Websense Announces Channel Program Enhancements and New Channel Chief

By Beth Vanni, Director of Market Intelligence

In the last three years, Websense has made big strides in both its market position and the maturity of its channel engagement programs. Once known as the small, web filtering McAfee challenger with an unclear commitment to channels, the company announced a number of key product, program and executive management changes at their Annual Partner Conference last week which indicate their continued and serious commitment to success in the channel and as a leader in enterprise security.

1. The company announced a new, simplified U.S. margin structure and greater incentives for deal registration and license renewal migration to their Websense Security Gateway and v10000 appliance products. In a subscription licensing world, securing renewals and upselling to their broader portfolio is critical.

2. Their core partnering program now offers an impressive variety of co-marketing and sales prospecting tools to make it easier for partners to do demand generation work, including a turnkey Harte Hanks telemarketing services and a direct marketing & appointment setting campaigns offered by a local marketing firm called Binary Pulse. Yet another offering was announced with Bridgemetrics for building custom landing pages and microsites.

3. A revamped partner portal was revealed which offers Websense channel partners a one-stop resource for sales, product, marketing, and competitive information.

4. An aggressive end-user branding campaigned was unveiled focused on SaaS solutions and their integration with legacy security structures. Dubbed “Outside is the New Inside”, the campaign promises partners enhanced lead passing.

5. Perhaps the most impressive part of the company’s overall channel support model includes the diversity of value-based performance metrics they’re now tracking around partner contribution. These include the amount of proof of concepts and demos conducted by partners, the breadth of new business pipeline, technical certifications held, the quantity and quality of end-user references secured and overall renewals and customer retention rates. These metrics are all woven nicely into key program support offerings, resulting in a robust channel program that looks nothing like it did a mere 3 years ago.

Under the leadership of David Roberts, the company’s previous Senior Vice President, Sales for the Americas, Websense has made notable and visible investments in their channel community over the past three years. The company announced a new global channel sales leader, Matt Hynes, who is responsible for leading and growing Websense global channel sales efforts which includes value-added reseller (VARs), direct marketers, and federal resellers. Hynes is tasked with growing the impact of the company’s global channels for this next phase of its growth, as it takes on several heavy-weight security players head to head. We look forward to seeing how the investments Websense has made (several of which were guided by Amazon Consulting) prepare it for higher growth in a crowded and competitive marketplace.

Two-Buck-Chuck Wine: Are Volume-selling and Exclusives Still Relevant Channel Strategies?

By Beth Vanni, Director, Market Intelligence

I have had the good fortune to marry into a large Italian family — a family of fantastic cooks with very sophisticated palates and a great appetite for good wine. During a conversation with my father-in-law over the Christmas holidays, we discussed what constitutes a good table wine. He reminisced about how his father and grandfather always had a big jug of a (mediocre) Cabernet and drank two glasses with every meal. He lamented, despite his current financially comfortable position, how most families can’t afford a good $25-30 bottle of wine at every meal and how there’s a great market to be had for affordable daily wine. The conversation then led to a retailing phenomenon in the wine business that had caught his attention, and the attention of his other wine-purist (dare I say “snob”) friends.

He called it “Two Buck Chuck” wine, available at Trader Joe’s (a west coast specialty grocery chain). The real wine label is Charles Shaw, a label owned by Bronco Wine Co., currently the 8th biggest wine producer in California. Fred Franzia, the company’s President and a shrewd entrepreneur, has the west coast Napa Valley wine vintners up in arms selling a case of his signature Merlot or Syrah for $1.99 per bottle.. yes, $2.00 per bottle. Under $25.00 for a full case. The Charles Shaw label is sold exclusively by Trader Joe’s stores. Bronco sells 72 million bottles of Charles Shaw label wine every year. Says Frazia, “we had the brand, and the other growers had a huge supply of high-quality wine.” And consumers LOVE it — it’s flying off the shelves at Trader Joe’s by the case. The quality is consistent and more than palatable for non-snob wine consumer, and it’s getting strong ratings including a 10/10 rating from www.CheapWines.com. So, what’s the relevance of all this to IT products being sold through indirect channels? A fair question… let me explain.

A Minivan is NOT an Upgrade!

By Diane Krakora, CEO

I travel a lot. Well, not that much compared to you global channel chiefs out there – but I’m going somewhere every other week. I only rent from Hertz. Don’t ask me why… I don’t remember anymore (it’s been that long). This last trip I showed up at the Gold Member “board” and was spritely directed to my car located in stall #48. I thought “at least it’s close and I don’t have to shelp all this stuff through the freezing rain.” My heart stops as I get to stall #44 … it couldn’t be… they wouldn’t dare! Yes, they assigned me a minivan. No offense to you moms out there. I’ve only been in a minivan once (Sandra’s) and I would really rather NOT drive one. I shelp back to the Gold Member counter and very sweetly ask the woman “could I get the compact I requested … or even a subcompact please?”  She snorts and types away on her 1970’s terminal and finally responds “you’ve been upgraded.” I smile and say (without my standard sarcasm) “that’s really nice – but I prefer the compact. I’m more comfortable with it.”  She frowned and barked something that basically meant I was stuck with the mom-van. Looking back, I’m sure she said something about being completely out of the car I requested – even though I walked past a dozen on my way to space #48. All I heard was “blah, blah… you’ll be driving a minivan.” Eeecck!

I relay this story not to seem snobbish about my transportation options … but to remind us all who create “upgrade paths” to ensure the upgrade is actually preferred by the partner. For example, if a partner in the lower tier of your program does really well and sells a bunch of gear – you’re likely to “promote” that partner to the next level. Great! More benefits – like access to MDF, deal registration and a partner account manager. What if that partner doesn’t WANT one of those benefits – say the “account manager?” There could be several reasons why … the requirement to talk to and coordinate with said “account manager” being one. I’m not suggesting you drop your account manager structure. I’m simply highlighting that to a certain set of partners (people) all benefits are not created equal. Some of use just don’t want to drive a minivan – even if it is more spacious, more powerful and more luxurious than a compact car. Some people would be delighted with the larger car. Me, not so much. Are you upgrading your partners to a minivan?

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SaaS Leader Continues Major Product Innovations: Can Partnering Support Keep Pace?

By Beth Vanni, Director, Market Intelligence

For nearly a decade, Salesforce.com has created major waves in the traditional enterprise software market. Now with $1.3 billion in revenues and 70,000 customers, the SaaS innovator has clearly changed the way software is delivered and managed.

At this year’s Dreamforce user conference, it was clear that the SaaS provider has aims to not only dominate the legacy CRM and SFA markets, but is trying to innovate the way all parts of the IT ecosystem (customers, ISVs, solution providers) create collaborative relationships using technology.

As many would expect, the keynote sessions were all about software/ service innovation. Marc Benioff, the company’s charismatic Chairman and CEO, evangelized the next generation applications offering.  This included the Sales Cloud 2, Service Cloud 2, Custom Cloud 2 and newly announced Chatter collaboration platforms.  A host of new features were announced for all product sets, to the enthusiastic reception of the user and partner audience.

Cisco Small Business Partner Program Announcements

By Diane Krakora, CEO

Also See: Channel Insider

IBM’s Mid-Market Push: Posting Notable Progress with Industry Solutions and Business Partner Engagement

Beth Vanni – Director, Market Intelligence – Amazon   Consulting

IBM is hell-bent on become the preferred technology and services provider for mid-market customers – Globally. And in true big-Blue form, they‘ve got thousands of people and a lot of money focused on getting there. With nearly 25% marketshare across their broad portfolio in the mid-market globally, they’re starting to gain meaningfully broad traction in the sub 1000-user customer space. Fundamental to their route to market approach will, of course, be their broad business partner community. But can IBM truly create the simple product solutions, services offerings and local field engagement to act as one, integrated technology provider in this space? And, do they really have the right profile of partner to represent complete industry-focused solutions to mid-market customers?

How Social Are Your Partners?

By Sandra Glaser Cheek – Director, Client Services

Every time I begin to blog about social media, I pause and think of how my inbox is assaulted on daily basis with invitations to attend/participate in social media events, webinars, etc. Everyone is talking about social media in the channel, but up to this point, we really haven’t seen our clients doing much about it – and especially not “with” their partners.

No doubt, social media is important in today’s marketing mix. But how much it is embraced by Channel Marketing organizations seems to be directly related to how a company embraces social media in general. And, it’s practically unheard of for vendors to include social media as reimbursable activities in their MDF or incentive funding programs.

Q4 2009 Check-in

By Diane Krakora, CEO

Diane speaks briefly about  partnering priorities this quarter that could very well expand through 2010, including partner program refreshing, optimizing channel spend, breaking into new markets, and internal and external channel sales training.

Getting Back to Basics

By Sandra Glaser Cheek – Director, Client Services

Often when we work with clients on their channel communications strategies, our social media recommendations bring on a mountain of questions and concerns. There is a lot of apprehension around developing a social media strategy. Questions like getting executive buy-in, integration of internal teams that will engage partners in social technologies, which tools and platforms to use, etc., often come up. Not that these aren’t good questions – they are. But they really miss the point. I’d recommend borrowing a basic journalism approach and starting with the “Five W’s” (and one “H”) questions instead:

WHO are you trying to reach?

WHAT are your objectives, and what are you trying to accomplish?

WHEN and HOW is the best time and way to reach them?

WHERE do these people spend time online?

WHY do they care about what you have to say? What is the value that you bring to the table/conversation?

When formulating your channel social media strategy, what are some of the questions you think are important to start with?

OPN Specialized at Oracle OpenWorld 2009

Beth Vanni shares her thoughts on OPN Specialized with Lydia Smyers immediately after the launch of the program at Oracle OpenWorld 2009.