Partnerships: Changing the Game for Digital Transformation

The buzz: “Ecosystems are dynamic and co-evolving communities of diverse actors who create and capture new value through increasingly sophisticated models of both collaboration and competition…to achieve something together that lies beyond the effective scope and capabilities of any individual actor.” (Business ecosystems come of age – Deloitte) Amid the challenges of 2020, the high-tech industry proved it can sustain and even grow in the most demanding of times. From such adversity came innovation. As offices closed, businesses had to adopt agile new processes, remote working and re-engineered customer experiences. As we look to 2021, digital adoption will continue to accelerate. We ask SAP’s Tina Bronsch, Charles Bennett and Paul Logue about the key driving forces behind this phenomenon, from rapid adoption of a cloud computing platform to agile business innovation, and the partner ecosystems that will enable it all to happen.

The buzz: “New digital business models are the principal reason why just over half of the names of companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000.” (weforum.org) Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2020 Prepping for Disruptive Innovation states, “The next stage of digital evolution will transform businesses in unpredictable ways, with leading companies realizing that every aspect of their organization that is disrupted by technology represents an opportunity to gain or lose trust.” The impact of Covid-19 is forcing companies of all sizes to adapt and innovate even faster in these challenging economic, social and environmental conditions. The key to success? An innovation program that aligns business strategy, employees, technology platforms and ecosystems with customer needs. We ask Alex Brayshaw, Axel Deniz-Johannis and Aleix Valls to share their experiences and their outlook for 2021 on Disruptive Innovation In A New World Era.

The buzz: To keep channel sales growing, many vendors will need to rethink the way they work with and offer incentives to their partners…resellers, distributors, and independent software vendors and next-generation partners like cloud service providers and telcos. This is no small undertaking…” bcg.com How can vendors with an indirect business model achieve customer success? Easy. Deliver a frictionless and consistent experience across all touchpoints with their customers and ecosystem. But the route to bountiful relationships is strewn with potential detours that business leaders must know how to navigate. How is customer success deemed ‘done right’ in today’s dynamically changing business environment? We’ll ask global business experts who work in the cloud economy – Robert Geppert at Sybit GmbH, and Hans Uebe and Anthony Pante at SAP – to share their insights on how to build the ultimate experience for partners, employees and customers on Customer Success Is Vendor Success.

The buzz X 3: Ken Blanchard: “None of us is as smart as all of us.” Michael Jordan: “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” Phil Jackson: “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” While the year 2020 has forced many business leaders to figure out how to manage economic downturns for companies large and small, it’s time for them to gear-up for “bounce back growth” in 2021. How do you bring together and harness the skills of your teams, integrate new talent and galvanize your entire company toward shared goals and a new era horizon in 2021? Start by looking at how shared resources, collaboration and the support of partnership ecosystems are critical to your planning. We’ll ask Edwyn van Rooyen at T-Cup, and Jorgen Lindegaard and Thomas Pickel at SAP to share their experiences building top performing teams that drive customer success. Join us for Building Winning Teams for 2021: A Return to Growth.

The buzz: “It’s no secret that selling to other businesses is tricky. You simply won’t succeed if you don’t take B2B selling for what it is: a high-stakes selling game that requires an entirely unique approach from direct-to-consumer selling…develop a sales process that works for your business, prospects, and overall goals.” blog.hubspot.com Companies around the world spend billions yearly on sales and digital marketing activity aimed at generating new sales lead opportunities. But much of this budget is wasted if the sales organisation has a poor deal closing performance. CSO Insights’s Annual Sales Enablement Study found the win rate for forecast deals was just 46.4%. How do-performing B2B companies achieve up to an 80% deal close ratio? What do they know? We’ll ask Michael May at s-peers AG, and Simone Oesch and Frederik Uekermann at SAP to share their experiences, best practices, processes and skills training needed for sales enablement in this critical area of business.