Understanding challenges and reacting to them can be overwhelming to a business. But they are absolutely a key element to success. Before you can succeed, you need to know what challenges lie in front of you.
At NetApp, we are a listening company, and have been recognized as a result of listening and taking action. We recently won CRN Product of the Year awards for market driven enhancements to both our AFF A800 and AFF A320 and we also won the CDW Partner of the Year award based on outstanding partner support. We value our partners and understand that success is mutual success. Each year, we distribute our global Partner Experience Survey to our entire partner community with the goal of getting a view into the reality of our partners’ business. This survey is our structured way to get a pulse on the partnership, learn what is working, and understand the challenges.
This feedback is extremely valuable to us because it is a stepping-stone to change. We understand that the intricacies that lead to a partner’s profitability involve looking at all the steps along the way to selling. These steps range from NetApp’s leadership and brand in the marketplace, to getting partner sellers educated and enabled, supporting a customer’s journey to digital transformation with NetApp, and quoting and placing an order. All of these elements add up to a partner’s experience. If one step along the way creates a challenge for partners, it affects their overall business.
Over the next few months, we will be sharing with our partners all the improvements that we’ve made based on their feedback. Chris Lamborn emphasizes this in his “Your Opinion Matters” video below.
I encourage you to:
Kelly Brady is an experienced leader in the high-tech computer industry. Her experience includes leading business enablement, strategic channel initiatives, channel product adoption, channel enablement strategy, and designing and executing partner programs. At NetApp, Kelly leads the channel messaging and communication strategy, strategic alliance marketing, including the development and execution of go-to-market plans; and the development, execution, and measurement of customer marketing campaigns. She has received CRN Women of the Channel 2019 and several Employee Excellence Awards for professional achievement at companies such as Hyperion Solutions, BEA Systems, and Adobe. Kelly also held a Board of Directors seat for the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) Silicon Valley/NorCal chapter for 2 years.