IDC Roundtable with TIBCO: What Makes a Best-in-class Partner Program in the Evolving Partner Ecosystem Landscape?
Blog: The Tibco Blog
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Of all the webinars that vie for your time and attention, why should you watch this one on-demand? We’re in the midst of a major transformation in how companies go to market, and it’s increasingly evident that partner ecosystems are critical to accelerating this transformation.
If you want to grow your partner channel, this recent IDC-led roundtable discussion shares insights you won’t want to miss, including:
- What does the partner ecosystem look like in 2022?
- How can organizations build a best-in-class partner program that keeps pace with the ever-changing channel landscape?
IDC Global Channel Analyst Steve White set the tone for the webinar by revealing the latest top IDC-researched channel industry trends and best practices. From there, a lively discussion ensued, during which Steve asked TIBCO partner leaders for specific examples of how the team is enhancing its program to meet partners’ current and future needs.
TIBCO participants included:
- Tony Beller, SVP, TIBO Worldwide Partner Ecosystem
- Susan Beaver, Director, Global Partner Programs and Success and Operations
- Samantha Patel, Senior Director of Global Partner Marketing
No worries if you missed the live webinar; it’s available for you to watch on-demand. The discussion—which included a live Q&A—provided a cornucopia of key takeaways on how partners, customers, and vendors can take maximum advantage of what’s new and trending on the partner channel landscape. Here’s a sneak peek to whet your appetite for the feast of insights and advice the webinar provides.
IDC Research Shows That Partnerships are More Important than Ever
Based on IDC’s extensive partner ecosystem research, the last couple of years have magnified trends that were already emerging. One critical insight Steve offered is that organizations feel an increasing urgency to transform. They also seek comprehensive solutions that make business transformation simpler and more cost-effective to deploy.
It’s impossible for one vendor to deliver a solution that meets all complex, unique business needs. This reality makes establishing and nurturing partnerships a front-and-center priority for vendors across all industries.
IDC’s Seven Areas of Focus for Creating Best-in-class Partner Programs
When IDC researched successful partner programs, the company found that best-of-breed programs rested on a common set of seven foundational pillars. You’ll learn more about them all and how the TIBCO partner team addresses them when you listen to the webinar replay. For now, here are the three pillars Steve identified that vendors should focus on when developing or enhancing their partner programs:
- Customer-centricity: Prioritize the needs and outcomes of joint end customers
- Partner success and profitability: Make it easy, simple, and attractive for partners to engage and proactively participate
- Always be onboarding: Make sure partners can easily and quickly get access to the right information, when they need it
“Based on IDC’s seven pillars for partner success, the TIBCO Partner Program reflects a synergy between what partners want and the areas TIBCO is investing in. TIBCO’s passion for partners comes through loud and clear.”
—Steve White, IDC Global Channel Analyst
A Recap of Observations and Advice About Evolving to a Vibrant, Engaged Partner Ecosystem
Each panelist offered a wealth of insights into how the TIBCO Partner team continually elevates and evolves how the company recognizes, engages, and rewards its partners.
Here’s a quick summary of what the panelists had to say:
Tony Beller focused on:
- Why having a strong partner ecosystem is a win-win for partners, customers, and vendors, observing that TIBCO partners are increasingly building accelerators and solutions on top of TIBCO platforms, delivering comprehensive joint solutions to customers’ most complex data challenges.
- How vendors can infuse a partner-first orientation throughout their organization’s DNA—an ongoing, continually evolving mission.
- How the partner team created a simplified, consolidated program that covers all motions (or activities) partners might have with TIBCO, with portals, systems, and processes that make it easy and simple to transact with the company.
“Our job is to listen—to the market, to our partners, to our internal stakeholders. Our evolution as a team and as a partner-first organization is based on what we hear, and we integrate that information into our partner program.”
—Tony Beller, SVP, TIBO Worldwide Partner Ecosystem
Susan Beaver focused on:
- Addressing partner feedback, which identified field engagement as a top-of-mind priority. In response, the partner team created a stronger alignment of compensation and benefit models and a mutual commitment to leveraging one another’s strengths to deliver solutions customers want.
- Building an ongoing communication, collaboration, and feedback loop, citing the reignited Partner Advisory Council; the team also created at least one yearly onsite meeting, began providing quarterly gain updates, and more.
- Tripling the size of the partner marketing team, which has broadened its reach to engage with partners on individual bespoke marketing plans, in addition to enabling daily engagement opportunities with partner sales teams.
“It’s great to see people’s faces on our Zoom calls, when our partners and sales teams have that ‘AHA!’ moment and realize we’re all focused on the same strategic objective: to make our joint solutions successful for our customers.”
—Susan Beaver, Director, Global Partner Programs and Success and Operations
Samantha Patel focused on:
- Representing the partner-first culture at the recent sales kick-off event by sporting “Partner Posse” tattoos. (Though the tats were temporary, the commitment to partners is written indelibly in the minds and hearts of the entire partner team!)
- Optimizing market development funds (MDF) in 2022 by ensuring they’re part of a broader plan that makes them work harder and generate a better ROI to help partners become even more successful.
- Working with the entire TIBCO marketing team to leverage tried-and-true, best-of-breed campaigns that help empower our partners.
“When it comes to MDF, our motto for 2022 is ‘Not one dollar left behind.’”
—Samantha Patel, Senior Director of Global Partner Marketing
To learn more about what a best-practices-based partner program looks like and the elements that go into creating and sustaining it, watch the webinar on-demand.
The post IDC Roundtable with TIBCO: What Makes a Best-in-class Partner Program in the Evolving Partner Ecosystem Landscape? first appeared on The TIBCO Blog.
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