Investing in Channel Partners Strengthens Business Outcomes for All
Businesses are continuing to ramp up their digital transformations in response to COVID-19. While many digital journeys were underway prior to the pandemic, the health crisis accelerated cloud adoption to enable employees to work safely from home. According to an ESG study, this was the case for 81% of the organizations in its 2021 survey.
As businesses adapt to the new normal and plan their long-term IT strategies, many are integrating cloud-based solutions to provide the flexibility to adapt to new situations and changing demands. However, public cloud may not be appropriate for all workloads—some may require a physical data center environment or may be better suited for a private cloud environment. In addition, while many organizations operate their own on-premise data centers, the pandemic made accessing and managing these facilities more difficult, leaving IT leaders questioning if colocation delivers more value.
These challenges have made hybrid IT deployments a leading strategy for many businesses as they allow organizations to leverage multiple deployment models and place workloads in the most appropriate environment to achieve the performance, predictability, scalability and security their businesses need.
Yet, building a hybrid IT strategy and choosing an IT provider to help execute and support that strategy for the long-term can be overwhelming and complex. To streamline the process, many businesses rely on the guidance of neutral, third-party advisors to help them find the right solutions with the right IT providers as this hybrid IT, multi-cloud journey is often optimized by utilizing multiple cloud and managed service providers.
ENABLING OUR CHANNEL PARTNERS
As an IT solutions provider with a comprehensive portfolio of hybrid IT solutions—including colocation, connectivity, cloud, data protection, managed and professional services—Flexential is committed to supporting third-party agents and consultants in addressing their customers’ IT challenges and hybrid, digital transformation journeys. Our channel partners are integral to our go-to-market strategy and are major contributors to our revenue—typically accounting for 50% of our new-logo sales.
We recognize our channel partners work with multiple IT providers and have multiple options when recommending services to their customers. To stand above other IT solutions providers, we work hard to enable our partners to engage their customers in outcome-based conversations about hybrid IT and multi-cloud solutions—resulting in identifying new opportunities that create long-term value for their customers, while increasing their own revenue streams.
Sales and Marketing Resources
Recognizing its channel partners’ roles as trusted advisors, Flexential equips them with the knowledge and tools to help them proactively engage their customers in more interactive conversations about their cloud strategies and digital transformation initiatives to drive more opportunities and more revenue.
We view our channel partners as extensions of our internal sales team and provide them with the same sales and marketing tools our own sales teams use. These assets, including sales documents, battlecards, brochures and email templates, aim to educate our partners on the Flexential hybrid IT portfolio as well as industry trends and common business challenges. This information can help our channel partners leverage our portfolio of products to solve their customers’ issues.
Enablement Training Program
To continually enhance our partners’ knowledge of our solutions, Flexential also offers a self-paced, online training program. These on-demand modules offer additional opportunities for partners to deepen their understanding of how Flexential hybrid IT solutions align with the IT challenges their customers face.
Flexential’s Hybrid IT program is the latest in a series of educational curricula that include Data Protection Services, Colocation and Cloud Services, Flexential Professional Services and Deconstructing a Hybrid Sales Pursuit. Flexential also offers modules on various market dynamics such as hybrid IT market trends and sales use cases. Partners who complete the Hybrid IT training modules receive Flexential Hybrid IT Training Certification to highlight their commitment to expanding their knowledge base and selling Flexential solutions.
Collaborative Approach to Selling
The Flexential Partner Program is anchored by our partner focus and collaborative sales approach. Flexential supports our partners through a dedicated channel team which includes sales, marketing and engineering resources. The Channel Team’s main goal is to support our partners and their businesses while creating the best partner experience possible.
Our partners are fully integrated into our go-to-market strategy and aligned with our field sellers and overlay sales team as part of the selling pursuit. This channel-friendly model promotes cooperative selling and eliminates unnecessary channel conflict.
Our partners credit this synergy with routinely winning us deals.
Enhanced Partner Portal
Flexential also introduced our new Partner Portal earlier this year. Designed to expand functionality and deliver an improved partner experience, the enablement tool provides a centralized platform for partners to view and manage their Flexential business, including
registering leads, managing opportunities, and accessing sales, marketing and enablement resources.
Looking forward, Flexential will introduce new portal features, including opportunities to create customized, co-branded sales materials and access “campaigns in a box” to generate demand with customers and prospects. The portal will also provide Flexential with insight into the most frequently utilized assets to help us produce new resources that support our partners’ interests and needs.
Partner Awards
In the same way we honor our Flexential sales AEs for their performance each year, we also like to honor our top partners who played a key role in driving Flexential’s portfolio of services to market. The following partners were announced as 2021 award winners at our annual Partner Summit in February:
Pinnacle Award – AVANT Communications, Inc.
Breakout Partner of the Year – Bridgepointe Technologies
Top Agent – Vinco
Strategic Cloud Partner of the Year – Softchoice
Momentum Partner of the Year – PEAK Resources, Inc.
Systems Integrator of the Year - CDW
Our partners are integral to our go-to-market success. Flexential is dedicated to our partners’ success and will continue to invest in our Partner Program to ensure it remains a true differentiator in the industry.