Worldwide Strategy for SMB channel incentives at Microsoft to learn what common mistakes vendors make when designing their Co-op and MDF programs and how best to avoid them. With over 30 years of executive channel management experience including six years at Gartner, Mike Haines has provided sound advice to Fortune 500 companies on how to optimize sales and marketing through the channel.

In a world where customers are moving toward managed services and away from hardware and software purchases, which of your partners will make the transition? What role do vendors play in enabling the channel to make the transition to selling managed services? For those partners that can't or won't make the transition, how will you recruit qualified partners to fill the gap?

Anna Johnson of CCI sat down with Craig Schlagbaum, Comcast Business Class Vice President of Indirect Channels, to discuss a new model of recruiting and enabling the channel to take advantage of the opportunity of a recurring revenue service.