VMi™ delivers actionable insights with immediate impact.
Introduction
Our client is a software security vendor with a mature channel. As a new Channel Chief coming into the company, they wanted a way to baseline the partner program and develop an action plan that would have immediate impact on the partner experience. As a result of the VMi™ study, our client was able to pinpoint the areas that needed critical attention and make the business case for changes and incremental investment.
The Story of Our Client
Our client’s channel strategy has seen a change of leadership, with the new leader committed to really understanding what is happening with the partner ecosystem and their perception of their channel program. VMi™ was selected to study internal stakeholders as well as partners to get feedback and input on exactly how the channel strategy and programmatic elements were performing for the various stakeholders.
In the early days on the job, their Channel Chief heard many stories from internal teams about how dissatisfied the partners were with the Client and their partner program. As a newly seated channel chief, their job was to get to the bottom of this and make a meaningful impact that would demonstrate to the partners that they were committed to them. VMi™ was selected to give them this insight and the results were eye-opening.
VMi™ investigates the partner strategy and programs with surveys to internal and partner teams. How they perceive the various elements of the strategy and program are then analyzed, compared and contrasted to deliver a comprehensive report that tells the story of the program and how the members of the ecosystem are satisfied, or unsatisfied, with the various elements. Our client’s study highlighted several areas where change and additional investment would make meaningful and positive impact in a short amount of time.
Partners reported a high degree of confidence in the program, but the internal teams didn’t see it that way. Digging into the metrics, VMi™ surfaced the lack of internal resources as a frustration point among the internal teams who were scrambling to deliver an excellent partner experience. And while they were doing a great job to deliver, they were also wearing thin. Lack of automation, communications, and transparency were adding to the weight of partner support and the few team members designated to this task were not shy to show their frustration in the VMi™ study.
As a result of this clarity, our client quickly used the VMi™ data to build a business case for additional internal resources to support the partners, as well as launching initiatives for partner communications and metrics transparency. All together 3 new headcounts were approved, a newsletter was launched, and the search is on for a platform to support both automation and information sharing. When preparing for the next Partner Advisory Council meeting, the internal team was excited to share the details and updates with their partners, and they have committed to adopting VMi™ going forward as an annual study to measure impact and satisfaction.
