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Jeremiah Jenson, vice president of North Amiercan channels at HPE In The Channel has gone deep on HPE Discover 2026 – from Justin McGarry’s walkthrough of the compute and AI infrastructure story, to Ben Fallon on the networking pivot and partner program overhaul, to front-line perspectives from Canadian partners CompuGen, Powerland, and Long View. Today, we’re closing the arc with HPE vice president of North America channel and partner ecosystem Jeremiah Jenson, recorded on the final afternoon of the show. Jenson says the temperature on the floor is “white hot,” driven by the clarity of the message and the proof points HPE brought to partners this year. The 30-day quote validity and expanded credit terms – announced at Partner Growth Summit – got what he called the strongest reaction in the room, and he credits Canadian partners specifically as “by no means the quietest voice in the room” in making that change happen. On networking, Jenson says he’s reset targets higher for data center networking and wants the Canadian channel to lead the charge. He points to partners historically from the Juniper and Aruba sides now expanding into HPE’s Private Cloud AI business, and to data center partners adopting Marvis and the data center networking stack to take share from Cisco. He also walks through what he calls the “great VM reset” – HPE’s push around Morpheus Enterprise and VME as alternatives for partners and customers facing Broadcom’s VMware changes – and sets an aggressive target for North American partners to lead globally on VME certifications. On the Canadian front, Jenson highlights conversations around provincial government opportunity and data sovereignty as distinct from the broader North American channel, and offers a direct message to partners: stop worrying about what HPE used to be, and start picking a clear point of view on where the portfolio fits your customer base. Read Full Transcript Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. Since HPE Discover 2026, we’ve been all over the subject. You’ve heard from HPE’s Justin McGarry on the compute and AI infrastructure story, from Fallon McCarthy on the networking pivot and partner program changes, and from three Canadian partners, Compugen, Powerland and Long View, on what HPE’s strategy looks like from the front lines of the Canadian channel. Today we close the arc as we sit down once again with HPE’s Vice President of North American Channel and Partner Ecosystems, Jeremiah Jenson. It’s a conversation that takes the temperature of the show floor after three days of partner meetings, looks at where the biggest margin opportunities actually are for partners, and asks what one thing Canadian partners should stop doing and start doing as they head into the second half of 2026. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Jeremiah Jenson. Interview: Robert Dutt: Jeremiah, thanks for taking the time. Once again, good to catch up with you. Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, great to see you, Rob. Thanks. It’s Wednesday afternoon at Discover as we sit down, and the good news is you’re still standing. That’s a win in its own right at this point. You’ve now sat in a lot of rooms with partners who have heard the full story that we talked about in the previous podcast we did together. I’m curious your thought on the temperature, the reaction, what’s landing differently in the conference room than it did on the keynote stage, that kind of thing. Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, the temperature is phenomenal. There’s so much excitement about… There were a lot of announcements this week, but the clarity of message, while I say it this way, we’ve packed a full month into this week, but the clarity of that message and how it’s being very clearly communicated, clear opportunity for partners to go execute on and take advantage of that very real opportunity that we have right in front of us. So I think it’s landing really well from a temperature standpoint. I mean, white hot, I mean, there’s just a tremendous amount of excitement. Robert Dutt: I want to start with a thing that I felt got one of the strongest reactions on Monday, the 30-day validity terms announced. Now the partners have a few days to process that, as well as the quote-to-cash stuff and the expanded credit terms. Is it changing the feel of the deal conversation or is it still a, you know, we have to see it roll out before it does? Jeremiah Jenson: I think it changes the feel. It did get a very strong reaction. It got the strongest reaction in the room. I think one thing that it says, it’s a very clear proof point about how we’re very in tune with the market. We know that it’s been a very difficult situation with what’s going on in the industry with rising commodity costs and things along those lines. And it’s a very clear proof point around how we’re listening to our customers, how we’re listening to our partners, and changing how we can help support them through this time. So I don’t think it’s a wait and see. We have a very clear proven track record of building and earning trust with our channel community. And now we’re executing. So we are what, two and a half days later, a day and a half later, and executing. Robert Dutt: On Monday, on the podcast we ran Monday, you asked partners to go one more mile to consider bringing, you know, one more HPE product line to their customers. Three days later, are you seeing an appetite for that? And that was certainly also a theme throughout the event is the idea of cross-selling and representing more of the portfolio. But I’m curious what you’ve seen in terms of appetite for that, or is it still a heavy lift in a situation where a lot of partners are trying to go deeper and do better in single areas? Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah. So a little bit more about that for your listeners and for those of you who have not met personally, I use the one more mile thing. I’m known as long distance runner. It’s my hobby. It’s something that I’m passionate about and I’m happy to get distracted talking about. But the analogy lands really well. Can we just do one more? And again, back to how clear the message has been, how clear the opportunity is right in front of us. And we are seeing partners adopt that cross-sell motion, but it’s also beyond just cross-sell or upsell or something along those lines. It’s a very clear opportunity to help them grow their business. It’s not just, okay, would you like fries with that? It’s you’re really good in the data center. Now you have a data center networking opportunity that not only can you take that to your existing customer, but you can build your business around that expanded opportunity that we now offer you. And that is very real. So love for you to run another mile with us. We had our inaugural 10K run this week as well. But at the same time, we want to help you grow your business in yet another direction. Robert Dutt: What’s the signal it tells you that partners are buying into that and are succeeding in expanding beyond? Whether it’s adding networking, if they’re a traditional compute and storage house or whatever that expansion is. Jeremiah Jenson: We see a very clear signal, a very strong signal in how partners are adopting the Partner Ready Vantage Triple Platinum Plus framework. We are seeing partners move up that stack and across the portfolio in a very meaningful way. That is a very clear proof point, not only in the opportunity in the market, but how we’re supporting partners to take advantage of that opportunity. Robert Dutt: And that’s Triple Platinum Plus is a big ask. There’s a lot behind it, but it sounds like there’s some real momentum too. Jeremiah Jenson: There is real momentum. It is a big ask because there’s a lot of very real dollars, but I would also say don’t get consumed with, “Oh my God, I’ve got to get to Triple Platinum Plus.” The framework around how that program lands around the different centers is very attainable to help you grow. Again, back to the mile analogy, one more mile at a time. No one goes from running a 5K to a marathon. We’d love to help get you there. And at the same time, let’s go through the right training, the right enablement, and the right support process to get you there. Robert Dutt: All right. What’s the conversation you’ve had this week that surprised you? Not the one that you expected you have, but the one that partners are bringing to you that maybe caught you a bit off guard or just weren’t expecting to be as big a focus as it has been. Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, I mean, networking is front and center. I don’t know that I want to say that I was surprised by that, but I will say the energy and excitement around networking, HPE networking, how the progress we have made over the last year has just been absolutely phenomenal. So that’s first and front and center. And it really starts with how we’re integrating and accelerating our efforts there. Another thing that I would say that is really just an equal amount of excitement is the Great VM Reset. So some of the announcements we’ve made around Morpheus Enterprise, VME, how we’re working with partners to take advantage of the Great VM Reset. Look, no one’s looking for a greater expense. So the 90% cost savings opportunity that’s out there, there’s just a lot of momentum in a couple of these very, very strategic areas. And to put a finer point on it, sometimes historically, you get through the base of the business and then you try and work into some strategic areas. We are starting from the strategic areas. We’re starting from networking. We’re starting from Morpheus Enterprise and VME. We’re starting from storage and then bringing the rest of the very strong pieces of the portfolio along with us. Robert Dutt: Canadian partners are a specific cohort and usually aren’t terribly shy about sharing their opinions on things. I’m curious what you’re hearing from the Canadian contingent that feels distinct from the broader North American channel. In terms of data sovereignty, in terms of market relevance, those kinds of things. Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, I mean, I’d love to meet a shy Canadian partner first and foremost. I mean, they have a very clear voice and a very clear, passionate point of view around what is important to the Canadian market. So certainly there’s data sovereignty. Data sovereignty is really important to them, but then there’s also other pieces around what’s going on with things like provincial governments. I’ve had a number of conversations around what’s going on with what I will call broadly the public sector space in Canada. We had a very deep conversation around provincial business and how we can work together with partners to help capture that. And that was very distinct and a very, well, certainly a new opportunity and an area for us to grow, but also had a very clear point of view that comes from a Canadian perspective. And then of course, there’s data sovereignty. There’s the requirements of how Canadian partners are helping Canadian customers. And I always love the Canadian cohort, just their passion, their commitment to their country and to their business, and the fact that doing business locally is important. And that’s where, just from my standpoint, they have a level of intimacy with their customers that I could never… We as HPE don’t intend to and don’t want to replace. We simply want to help and accelerate that because they have a level of knowledge that I will never understand. Robert Dutt: Fidelma Russo framed the enterprise AI shift this morning as moving from pilots to production systems. For a partner listening to this, what does the unlock look like practically and what do they need to get ready for? Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, the AI phenomenon isn’t a future opportunity. It is here right now. I’ve said that a couple of times. It is here now. So it’s not pilots. It’s how are we helping them just accelerate that with customers? And I say the word accelerate a lot, but to make it a little bit more real, what I would ask Canadian partners to do to get ready for is frame a point of view. AI is a very broad, amorphous topic. Agentic AI is very real, but there are pieces of this phenomenon that partners should have a clear point of view on, whether that’s getting the data structure in the exact right place, whether that’s the security angle and what we’re doing to help with our software components around security for AI, or whether that’s what we’re doing around agentic AI and having the right governance and control. But it all starts with what is the customer business problem that we’re trying to solve and then working backwards from that and how we enable the partner to help solve that business problem. But it’s incumbent upon the partner to have a very clear point of view. And we will underpin that and enable that with our programs, with our technology and with our capability in partnership with them. Robert Dutt: Similar idea, but from a partner financials point of view, where do you see the biggest actual margin opportunities for partners in the AI and the agentic AI shift right now and into the near future? Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, directly the largest margin opportunity is in the services aspect. So partners that have a very mature or have built out a services practice, whether that’s professional services or whether that’s managed services practice customers are looking for a partner who can help them make that requirement to insert AI into their business. They’re looking for them to help that become a reality. So that’s the first part. So we’ve got a number of capabilities, whether that’s partner branded services or things along those lines, but services is always the most profitable piece of the business. Beneath that, I think it’s really important for partners to understand where is their business, where is their business, who is their customer base and what are they looking for and whether that’s our networking business, whether that’s our cloud business or whether that’s our AI business. So we have award winning programs to support that. We’ve announced a number of new things, whether that’s NBO in the new business competitive takeout in the storage space, NBO for compute. There’s new business opportunity compensation on the networking side. So there’s a number of different places and it’ll depend on the partner’s business, but there’s a fantastic margin opportunity across the portfolio. Robert Dutt: There’s a lot of aggressive actions going on here. In terms of you’ve got a Cisco displacement opportunity, you’ve got the VMware migration opportunity, you’ve got some of the things you point out. I’m just, I guess I’m curious how you’re prioritizing those competitive opportunities within the channel and for a partner with limited bandwidth, where would you suggest they focus? Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a difficult question to ask and the reason it’s difficult to ask or it’s difficult to answer is because every partner has a different go to market and has a different strategy. We, I wouldn’t prioritize any one area above the other because there are networking partners that have, I’ll give you a couple of examples and proof points. There are networking partners that have come to us from the Juniper side or from the Aruba side, what we now call HPE networking. That are now expanding directly into our PC AI business. I had a meeting this afternoon with a very sizable partner who historically has been from the networking side of the business that saw an opportunity to expand their business into our AI business and they’re leading with PC AI as an example. We see other partners who have historically been very strong data center partners and see an opportunity from networking and have are very strongly adopting our Marvis solutions and our data center networking solutions and are bringing that to their customer base and using that to take new market share with Cisco. So what I would say is partners have chosen a very strong point of view. They understand their customer base and they’re expanding with our portfolio to very strategic adjacent areas. Robert Dutt: I sat down with Brad Shapiro a little while ago from the HPEFS side of things and got the view of how things are going and what kind of struck me about that conversation was the way that they’re getting closer with the business units and being able to sort of better present the whole thing. I’m curious how you’re viewing financial services in the channel org and the opportunity there to remove friction, to make deals easier to do all the things that they’re going to. Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah. HPEFS is a strategic weapon and a strategic enabler of the business. Full stop. What they’ve done with that 90, there’s a current initiative called the 99 promotion that they have around how they’re helping customers overcome some of the financial hurdles to get to a full modernized hybrid IT infrastructure. And so their integration and the just interlock between the different business units to help unlock that opportunity for customers. It was very clearly an opportunity is very clearly a situation where we saw an inhibitor of the business HPEFS as a strategic partner to us to help unlock that opportunity. And I would just use that as an opportunity to say how leaders such as Brad Shapiro or any other leader of any other business unit are working together to solve for customer problems and help them get to where they need to go. It’s just a very clear proof point. So that 99 for your partners out there, have a look at that 99 opportunity and how we can bring that to customers sooner rather than later. Don’t use it as a diving catch. Get it in sooner. Make it a part of what you do day in and day out. Robert Dutt: By the time this episode airs, listeners will have heard from three Canadian partners that I talk to this week, Compugen, Powerland, Long View. Without knowing what they told me, what’s the one thing that you’d hope that they’re telling me about how they’re working with HPE right now? And maybe one thing you worry they might have said. Jeremiah Jenson: Well, I don’t know that I worry about anything that they would have said. Those are all very strong Canadian partners. They’re all very strong HPE partners, Hewlett Packard Enterprise partners. And we’re excited about our growth plan with each of them. They are all leading in different areas. So from a Powerland standpoint, I suspect there’s probably a conversation around GreenLake and how they’re taking GreenLake a little bit more broadly. They have headed back to what I said earlier. That is a partner that has a very clear point of view with their customer base and how they are using some of our more strategic pieces of the portfolio to really drive a strong customer outcome. You mentioned Compugen. Compugen love what they’re doing in Toronto and more broadly and how we’re working together with them to really… That’s a partner we really listen to in terms of what they’re seeing from a market standpoint, from a pricing standpoint, and how we can execute faster. And so they’ve been very tight with us in terms of how we need to frame some of our policies and how we need to accelerate based on real world customer feedback and work from there. And then from a Long View standpoint, I sat down with Dave this week. Great man. Love to see what they’re doing and how they are expanding their business across the portfolio. They’ve got a very strong, again, very strong clear point of view, what we want to do around storage and networking especially. And so again, they’ve understood the pieces of the portfolio that are very relevant to their customers. And we were just very explicit about what we are going to do together to help grow that piece of the business. So that’s what I… If you can learn from those three partners, if nothing else, have a very clear point of view. Robert Dutt: All right. One of the things that Canadian partners always raise is the issue of data sovereignty. The sense that being north of the border means different rules, different customer expectations, sometimes different product availability. Where does that show up in your priorities in the channel org in the second half of the year? Jeremiah Jenson: Well, I guess I would frame my answer this way. The rules are different. And that’s where Canadian partners are so valuable, not only to me, but to the broader Hewlett Packard enterprise. Though the partners that are in that market have a depth of understanding and a depth of knowledge of those requirements and are really helping to put the right, whether that’s, I want to say solutions, a word that is too often used, but at the end of the day, they are solving business problems around those requirements. You know, data sovereignty, product availability, what level of service is offered based on whether that’s location geography, whether that’s in the provincial government or whether that’s in a commercial customer, they have an understanding. And I think that that’s the piece that is so valuable about the channel is they have a level of understanding and a way to work with us to help satisfy the customer. So I’m hearing a lot about data sovereignty. I’m hearing a lot about pricing requirements and things along those lines. I mean, let’s be honest, some of the feedback that we heard from Canada was some of the loudest feedback that we heard in terms of, and that helped us make the change that we did around 30-day quote validity. So we made some very specific changes and Canadians were by no means the quietest voice in the room. And, you know, we’ve mentioned some people here today that were very clear in their escalations and what they needed to service their customers. Robert Dutt: All right. If you’re a Canadian partner listening to this, you know, what’s one thing that you’d like them to stop doing and one thing they should start doing? Degree of difficulty. The answers are not selling the other guys and selling HP. Jeremiah Jenson: No, yeah. You know, I don’t ever have the ask of stop selling the other guys. At the end of the day, we have the right products. We have the right program. And we are going to earn our place based on our channel heritage, based on our predictability and based on the trust we will earn. So I have a tremendous amount of confidence that when we work with channel partners, we will win based on our predictability, based on our trust, based on the quality of products and programs that we put in market. So I don’t have that ask of partners. We are going to earn our place very intentionally. So my ask of them, the one thing to do is, I say it a lot, but pick a point of view. There is a place in this portfolio where we can help one another and help your customer produce the business outcome that they want. Let’s identify what are those one or two things that we can do together to help go that extra mile. How can we run one more mile together? That’s my ask. The other piece that I would ask is to what not to do is, I think the past helps frame where we want to go, but we don’t have to worry about what used to be. We don’t have to worry about what used to be with HPE or going all the way back to HPE or to Compaq or things along those lines. I’ve been back at HPE for a year now and the past helps frame where we want to go. So my what not to do is we don’t have to worry about what used to be. What we do want to help do is where are we going. So that’s the way I would say that is it’s a new day. We are on the front foot. We are very aggressive about where we’re going and what we’re going to do. And come join us. Robert Dutt: Let’s talk about that future a little bit. Where do you want the HPE channel to be on January 1, 2027 that it is today? What are you kind of focused on for the back half of the year? Jeremiah Jenson: A back half of the year, just to be, if you will, a little bit more point in time. I have some very clear goals around our networking business and to make that a little bit more real, the data center networking business, our wireless business, our campus and branch business is performing very well. Our data center networking business is also performing very, very well. And so I’ve reset some targets higher than they were around our data center networking business. So I have some very high expectations around data center networking. So I would love the Canadian channel to lead that charge from a data center networking standpoint. Also our hybrid cloud business. So we have very clear expectations around VME certifications and things along those lines because customers are demanding a different level of outcome from their virtualized environments. I mean, let’s be honest, no one is looking for more Broadcom in their business today. There isn’t customers saying, I’d like some more of that. I want to be treated more like that. And we have a very clear solution. And so we’re looking at VME certifications and you see how we’ve put out the virtualization competency and then we’re helping partners use VME for IT so that they can drink their own champagne. So I want Canadian partners and I want North America to lead the way globally around VME certifications. So I have some very high expectations around our hybrid cloud business. That also extends to our storage business. Our storage business is growing at triple digits. It’s phenomenal with what we’re seeing there. And so storage is another piece. And then by no means last, but the third thing I would say is I have very clear goals around co-selling, what we call co-selling. How are we bringing the HPE Salesforce, which is a very different sales force now. It’s a growing sales force. It’s one, Phil Mottram, our chief revenue officer, is making investments in North America sales. How do we get our sales teams together with our partner sales teams and again, go to a new customer, a new opportunity, go take that extra mile? So it’s those three things. Robert Dutt: All right. Similar idea, but waking up January 1st of next year, what will be the metric or two that would tell you that Discover 2026 was a turning point for some of these important changes that you see coming? Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah. What’s interesting is just the conversation has at Discover or some of these sort of events, you always kind of start with the base of the business, the core of the business, and then you expand the conversation to some of the strategic areas. This year is very different in that we are working from the networking, the hybrid cloud pieces of the business, the software pieces of the business, and that has been the conversation all week, and it’s been really exciting to see. So waking up January 1, knowing that it’s real, we will have surpassed the raised expectations that I had around the networking business. We will have surpassed our expectations around hybrid cloud, Morpheus Enterprise, and storage. And then I also want to see us look at very strongly how do we accelerate our compute business, our AI business? That is, we’re producing very real customer outcomes. How do we take that to the rest of the market that hasn’t yet taken the first step around AI? So that’s the third thing I would put in there. Robert Dutt: Okay. Not so much a strategy question as a human one, but what’s one moment from this week that you’re going to, you think you’re going to remember six months from now? Jeremiah Jenson: Six months from now, what’s a moment? I will certainly remember the 30-day quote announcement. Six months from now, that’s more of a human moment. Also, I mean, just the connections that we’ve had, you know, as much as that’s maybe a straightforward answer, one thing my boss and I did, we had a, I mentioned running earlier, we had a 10K run for the first time that kind of came up as a thing. We had some Canadians join us. It became an international event. We had a South African that was there. We had a couple people from the UK. It just kind of organically grew, and it’s nice to see people really come together. That has been really nice. One other thing, you know, six months from now, the World Cup is ongoing right now. So just to call that out, it’s the first time I believe I don’t have the history that the rest of the world does with the World Cup. But just to see that happen and how that’s brought together, the fact that it’s in North America, and you can have some of those ancillary conversations and really frame some lasting bonds around some of that. You know, the tie for Spain or things along those lines. There have been things like that, and those common experiences that we have together are helping us build strong bonds from which we can grow the business. Robert Dutt: Working for HP, are you contractually required to be a fan of the Argentine? Jeremiah Jenson: I am not. I’m not contractually obligated. I personally, I love a good international competition, whether that’s the World Baseball Classic, the Olympics, the hockey, instead of doing the All-Star Game, you know, what they did with the Tournament of Four, this last. I love that sort of stuff. I’m not an Argent as much as Antonio might be upset about that. Nothing against Messi. I’m sure he’s a phenomenal player. At the end of the day, I’m an American. I’m going to cheer for the United States. But I also back the pack. So when it comes down to it, it’s going to be a, I’m going to cheer for the North America side of things, whoever that may be. Robert Dutt: There you go. Last one for me. When we talk next, whether that’s at Discover Next Year, hopefully sometime ahead of that, what do you hope we’re talking about? Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, I hope we talk about how we’re seeing compounded growth. We’re seeing acceleration in the business across the portfolio now. I hope we’re talking about how we compound that. How do we, you know, it’s, you know, growing at the pace that we’re growing to continue to that growth on a larger number would drive compounded growth. So I would love to see the pace, the percentage at which we’re growing be continued. I’d love to have that conversation next year. And we’re going to do that with partners. Robert Dutt: Good answer. And I don’t know how many partners are going to turn their nose up at the idea of compounding growth. So I think who wouldn’t love that end there. Good. Awesome. I appreciate your taking the time once again, safe journeys home. And thanks for thanks for helping us out so much running the channel over the last, the last couple of weeks. Jeremiah Jenson: You bet. Rob, thanks. Always good to talk to you. Show outro: There you have it, Jeremiah Jenson from HPE. I’d like to thank Jeremiah for making the time at the end of what was a very long week in Las Vegas and the candor he brought to the conversation that could easily have stayed at the level of talking points. A few things I’d like to take away from this one. First, the energy around networking isn’t just keynote rhetoric. Jenson is resetting targets higher for data center networking specifically, and he’s looking to the Canadian channel to lead part of that charge. Second, the 30-day quote validity landed because partners were loud about it, and Canadian partners were among the loudest. That matters. And third, the through line of this whole arc from HPE Discover is that the company is trying to shift from a base of the business story to a strategic front foot story. Networking, hybrid cloud and the VMware reset aren’t afterthoughts anymore. They’re the opening argument. If you’re just catching up on the full series, you can find all of our coverage from HPE Discover 2026 waiting for you on the In The Channel feed, partner interviews, product deep dives and day-to-day dispatches on The Buzz. Thanks for listening. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, most other podcast directories. If you like what you hear, a rating or review goes a long way to helping other Canadian IT professionals find this channel. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca and I’ll see you in the channel.

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Pax8 Beyond26 – managed intelligence: Pax8 wrapped its annual Beyond conference in Salt Lake City on Tuesday with over 3,500 attendees including 200+ from Canada, centering the show on the transition from managed services to the Managed Intelligence Provider model. The headline announcement was Microsoft Agent 365 for Managed Intelligence – multi-tenant governance of agentic AI across MSP client environments through the Pax8 Agent Store, arriving in July – alongside the launch of the Managed Intelligence Provider Program, Voyager Alliance Rewards, and the Managed Intelligence Alliance. CEO Scott Chasin argued that as AI models commoditize, the trust MSPs have already built with clients is their primary competitive advantage going forward. Arrow Electronics global experience centers: Arrow introduced a network of global experience centers on Tuesday, built in close collaboration with channel partners in North America and Europe to reflect how partners actually go to market today. Facilities in the US and Sweden are fully networked to deliver a consistent design and testing experience regardless of location, and are designed specifically to help partners accelerate the move from AI and cloud evaluation into deployment and monetization. Mitel names new channel chief: Mitel has appointed Ben Macdonald as vice president of global channel go-to-market, bringing experience from Owl Labs, Poly, Juniper Networks, and Ekahau. The hire comes as Mitel’s own research shows 68 percent of businesses are running communications infrastructure more than seven years old, with 92 percent of modernizing organizations choosing an integrated-hybrid strategy – a dynamic the company says positions its 6,000-plus channel partners at the center of one of the largest communications refresh cycles in a decade. Cork Cyber wins Pax8 Startup Vendor of the Year: Pax8 recognized Cork Cyber at Beyond26 for its AI-native remediation platform built for MSPs, which remediates threats automatically, reduces ticket volume, and provides financial payback when risks slip through. The award was presented on the Beyond mainstage by Pax8 president Nick Heddy. Canada’s cloud market: A new report from the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, covered by CBC News, calls the Canadian cloud computing market “broken,” warning that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google control approximately 85 percent of the market. The report argues that even adding domestic sovereign alternatives will not fix the problem without interoperability standards, coining the term “maplewashed dependency” for the risk of trading one lock-in for another. Pentesting research: New research from Cobalt and Omdia finds that 53 percent of security leaders believe traditional penetration testing is now outdated, with demand growing for continuous, AI-assisted approaches. iCOUNTER leadership: iCOUNTER has appointed Joel Molinoff, formerly of BlueVoyant and CBS Corporation, as chief operating officer. DataStrike expansion: DataStrike has expanded its Linux managed services practice by hiring Jon Cain as senior Linux infrastructure engineer to meet growing client demand. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Thursday, June 11, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Pax8 wrapped its annual Beyond conference in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, and the event made a clear statement about where the distributor sees the managed services business heading. With more than 3,500 attendees – including over 200 from Canada – the show centered on what Pax8 is calling the Managed Intelligence Provider model, or MIP. The idea is that MSPs are no longer primarily managing infrastructure. The next phase of the business is orchestrating agentic AI and delivering outcomes that SMB customers cannot build on their own. The headline product announcement from the show was Microsoft Agent 365 for Managed Intelligence, which will give MSPs multi-tenant governance of agentic AI across their client base through the Pax8 Agent Store, arriving in July. Alongside that, Pax8 announced the Managed Intelligence Provider Program, the Voyager Alliance Rewards program, and the Managed Intelligence Alliance, all aimed at helping partners navigate that business model transition. CEO Scott Chasin’s central argument was that as AI models commoditize rapidly, the trust that MSPs have already built with their clients becomes the primary competitive differentiator. It’s a different kind of pitch than many vendors have been making this year, and the Canadian partner contingent at the show was among the largest regional groups in attendance. Distribution giant Arrow Electronics introduced a new set of networked global experience centers on Tuesday, and the design philosophy behind them is worth paying attention to. According to Arrow, the facilities in the US and Sweden were built in close collaboration with channel partners across North America and Europe, specifically around how partners actually go to market today, where they face constraints, and what slows them down. The two locations are fully networked, meaning the design and testing experience is consistent regardless of where the customer or partner is located. Arrow has operated various lab facilities over the years, but this iteration is explicitly oriented around solving the commercial and operational friction partners face in moving customers from AI and cloud evaluation into deployment. For solution providers working to differentiate on deep technical expertise and pre-sales capability, the ability to leverage distribution infrastructure at this level is increasingly part of the value equation. Mitel announced Tuesday that Ben Macdonald has joined the company as vice president of global channel go-to-market, making him the company’s new channel chief. Macdonald comes from Owl Labs, where he led the shift to a scalable B2B and enterprise channel model including strategic alliances with Microsoft and Lenovo. He has also held senior channel roles at Poly, Juniper Networks, and Ekahau. The appointment arrives at a moment Mitel describes as one of the largest communications refresh cycles in a decade. According to Mitel’s own research, 68 percent of businesses are currently running communications systems that are more than seven years old, and 92 percent of organizations actively modernizing are choosing an integrated-hybrid strategy. Macdonald’s specific background – building recurring revenue models out of historically transactional, hardware-centric businesses – aligns directly with what Mitel says it needs. For the more than 6,000 channel partners in Mitel’s ecosystem, including a significant number of Canadian resellers and MSPs with established UC practices, the appointment signals an intent to activate that market opportunity through the partner community. In Brief – Pax8 named Cork Cyber its Startup Vendor of the Year at Beyond, recognizing the MSP-focused AI remediation platform that remediates threats automatically and pays out financially when risks slip through. A report from the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project calls Canada’s cloud computing market “broken,” warning that Amazon, Microsoft and Google control 85 percent of the market and domestic providers risk creating what the report calls “maplewashed dependencies.” Cobalt and Omdia research finds that 53 percent of security leaders believe traditional penetration testing is now outdated. iCOUNTER appoints Joel Molinoff, formerly of BlueVoyant and CBS Corporation, as chief operating officer. DataStrike expands its Linux managed services practice by hiring Jon Cain as senior Linux infrastructure engineer. Full details and links in the show notes or the blog post. Later today on In The Channel, we’re hearing from Josh Singh at Turning Point Technologies in Vancouver – it’s a conversation about running a single-vendor Dell practice, AI for SMB, and why backup is the last line of defense against ransomware. And if you haven’t heard it yet, yesterday on In The Channel I sat down with ESTI’s Earl Gosick on AI infrastructure, cyber resilience, and why Saskatchewan may be Canada’s next data center hub. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

John Carey, senior vice president of global channels at SAS Institute Recorded on site at SAS Innovate 2026 in Grapevine, Texas, this week’s In The Channel features John Carey, senior vice president of global channels at SAS Institute, in a conversation that covers the full arc of his four years building SAS’s channel program from the ground up. When Carey joined in 2022, SAS had a history with partners – advisory engagement, project delivery – but limited co-sell and no resell motion. His mandate was to change that. The conversation traces that journey: the introduction of a clear market segmentation (enterprise above the line, channel below the line), the decision to route transactions through partners while keeping end-user contracts with SAS intact, and the live project underway right now to migrate direct customers to indirect. A central theme is the distribution partnership with TD SYNNEX, which Carey frames as a leverage mechanism – moving from thousands of customers to hundreds of partners to one distributor – giving SAS the financial and operational flexibility it needs while giving partners financing terms, invoicing support, and credit options a software vendor is not built to provide. On the competitive landscape, Carey draws a sharp line between SAS and the AI tools crowding the market. Others turn up with an easy button and a black box. SAS turns up with a transparent box and a governance framework – and with SAS AI Navigator now tracking agent behaviour across the Viya platform, that framework is getting sharper. The episode closes with a candid look at the partner economics model – an inverted approach that makes it easy to start selling and lets services investment follow the book of business – and a direct invitation to Canadian solution providers with data, security, and infrastructure skills to get into the conversation now. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello, and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. Still coming to you this week from Grapevine, Texas, from SAS Innovate 2026. If you caught our last episode with Ryan Macdonald, leader of SAS Canada, you heard the view from the Canadian perspective: the AI maturity story, OSFI E-21, and the mid-market channel opportunity. This time I’m going a level up. My guest today is John Carey, senior vice president of global channels at SAS Institute. John’s about four years into the role, and he came in with a specific mandate: to rethink what partnering looks like for a company with a long history of advisory and delivery through partners, but limited co-sell and essentially no resale motion. Four years later, the picture looks pretty different. There’s a clear market segmentation model, a distribution partnership with TD SYNNEX, an active project underway right now to migrate direct customers to indirect, and a 30% channel revenue target that’s already evolving into something even more ambitious. We talk about all of it: what he found when he arrived, how the direct-to-indirect transition is actually landing with customers, what the partner economics look like for a new SAS partner in 2026, how this week’s AI Navigator and agentic AI announcements change the channel opportunity, and what he thinks the SAS channel looks like in three years if things go well. Let’s get right into it. My chat with John Carey. John, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. John Carey: Appreciate it. Good to be here, Robert. Robert Dutt: You’re about four years into leading channels for SAS if memory serves and I’m able to do the math—both of which are somewhat suspect. Can you tell me a little bit about what you found when you got here and the quick version of the journey in building the channel from your point of view? John Carey: Got it. Well, first of all, you absolutely did get it right. It is, come June, four years since I joined SAS. Now, the first thing—I was brought in by the ELT, with an ELT remit to rethink partnering for SAS’s future. So we had a history of partnering. If you think about where SAS came from, a lot of advisory engagement, a lot of delivery through partners, but not necessarily a lot of co-sell and certainly no resell. So one of the remits coming in was to assess the business, understand what the opportunities were, and build a program that allows us to create a growing business that is driven by partners and owned by partners. And we get the acceleration and the leverage of the partner community that all software vendors are seeking and hope to take advantage of. When I came in, I would say we lacked maturity in our partnering in some areas. We were definitely mercurial in a way that wasn’t helpful. Partners didn’t have consistency, and we weren’t persistent in holding ourselves and our partners accountable. There was a lot of, “If only… it’s not me, it’s them.” So phase one: get to a single source of truth. So we introduced undisputed channel revenue. Let’s agree and measure together the value of the channel in our business. The other thing we did is we segmented, for the first time, our market. We had historically looked at our install base as a quadrant, an ABCD, thinking about propensity for growth and saturation. And we moved to the more traditional pyramid, but with a binary segmentation. So above the line: enterprise; below the line: channel. And that allowed us to prioritize routes to market. So in the enterprise, it’s very much a co-sell partner delivery model. GSIs are a very strong focus. Technology partners are a very strong focus up there. And then certain regional boutique consulting partners continue to be high value, particularly in our vertical industries—FSI, public sector, life sciences. Below the line, the story was: how do we give this business to the partners, give partners autonomy, and allow them to determine their own future? So that was really about taking business that was historically direct and making it indirect. Actually, this year, we have a whole project where we are moving our channel direct install base to indirect. So, communicating with the customer about why it’s good for them, communicating to the partner of what they need to do to be ready, and then putting that fuel into an engine that we’ve been building over the last few years with partners with strong SAS skills, but who were traditionally services partners and have had to build something of a resale muscle. We’re also starting to recruit some more traditional high-powered solution providers, as well as really focusing on managed service provider opportunities with partners who not only can sell the solution, but they host and operate the solution for the customer. And the nexus of this was finding ways to bring the enterprise value of SAS to the non-enterprise client base, and to do that through our local superpower, which is our partner community who understand those customers and their pain points in a way that we just don’t have the resources to do, and to make sure they’re empowered with the kind of tools and the right cost structure to be able to give that enterprise value at a non-enterprise price point. Robert Dutt: How has that direct-to-indirect transition gone? How does that land with customers? It’s got to be a bit of a communication challenge because you want to make sure you’re not positioning it as “we’re stepping away from you,” even if you’re introducing a partner into the mix. John Carey: Yeah. So this is what we’re going through right now. So first of all, there’s the angst as a vendor of saying, “I’m about to go to a customer and say our transactional relationship is going to change.” But really, our contractual relationship remains intact. The contract between the end user and the vendor stays in place. We are responsible for delivering on the value of the platform or the solution provided. What we’re doing is we’re rerouting the transaction through a partner, which means we can support more currencies. We can support different pricing conditions and payment terms that, as an enterprise, we’re just not able to entertain for anyone but the largest customers. And so our positioning is: it gives our customers far more flexibility and more intimate engagement than being part of a long tail of customers for a large enterprise that end up in this pool that you call “programmatic”—which we all use the words, but none of us like those words. And a way of avoiding that is to say, “This isn’t programmatic. This is channel-managed,” because this is where the partners are stepping in to make sure that that customer feels like the most important customer of that partner, rather than the not-most-important customer of a large vendor. Robert Dutt: Can you tell me a little bit more about the managed services motion and how you see that evolving, especially as SAS overall has become much more open in terms of the whole structure there—getting into MCP and acknowledging that a lot of times customers are going to be consuming SAS’s insights and abilities through the chatbots and other channels, for want of a better word? John Carey: Well, look, first of all, I’ve certainly lived through enough inflection points to recognize one as it comes along. And this is an inflection point where there’s opportunity and risk. When I think about the philosophy from the channel, certainly with channel customers, I want those customers hosted by partners. Why? Because a big part of their TCO challenge is just giving them access to software doesn’t mean they can afford the resources to operate and maximize return on that software. If they can be supported by a managed service provider, by a solution provider who’s hosting on their behalf, now they have access to actual educated, certified SAS resources who are dedicated to making sure they maximize the return on that investment. And so with that underpinning, you then think about the integration of the chatbots—the Anthropic’s, Copilot, Gemini integration. It’s pretty scary for mid-sized customers to be thinking about this. I mean, do most people know that if you put your data up on those things that it’s no longer privileged? Do most people know that there’s an element here which feels like social media, that we’ve since learned who’s being monetized here? This feels free, but actually I’m feeding this model all of my proprietary data to get a presumed efficiency which may or may not turn up, in the hope that it doesn’t hallucinate. Well, when I look at that and I think about SAS making data ready for the AI lifecycle, SAS having a governance infrastructure that allows us to identify bias, to make sure—now, as you heard announced yesterday, the AI Navigator that allows us to track these agents and ensure that we understand whether agents are behaving in a way that is copacetic with the intention of the business user. And if one fails or starts to behave in a way that is not aligned with the organization, you’re able to flag that. You’re able to communicate that to other connected agents so that you can source the problem and solve the problem. I think when we think of it in that way, this is a real opportunity for the channel to step in. These moments of “How do I bridge the technology into value?” is the perfect space for resellers, service providers, solution providers to step in, navigate that complexity for the customer, give the customer confidence with the technology choices that they’re making—that they are safe and secure with SAS. As I frame it, we’re a 50-year-old vendor who’s been in the most regulated industries. Others out there turn up with an easy button and a black box. We turn up with a transparent box and a governance framework that means we acknowledge nothing’s easy, but once you engage in this, you will survive audit. You will be able to understand where problems occurred and why, and you will be able to remediate. Robert Dutt: A few years ago, maybe about three, you guys signed on TD SYNNEX. I think that’s the first major global distribution partner for you guys. What was the hypothesis behind that move, and how has it worked out? John Carey: So the general hypothesis was—and again, I’ve been in the industry a long time. I think every year we hear the headline, “This is the year distribution is no longer relevant.” I actually did a column on that not too long ago. Robert Dutt: There you go. John Carey: And meanwhile, they continue to provide new and incremental value. One of the hypotheses was as we moved to indirect, there is obviously—from going from thousands of customers to hundreds of partners, going from hundreds of partners to one distributor allows us to get that leverage effect through quotes, transactions, credit. Something that provides a security to us as a vendor that allows us to lean in, but also provides structure and options at the partner level that they need, but are not a priority for us as a vendor. So TD SYNNEX offers financing terms. They will invoice on behalf of the partner. They will put together creative fiscal options that allow customers to stretch. They’ll even offer to assess credit based on the end user’s credit rather than the partner’s credit. Those are fantastic services that just, frankly, as a vendor, aren’t our core business. So what we’re able to do is to address more customers through more partners and do the thing that we’re really good at: solve their data and AI problems through Viya and our solution stack and bring value to those businesses. Robert Dutt: Given all that, a while ago the goal was set for 30%, I think, of revenues through channels. Where does that sit today? What’s the momentum looking like? And what do you see as sort of remaining obstacles along the way to that goal? John Carey: Yeah, so great progress. So if I think about segments—the channel segment, which is 100% indirect, is between 10% and 15% of our business. In the enterprise, there’s a lot of channel fulfillment and engagement. And so overall, we are very close to that 30% of the total business being with or through a partner. But we want to—the new goal is, as all goals change: I want to be 30% of the overall business with that channel segment. With that segment of customers that are exclusively partner, and therefore be a strong contributor into the enterprise accounts with partner co-sell, partner fulfillment, and partner delivery. So future’s bright. All goals, as they need to, change over time and the bar increases. And we are doing a great job of forcing that bar up every year so that we have to ask more of ourselves and our partners so that we make sure we focus on delivering value to our customers. Robert Dutt: Let’s talk about what it looks like to be a SAS partner today in terms of the economics and all that kind of good stuff. What does success look like economically for a partner today? And how is that story changing as the product portfolio and the goal shifts? John Carey: As you say, goals are made for changing. And especially in this industry, things change fast. So maybe a good way of thinking about this is: what’s the conversation with a new partner that we’re onboarding? And one of the things we’ve tried to do is to say, “Hey, look, we will have the packaging so that you can focus on sales readiness first and build a book of business with us.” So that’s where we leverage package service offerings from our SAS consulting organization that are resellable by partners. We are rationalizing our product portfolio for the SMB market to be far more prescriptive. We know what works, but we still have the full enterprise list of offers, and frankly, it doesn’t add value. It adds something of a confusing layer of options that aren’t really relevant for many of the use cases and customers that we and our partners specifically deal with. So phase one: build an annuity business on the resale model. As you become—and as it makes sense in your business—to invest in services headcount, then those package service offerings get replaced by your own services. And it is a services-rich business. The great thing about a data and AI platform is once you start answering questions and you’ve built that trust with the client, more and more questions occur. And models need to be refined; models need to be promoted. And as a partner, if you are doing this in a regular cadence, you are building a scenario where that customer trusts you as their trusted advisor and comes to you for those service elements. So the baseline is—and we pay more on New than we do on Renew. There’s an annuity business build out there that is driven by sales enablement and sales focus and strong investment in demand generation on our channel marketing center platform, where you can run co-branded campaigns and drive real top-of-the-funnel demand. We’ll work with you on getting that down into closed business, and we know how to do that very well. As it becomes reasonable for you to make investments in technical resources where you know you have a book of business, you can apply those resources too. That’s where we ask partners to lean in. And at that point, they are now attaching services, and that grows their—and we know that services are more profitable than the resale. So it’s table stakes: build a book of business that’s got an annuity associated, and then use that to catalyze investment in more profitable services over time, which is something of a sea change. When I came in, there was a lot of investment required before a partner was allowed to sell. And we’ve inverted that to say, “I want it to be easy for you to sell and we’ll support you.” And when you’ve got the right amount of business behind you, then it makes logical sense for you to invest. And that investment is the outsized return for you as a partner. Now, for our existing partners, it’s the inverse, right? They were already doing a lot of delivery. They know how to do the services. This now gives them a vehicle to attach those services to that’s more autonomous and less dependent on a SAS seller to pull them in after. And so with that, they’ve made great investments in sales functions within their organizations for product sale and attaching their own services straight out of the gate. Robert Dutt: Big announcement week this week with AI Navigator on governance, the new agentic AI capabilities across the board, the industry accelerators. From a channel strategy standpoint, do these announcements change who you’re looking for in terms of partners, or is it an opportunity to do more and different things with the base? John Carey: I think the honest answer is both. If I think about our GSIs, the accelerators, the models, the agentic capabilities are incredibly attractive to our global systems integrator partners. And it gives them a reason to lean in even more with us around account telemetry, account planning, and moving out of that advisory engagement into delivery engagement with them. And we are now a very modern platform that has been very considerate of where our customers are. We’re a company who reflects the personality of our founder. I think of that Teddy Roosevelt quote: “Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.” Well, we walk quietly, but with our platform and our solutions, that’s a very big stick. It makes a lot of noise. And I think what you saw at this Innovate was kind of something we’ve known for a while, but now the market is starting to recognize is that there’s a lot of significant growth value there for existing customers as they move to Viya and the Viya solutions with the agentic AI integrations, with the accelerators. So that’s happening, I think, on the other side. We are now at a point of inflection where enterprise capabilities are expected at non-enterprise accounts. And how we execute on that is through partners and through prescription and optimization, so that when we engage, we give those customers a very clear message of what they can do and what they can achieve and what it’s going to cost them. And that is all within their budgetary expectation, and we execute on that relentlessly and consistently with our partners. Robert Dutt: When I chatted with Ryan Macdonald, who heads up the Canadian operations, a bit earlier, he talked about—especially in competitive situations—what he called a “hidden SAS situation,” where organizations will find that they’re running business-critical decisions on stuff, on SAS, that they’ve almost forgotten about. It just kind of sits there, it just works. And the conversation becomes about: how do you upgrade and grow from that foundation? How do you find that conversation showing up in the partner community? And if it is, in fact, a partner conversation, how are you equipping partners to realize that opportunity? John Carey: Yeah, so I think that’s very much a conversation with our established enterprise industry accounts. And so how I think that shows up is our conversations with our global systems integrator partners. They’ve made investments in assessment tools and accelerators and migration pathways that help a customer understand how they are currently using their SAS estate and what critical functions are being run on that estate, so they can help a customer understand the actual relevance. It’s like, I live in Florida, right? I only notice the air conditioning when it doesn’t work. But you don’t switch off the air conditioning unless you’ve got an alternative ready to go. And their job is to make sure customers, when making strategic decisions, understand the impact of decisions they may make. And that, I think, creates an opportunity for how we’re talking about: “We’re going to actually upgrade you so that you have better climate control, right? You have new options. It can be more cost-effective as it scales and it can meet more of your needs. And you don’t lose the critical foundation that you’ve been building your business on.” I think there’s some of that recognition that we’re a relatively humble organization, but I’m starting to hear more of our customers acknowledge, more of our partners talk about, “Hey, let’s not shy away from the fact you’re running your business on SAS.” This is critical functionality. We hear billions being managed. When we think about our price book, we talk about billions of assets under management. I mean, that’s the order of magnitude of what we’re managing from a risk or a fraud perspective. And we want to make sure that we can meet customers where they are and make sure they make decisions that are good and solid for their business. Robert Dutt: Another one that came up with Ryan was the idea of increasingly seeing GSI plus niche specialist partner and kind of the ecosystem play. I’m curious if that’s a deliberate strategy. Is it something you’ve observing and adopting to? John Carey: For me, I think it’s always been there. I think GSIs have always really effectively subcontracted in specific expertise and niche value as needed when doing delivery. I think what’s happening now, again, with disruptive inflection points—what I believe we see happening is things that were already happening become very visible. So I think what we’re seeing right now is, rather than that being a subcontract relationship, it’s a more explicit contract with GSI, contract with boutique partner with very specialized expertise. And it’ll settle over time, and it may even go back to more of a subcontract model. But I think that’s great. We’re all acknowledging that there is value in industry expertise, and even within industry expertise, there is real value in some very niche expertise that requires that level of investment. And you should be paying to make sure you get the right value resource working on your project. Robert Dutt: If I’m a Canadian reseller or a system integrator who hasn’t worked with SAS to date listening to this and thinking, “All right, they have an interesting story, they’re in an interesting place.” What’s the right profile for a partner for you right now? What are you looking for? What do you actually need more of in the market? John Carey: I would say I’m looking for solution providers. So I’m looking for partners who can address mid-market organizations’ needs across data and AI. With a strong relationship with TD SYNNEX, great credit, skills in infrastructure, security, data, who are looking to an adjacent expansion where bringing in SAS as a way to modernize that data for the AI lifecycle and turn that data now into insight and from insight into workflow integrated with agentic capabilities. If that’s your bag, don’t just knock on the door, knock our door down. We want to talk to you. Robert Dutt: Fair enough. Final question: what does the SAS channel look like in three years if things go well and there aren’t additional changes along the way? What would you point to and say, “That’s the thing we’re building towards”? John Carey: I think the service provider in the mid-market and below will become a far more dominant motion. I think in the enterprise, we’ll see even more integration of partners from a fulfillment perspective as customers start to push vendors to engage with them through the advisors who have guided them through this transformative period. And I think as a vendor, you just have to acknowledge that the customer is going to tell you who they want to buy from. The customer is going to tell you who they want to work with. And as a vendor, what you want to say is, “Well, if they have the skills, we should lean in. If they don’t have the skills, we should be really honest about the fact that we think you could be better served by a partner that looks with this profile and skills, and here are some we would recommend.” But again, the customer is ultimately going to make the trade-offs. But I would say managed service providers are increasing, and partners building their own value on top of the Viya platform in industries where we have yet to unlock use cases are becoming more and more the norm. Robert Dutt: Especially since so much of the audience is in that MSP space, I think that’s going to be one that hits home. Well, John, I appreciate you taking the time on what I’m sure has been a very busy week. John Carey: I appreciate it, Robert. Thank you for the time. Robert Dutt: There you have it—John Carey from SAS Institute. I’d like to thank John for his time and thank you for listening. Few things I’m taking away from this one. First, the framing I kept coming back to is the transparent box versus the black box. Others turn up with the easy button and a black box. SAS turns up and says nothing is easy, but when you engage with us, you’ll understand where problems occurred and why, and you’ll be able to remediate. In an environment where AI governance is moving from a theoretical concern to an operational requirement, that’s a differentiated position and for channel partners, it means the conversation is not just about selling software. It’s about being the guide that helps the customer make confident technology choices. Second, the direct-to-indirect migration is live right now. The contract between the end user and SAS doesn’t change. What changes is the transaction route, and the pitch to customers is that instead of being part of a long tail at a large enterprise, you become the most important customer of a partner who’s dedicated to your success. It’s a strong repositioning and the kind of opening that partners who have not been in the SAS conversation before should be paying attention to. Third, John was pretty clear about where the next three years go. Managed service providers building up their own value on top of the Viya platform in industries where use cases are still being unlocked. If you’re an MSP with deep vertical expertise and data, security, or infrastructure skills, this episode makes the case for why you should be knocking on SAS’s door. We’ll be back on Monday with more from SAS Innovate as we hear the practitioner side of the story: my conversation with Nat D’Ercole from Deloitte Canada on what AI transformation actually looks like from inside a major Canadian enterprise engagement. If you found this one useful, follow or subscribe to the ChannelBuzz.ca podcast. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most of the major directories. Ratings and reviews are greatly appreciated, especially when they have five stars. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Larissa Crandall, 1Password’s global vice president of channel and alliances 1Password is a company many Canadian partners know, but the Toronto-based firm has evolved well beyond the password vault it’s historically been associated with. Now positioning itself as an identity security company, 1Password recently expanded its global partner program, won the 2025 AWS Canada Rising Star Technology Partner of the Year award, and was named to CRN’s 2026 Security 100 list. The company counts more than 180,000 business customers, with over 75 per cent of its revenue now coming from the enterprise side. Larissa Crandall, 1Password’s global vice president of channel and alliances, joins us to talk about what that evolution means for MSPs looking to build identity security practices. Crandall talks openly about the need to “myth bust” how partners think about 1Password, pointing to strategic integrations with CrowdStrike and Zscaler and the company’s growing presence in AI labs and enterprise security stacks as evidence of the shift. The numbers that emerge are striking. Non-human identities – AI agents, service accounts, API keys – now outnumber human identities 82 to 1, according to Crandall, and SMBs remain largely unprepared for the challenge. That’s the gap MSPs can step into. She shares the story of an MSP that made 1Password mandatory across its entire customer base – not as an add-on, but as a baseline requirement – because you can’t credibly sell identity security if you haven’t secured the front door yourself. On building a profitable practice, Crandall identifies three keys: proper discovery, understanding scope and complexity, and having the right skill sets on your own team before delivering it to clients. Partners interested in learning more can visit the 1Password partner program page. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In the Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and as always, your host for the show. If you’ve been following the cybersecurity conversation this year, you’ve probably noticed that identity keeps coming up – not as one item on the security checklist, but increasingly as the item. The attack surface is shifting. SaaS sprawl, shadow AI, and a growing universe of non-human identities – things like AI agents, service accounts, and API keys – are creating access governance challenges that traditional security tools were never designed to handle. And for MSPs, that shift represents both a risk and an opportunity to build a real practice around identity security. 1Password is a company that a lot of us know, but the Toronto-based company has evolved beyond the password vault that many partners may remember. It’s now positioning itself as an Extended Access Management platform, recently expanded its global partner program, and counts more than 180,000 businesses among its customers. Joining me today to talk about what that evolution means for the channel is Larissa Crandall, global vice president of channel and alliances at 1Password. We’re going to dig into why identity has become the front door to the security conversation, what MSPs need to understand about non-human identities before their customers start asking, and what building a profitable identity security practice actually looks like. Larissa, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Larissa Crandall: Thank you so much for having me. Excited for a conversation. Robert Dutt: We keep hearing that identity is the new security perimeter. For a lot of MSPs, the bread and butter is still firewall, endpoint, some MFA. Can you help me with what’s changing in the threat landscape that makes identity security an urgent, a “build a practice around it right now” kind of opportunity? Larissa Crandall: Yeah, absolutely. AI is here to stay. I think the opportunity for MSPs is now. It’s prevalent. We’re seeing a lot of MSPs build practices around identity security, and those are the ones that are getting ahead of it, are leading the charge. I think for us personally, spending a lot of time with MSPs, the attack surface has changed. It’s no longer about human, it’s about non-human identities, and it spans across SaaS applications, endpoints, APIs, service accounts, and AI agents. All of the MSPs that are getting ahead of it are helping our customers and growing. Robert Dutt: You guys have been around for 20 years now or so. I think for a lot of folks, the on-ramp, the familiar place is the personal password vault, of course. Some partners certainly are selling you alongside other tools, are working you into the mix. What would surprise a partner who hasn’t looked closely at 1Password in the last couple of years about where you guys are at right now? Larissa Crandall: Love this question, because I’ve been talking to a lot of partners. As we’ve built out the partner program that we just launched and going to truly partner first, we have to – what I call – myth bust. A lot of how people perceived us is just traditional EPM, the Enterprise Password Manager business, into this true solution that’s attached to everything that they’re already selling. For instance, we have large integrations with CrowdStrike and Zscaler, and that’s getting the attention of some of the partners out there not realizing that we fit into that full conversation and that tech stack as a platform play, versus thinking of us traditionally just on that human-centric credential management play. We’ve definitely flipped the script, I would say, on having sellers think of us different. MSPs – we also have a lot that we’re doing with AWS, and that has changed some of the landscape for us here, is positioning that full technology solution. Robert Dutt: You touch on partner first on the program launch. Can you walk me through what partner first means from a 1Password point of view at this point and the highlights there in terms of what it means to your partner base or your prospective partner base? Larissa Crandall: Sure, absolutely. We built what I call a customer-centric partner strategy. What that means to us internally – and as I’ve shared this with our partner ecosystem – is however a customer wants to transact with us. Via AWS Marketplace, whether they want to work with us with a partner through Marketplace, if they want to work with their traditional reseller and VAR partners out there. We have obviously SMB customers, a lot around working with their MSPs. We have that all taken care of, where we have prescriptive partners across the globe as well as working with our distribution partners. What that means for us internally is we have worked through an entire strategy top-down. It goes from our executives all the way through our sellers that they’re to engage partners. Now it could be an existing account that we have that we’re wanting to bring a partner into. We’re also spending a lot of time with partners, both new and existing, teaching them the 1Password story and teaching them how we fit in what they’re selling today and what the opportunity is. Increased enablement, certifications, all of that. Again, it goes back to what I would say is that myth bust of how you think of us and what we’re doing, versus how we’re getting a lot of attention from partners that have talked with us previous but are seeing us different, talking about putting us in their AI labs and their security practices and a full wrapper into platform. Robert Dutt: That’s two fronts of myth busting, or developing the stories to partners. Where would you say you’re at in getting that out there, broadly disseminated and well understood on both of those fronts? Larissa Crandall: It’s a daily, right? I think it’s a daily spend. I spent this morning talking to two partners and they were both new. They were in a region that we have not spoken to before, and it was newer partners wanting to learn more because they’re hearing the market demand and they’re having customers call about 1Password and identity security. That has flipped as well, where identity security is no longer a “it’s a nice” – it’s needed. Same thing across MSPs. They’re building foundational practices as well around identity security and we’re having them come to us and say, “Teach us more. How do we build this? How do we do the discovery and how do we get in front of it?” Especially around AI. Robert Dutt: You’ve talked about something you call the Access-Trust Gap – the space between what IT can see and control versus what employees are actually using to get their work done. Can you walk us through what that looks like in a real organization and the why as to why traditional IAM tools aren’t closing that gap? Larissa Crandall: I have an example for you that I love to use, and it’s related to an MSP that we have that shared with us how they personally worked with 1Password. It’s a mature MSP that made a deliberate decision as a company to bring in 1Password and make it mandatory for all of their customers. Not an add-on – make it mandatory for all. They did that because they wanted to ensure that security was embedded into everything they did from the start and how they interacted with customers. The reason that they did that is they wanted to make sure – if they weren’t ahead of it and they weren’t giving customers a secure way to manage their credentials, they would find their own way. That’s the problem still. There’s spreadsheets, there’s shared sticky notes. You put it in your phone. That’s never good. This MSP shared that and said, “If we’re going to go preach this and sell 1Password, we’re going to basically do it ourselves.” If you leave it up to your own devices, employees will do it on their own and that’s the big risk. For us, that’s the big opportunity that we’re sharing with our partners to make sure that they know that – that is not the way to go. You need to make sure that you’re protecting it. You can’t begin to address that identity sprawl if you haven’t first secured the front door. When we say that to partners, we let that sink in. If you haven’t done it personally as an organization and you’re working with customers, you have to secure that front door. MSPs that are building the basics and getting ahead of it are going to nail this and be far ahead of their competition. I love that example because it’s a real life, “If I’m going to go sell it, I’m going to make sure that we’re using it ourselves.” Robert Dutt: The new front, I think, that’s maybe catching MSPs a little bit off guard, that’s certainly building awareness, is the non-human identities side of things. You touched on AI agents a little earlier, the service accounts, the API keys – the things that need credentials but aren’t employees. How big of a governance problem is this becoming and what does it mean for an MSP who’s trying to help clients figure this out and navigate this problem? Larissa Crandall: It’s a big problem. Non-human machines are growing every day, and a stat that we’ve been using and explaining this – just on the severity of it – with our partners, is non-human identities now outnumber human 82 to 1. Think about that. If that is the number of how much you would have to protect non-human, you can’t just think about it from that human perspective. “I log in, I do the right thing.” It’s everything that they don’t know. That gap, again, is helping customers get that visibility and control around that across human and non-human, is generally hard to replicate because you have to teach it. That’s where, again, the partners come in and they bring that up and explain that. They’re ahead of it. What I will say, though, is SMBs are not ahead of that just yet. They’re not thinking about non-human every day, and that’s where partners can come in and being their true trusted advisor and explain that and explain the risk to their businesses. Because that’s their job – to keep businesses running – and that’s why customers go to them. Robert Dutt: For an MSP who’s at the point of saying, “OK, I see your point. I see the opportunity around identity security. I need to build around this,” but they aren’t there yet necessarily – what does a profitable identity security practice look like? What are they selling? What services are they wrapping around it? Where do you fit into that stack? Larissa Crandall: MSPs are all different. Obviously, they’re great about doing that first initial assessment and analyzing the infrastructure and set of tools and governance that they have. I think the first piece that we’re explaining, and we’re talking to MSPs, is just how to get started and how to build a practice around this. You first have to do that discovery. Most customers are not getting an accurate inventory of what they have. That piece, and explaining “if you do this, here’s the risk mitigation around it, this is how it could help your business.” The second piece I think that some don’t really truly understand is the scope complexity, meaning identifying the infrastructure, the dev, the security, the operations team, everybody else that’s all-encompassing around this. I think the third is staffing. Some MSPs don’t realize, “OK, if we have this, how do we build a profitable practice?” – you need to ensure that you have the right skill set from your own teams to do that assessment up front. It’s a step-by-step, but you can’t do only one of those. Proper discovery, scope, and staffing are really key. Robert Dutt: You guys are a Toronto-based company. For Canadian MSPs or resellers in the audience, is there anything specific about how you’re building the partner ecosystem up here in the market that they should know about, and what’s the first step that a partner should take who’s intrigued by this conversation and wants to find out more? Larissa Crandall: Join a partner program. Obviously, I will say that. I think one of the proud moments for us right now is we launched a new partner program in February. Simplified, it did increase profitability and economics for them, and also did a complete overhaul of all the training, enablement, everything that they were asking for. It sounds simple, hard to do. We did this outside in. We spent a lot of time surveying Canadian resellers, MSPs across the world and really asking them what was needed around that. When we launched it, we had a record number of logins immediately on our partner portal in the first eight days of the program that we had seen in a while. That just goes to show that there’s just this strong pent-up demand for “Teach me and tell me more” because they’re hearing customers with some of these issues. We want to be there first and foremost and be proactive with them. Join the program. That’s what I would say. It’s very simple to start. I promise you, it’s a very profitable program. We’ll help you through and do all the onboarding and spend some time with us. Robert Dutt: From a Canadian point of view, anything particular that you’re looking at in the market up here, as far as building the ecosystem or as far as how you view where the Canadian channel’s at with you guys? Larissa Crandall: I’ve spent quite a bit of time there, talking to partners up there and spending some time with AWS. We spent a lot of time – we just won the Rising Star Award for Canada for the work that we’ve done in partnership with AWS. That has got a lot of press for us personally and what we’re doing and how we’re building solutions together. I would also say we have quite a bit of employees there, obviously. That’s been where we started. I would say a lot of loyal partners that have been with us through the entire journey. I would say that I’m hoping they’re pleased with all the changes and the added incentives there, and happy to talk to them. Robert Dutt: All right, a few quick-answer lightning round type questions before we wrap up. You touched upon this a little bit, but can you maybe elaborate? When you talk to MSPs who are doing identity security really well, what’s one thing that’s common amongst them? What’s the common thread amongst those who are doing well in this space? Larissa Crandall: Great. I would say exactly how we started this conversation – that they have recognized that AI is here and here to stay, and the ones that have built in the forefront and done really well with enablement out to their customers around that human and non-human identity security space and explained it are crushing it. Those are the ones that we’re seeing seat count increase, seeing some of their large customers come on and do true – what I would say, we call it – wall to wall. Bring in customers that have done exactly what that mature MSP did and said, “If we’re going to go do this and preach it ourselves and sell it, we better make sure that we are doing it as a company.” We’re continually seeing that. The ones that really get that from the very beginning are the ones that are on the forefront and being proactive about it versus reactive. You have to be trusted advisors out there, especially to even the SMB community. Robert Dutt: Finally, without naming any names if you don’t want to, what’s the worst password hygiene you have personally witnessed? Larissa Crandall: I would say sticky notes. I would say everything that your grandparents have done, your parents have done. I think it’s one of those where we’re all guilty of – where do we put that password? Did you share it with someone? That’s the worst thing that you can do. Of course, I work here, I’m going to say it, but being a 1Password customer even before – and that’s the fun about being here. I could be in an airport, I’d have a 1Password sweatshirt on walking through and we’re this beloved brand out there because they started with us on that B2C journey and have moved and brought us through into their businesses today. It’s a great place to be. Robert Dutt: Quite the evolution, and thanks for walking us through it, and good luck with the program rollout. Thank you so much for taking the time. Larissa Crandall: Thank you so much, Robert. I appreciate it. [MUSIC] Robert Dutt: My thanks to Larissa Crandall from 1Password for that conversation. A couple of things I want you to take away from it. First, that stat: non-human identities now outnumber human identities 82 to 1. If that number doesn’t make you rethink the scope of the identity conversation you’re having with customers, I’m not sure what will. Second, the MSP who made 1Password mandatory across their entire customer base – not as an add-on, not as an option, but as a baseline requirement for doing business. That’s the kind of conviction that turns a product into a practice. Whether 1Password is the right fit for your stack or not, the broader point stands: identity security is no longer a nice to have, and the MSPs who treat it that way are the ones building real recurring revenue around it. Thanks for listening today. If you haven’t already, please do consider subscribing to or following the podcast in your podcast app of choice. We’re up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, iHeartRadio, and more. And if you’re old school and you like your RSS feed to be, well, an RSS feed, we got you covered too. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

In this episode Bob and Randy ‘welcome Mike Kennedy, Founder and Chief Security Officer at Ostra Security, and Mel Kolinski, Sales and Channel Chief at Ostra. They dive into an open discussion about cybersecurity, highlighting the issues with transparency and honesty in the industry. Mike shares his experiences of starting Ostra and his motivations behind it, emphasizing the need for honest relationships and better security practices. The conversation also touches on the impact of AI on security, the problems of selling fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), and the importance of a community-driven approach to improve cybersecurity standards. The episode wraps up with insights into the Truth in Cyber initiative, advocating for more ethical practices in cybersecurity.

Discover how industry veteran Larry Meador, Cavelo's new Channel Chief, is transforming the MSP channel. Cavelo empowers Managed Service Providers with a unified Attack Surface Management and Data Security Posture Management platform—offering automated data discovery, classification, vulnerability management, and compliance-ready solutions. Built for MSPs and MSSPs, Cavelo helps partners reduce cyber risk, streamline operations, and deliver scalable, data-first security services that boost profitability and client trust.   Full Video Podcast Link: https://youtu.be/D6xFmrlUXDY --------------------------------------------------- Connect with us! --------------------------------------------------- MSP Unplugged https://mspunplugged.com/ Paco Lebron from ProdigyTeks:Powered by MSP Owners Group Email: paco@mspunplugged.com Rick Smith from Renactus Technology  Email: rick@mspnplugged.com Justin Gilliam from Bacheler Technologies https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-gilliam-96288a56

In this UC Today interview, Christopher Kerry sits down with Steve Forham, Marketing & Channel Chief at Cypio, to unpack the latest in Unified Communications — from Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Cisco Webex, to AI-driven innovation transforming the hybrid workplace.

What's the future of Unified Communications? Join us for a deep dive with Michelle Paitich, Channel Chief at 8x8, as she shares her expert insights on the evolving UC landscape.Susie Harrison, Head of Content, uncovers the key trends and technologies shaping the industry, including:- The growing importance of AI and AI orchestration- The continued demand for simplicity and integrated platforms- The rise of Omni-channel experiences- The critical role of trust, security, and compliance- The evolution of partner and operating modelsDiscover how 8x8 is innovating to meet these challenges and empower businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Are MSPs at a major inflection point of opportunity? According to a new report by Pax8, that's exactly where they are at and it's driven by AI. In this latest episode of our ChannelCon series, I have the pleasure of chatting with Ryan Walsh, a previous Channel Journeys guest and distinguished leader in the IT sector as the Channel Chief and Chief Strategy Officer at Pax8. Ryan brings a wealth of experience and insights into the transformative journey from being a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to evolving into a Managed Infrastructure Provider (MIP). Our discussion navigates Ryan's strategic expertise and some of the key findings of the Pax8 Agentic Inflection Point research paper. Throughout our conversation, Ryan emphasizes the importance of adaptability and innovation as essential traits for any business looking to thrive in the rapidly-changing technology landscape driven by agentic AI.  This episode offers invaluable insights for MSP business executives and partnership leaders aiming to stay ahead of the curve and significantly reshape their strategic plan for growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here are 5 things I learned from Ryan about the MSP to MIP transition: Comprehensive Understanding Required for MIP to MSP Transition: The move from Managed Infrastructure Provider (MIP) to Managed Service Provider (MSP) isn’t just about changing service labels; it’s about broadening the operational scope and re-defining service delivery. Ryan says this transition demands a deep understanding of client-centric service models, emphasizing the need to expand technical offerings and integrate a wider array of services to meet evolving client needs. Leadership’s Role in Facilitating the Transition: A successful transition hinges significantly on leadership. Ryan shared insightful strategies on how leaders can guide their teams through this shift, focusing on fostering a culture that embraces change and encourages innovative thinking to align with new market realities. Enhancing Partner Ecosystems for Growth: One vital lesson is the importance of developing robust partnerships during the MIP to MSP transition. Ryan illustrated how strategic collaborations enable businesses to extend their capabilities, reach new customer segments, and enhance service offerings, ultimately fostering mutual growth and competitive advantage. Embracing a Customer-First Mindset: Ryan stressed that this transition requires a steadfast commitment to customer-centric innovation. By prioritizing client needs and feedback, businesses can tailor their service offerings to ensure they are not only meeting but exceeding customer expectations. Proactively Anticipating Future Industry Trends: Finally, Ryan discussed the necessity of being proactive in anticipating future changes within the industry. This forward-thinking approach helps organizations not only mitigate challenges early but also seize opportunities that can arise during such transitions, securing long-term success and sustainability. LINKS & RESOURCES Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn Download a copy of Pax8’s report “The Agentic Inflection Point” Learn how to Unlock the Benefits of GTIA with MJ Shoer & Carolyn April The post The AI Evolution from MSP to MIP with Pax8's Ryan Walsh first appeared on Channel Journeys.

Ryan Walsh, Channel Chief and Chief Strategy Officer at Pax 8, discusses the Agentic AI-driven transformation of MSPs to Managed Information Providers (MIPs).

We had the privilege of sitting down with Marek Wasilewski, the dynamic Vice President of Sales for Americas and Latin America, to uncover the secrets behind his remarkable journey from aspiring fashion designer to sales powerhouse. Marek's story is a captivating narrative of ambition, resilience, and mentorship, painting a picture of how early experiences in selling timeshares and novelty memberships shaped his career. He shares invaluable lessons on how tough sales environments can be transformative, providing the backbone needed to succeed. Marek's tale is not just about climbing the career ladder but about sculpting one's character in the process and turning challenges into stepping stones.  We also explore the TEAM framework, a game-changing strategy Marek developed to revitalize underperforming business units, showcasing the power of communication as a cornerstone of success. The conversation takes a futuristic turn as we dissect the impact of AI on sales, with frameworks like BANT, CHAMP, and MEDDIC offering foundational guidance in this evolving landscape. Marek offers insights into the philosophical dimensions of AI advancements, pondering their broader implications on the sales field. With AI's rapid evolution, epitomized by tools like ChatGPT-5, Marek's forward-thinking perspective challenges us to envision a transformed future where adaptability and team alignment become the keys to thriving in sales.  Marek Wasilewski is a globally accomplished Revenue Leader with over two decades of experience leading high-performance teams and scaling multi-million-dollar growth across enterprise, SaaS, cloud, and service provider markets. From driving 28% growth in a major LATAM region to taking enterprise revenue from $0 to $5M in just 12 months, Marek has consistently delivered transformative results at scale.  Currently based in Austin, Texas, Marek brings a powerful mix of boardroom credibility and field-tested resilience. He's the creator of the T.E.A.M. Leadership Framework—Talk, Evaluate, Action, Mentor—designed to inspire performance and build trust across global teams. His leadership ethos? “Business is like cycling—every climb builds strength, and success comes from preparation, endurance, and shared effort.”  Named to CRN's Channel Chief list and a multi-time President's Club and Chairman's Inner Circle winner, Marek has held executive roles with some of the largest companies, leading teams across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. His expertise spans GTM strategy, recurring revenue models, AI-driven sales transformation, and customer-centric execution.  When he's not leading global sales strategy, you'll find him on two wheels—contributing to Dallas-based cycling charity events and recharging through endurance sports that mirror his leadership style: focused, resilient, and purpose-driven.    Quotes: Nobody grows up saying I want to be a salesman. I left school wanting to be a fashion designer, but sales found me, and it turned out to be my true passion." "Selling timeshares and novelty memberships taught me resilience. It's about understanding that you're one call away from success and learning to deal with rejection." "Effective communication is the cornerstone of success. Over-communicating both internally and externally can transform underperforming business units." "The TEAM framework is built on four principles: Talk, Evaluate, Act, and Mentor. It's about creating a consistent and disciplined approach to revitalizing teams."   Links: Marek's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwasil/ Extreme Networks - https://www.extremenetworks.com Find this episode and all other Sales Lead Dog episodes at https://empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog/ 

Overview: In this episode of the SMB Community Podcast, our host James Kernan, along with guests Christina Klein from Land Sweeper and Martin from B2B Cyber Secure, discuss the importance of data, automation, and innovative tools in transforming the Managed Service Provider (MSP) landscape. Christina and Martin share their experiences and successes using Lansweeper to drive IT asset discovery, risk assessment, and cybersecurity compliance. They also explore how MSPs can leverage Lansweeper data to enhance service offerings and build trust with clients. The episode highlights future developments in AI and automation for Lansweeper and provides listeners with actionable steps to integrate these tools into their operations. --- Chapter Markers: 00:00 Introduction to the SMB Community Podcast 00:26 Meet the Guests: Christina Klein and Martin Dubreuil 01:21 Martin's Success with Lansweeper 03:12 Christina on Leveraging Lansweeper data  09:18 The Role of Cybersecurity in MSP Operations 13:53 Automation and Integration with Lansweeper 23:40 Future of Lansweeper and AI Integration 28:48 Conclusion and Signoff --- About Christina Klein:   Christina Klein has worked in the tech industry for 27 years. Her current role is the VP of Global Managed Service Providers.  Her career has spanned from global giants like Microsoft & AWS to scale-ups like Movere and Lansweeper.  Passionate about building & communicating the value of technology solutions through partnerships, Ms. Klein is an award-winning public speaker, 2023 Channel Chief and 2023 Role Model of the Year finalist.  About Martin Dubreuil:   With over 20 years of experience in IT management and cybersecurity, Martin Dubreuil specializes in IT asset discovery, risk assessment, and managed security services. As Associate & Director of Advisory Services at B2B Cyber Secure, a strategic partner of Lansweeper, he helps organizations secure their IT environments, optimize asset management, and strengthen compliance.  For the past 12 years, Martin has leveraged Lansweeper to provide comprehensive network visibility, vulnerability detection, and cybersecurity insights. His expertise enables businesses to identify risks, reduce attack surfaces, and implement proactive IT security strategies through managed services and automation.  "Using Lansweeper, we uncover network vulnerabilities by identifying unmanaged assets, providing insights for improving both IT and OT environments."  --- New Book Release: I'm proud to announce the release of my new book, The Anthology of Cybersecurity Experts! This collection brings together 15 of the nation's top minds in cybersecurity, sharing real-world solutions to combat today's most pressing threats. Whether you're an MSP, IT leader, or simply passionate about protecting your data, this book is packed with expert advice to help you stay secure and ahead of the curve. Available now on Amazon! https://a.co/d/f2NKASI --- Sponsor Memo: Since 2006, Kernan Consulting has been through over 30 transactions in mergers & acquisitions - and just this past year, we have been involved in six (6). If you are interested in either buying, selling, or valuation information, please reach out. There is alot of activity and you can be a part of it. For more information, reach out at kernanconsulting.com

Live from Channel Partners, Jackie Steinberg, DartPoints' Channel Chief, discusses DartPoints' expanding channel presence, the impact of AI on data center demand, and new opportunities for partners in an evolving digital ecosystem. Don't miss out on this exclusive interview uncovering DartPoints' strategic advancements.

What's the future of Unified Communications? Join us for a deep dive with Michelle Paitich, Channel Chief at 8x8, as she shares her expert insights on the evolving UC landscape.Susie Harrison, Head of Content, uncovers the key trends and technologies shaping the industry, including:The growing importance of AI and AI orchestrationThe continued demand for simplicity and integrated platformsThe rise of Omni-channel experiencesThe critical role of trust, security, and complianceThe evolution of partner and operating modelsDiscover how 8x8 is innovating to meet these challenges and empower businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences.

We speak with Craig Patterson, Senior Vice President of Global Channels at Aryaka Networks, where he leads the company's channel strategy worldwide, enabling alignment across partner sales and marketing teams and programs in North America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC). Patterson joined Aryaka Networks as Channel Chief and Vice President of Sales - Americas in September 2021 where he led go-to-market strategies within the agent, reseller and distribution channels in North America, including the launch of the Aryaka Accelerate Global Partner Program. Prior to Aryaka, Patterson was the West Division Vice President for Lumen's indirect channel. In this role, he led all sales and revenue strategy for a $1 billion organization within the Lumen Channel Partner Program and managed more than 100 sales professionals. Before joining Lumen, Patterson was a founding member of the Level 3 Channel Partner Program, where he grew revenue from $0 to $500 million over 15 yearsAryaka has an increasing focus on channels in the APAC region with a commitment and investment in the region in terms of expanding the Aryaka team and partner recruitment. Aryaka have recently hired two senior additions to the team in Hong Kong and Singapore, to gain increased traction in the regional with partners and customers. Aryaka as an organization are doubling down on the SASE market with their partners in APACRecorded by MySecurity Media as media partners to the Canalys APAC Forum, Bali, 2-4 December 2024. #pax8 #mysecuritytv #canalys

$1,000 to $2,000 a day. That is the type of revenue MSPs are achieving with RYTHMz and RYTHMz enables MSPs to enter the event space. Leonard Joseph DiMiceli, Channel Chief, RYTHMz, spells it out RYTHMz Wi-Fi leverages cutting-edge networking hardware and software-defined networking (hashtag#SDN) principles to deliver fast, secure internet connections. SDN allows for the dynamic, programmable management of network resources, enabling intelligent routing and optimized traffic flows. Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) allows latency-sensitive applications to be executed closer to users, improving performance and user experience. Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) enables seamless transitions between wireless networks, enhancing network capacity. These key software elements come together in RYTHMz Wi-Fi hardware, which features portable, compact, and ruggedized options, all with advanced antenna systems to extend optimized coverage. Our industry-leading hardware and software ensure high-speed, consistent, responsive connectivity in any environment.

Randy Schirman, Channel Chief of Vectra AI, shares how you can expand your addressable market, drive incremental revenue, and increase your market valuation by adding a true usage based Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) business model.

This is episode 705. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Read more about the Institute for Excellence in Sales Premier Women in Sales Employer (PWISE) designation and program here. Purchase Fred Diamond's best-sellers Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know and Insights for Sales Game Changers now! Today's show featured an interview with Marc Monday, Vice President, Global Partnerships & Alliances at Deltek. Find Marc on LinkedIn. MARC'S TIP:  "Embrace marketing. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that marketing is a separate discipline from what you do. Marketing is selling. Increasingly, the data shows 68% to 75%, even 80% of all customer buying decisions are done digitally online before you ever see them in your CRM. As a sales professional, it is incumbent on you to become an expert at marketing and understanding what that is. That bridge between sales and marketing is probably the single most important thing that will set you apart."

In this weeks' Scale Your Sales Podcast episode, my guest is Sergio Bea. Sergio draws on nearly three decades of telecom and IT industry experience, leading different sales organization in Fortune 500 global corporations as well as smaller niche vendors. Sergio has led indirect sales teams (Channel Chief award for 8 years in a row) and direct sales organizations with expertise in different market segments and regions. Born and raised in Argentina, he moved to the US 20 years ago with his wife Vanessa and his triplets' girls (now 22 years old). Both Sergio and Vanessa had extensive executive careers in global companies. In today's episode of Scale Your Sales podcast, Sergio shares a case study on transitioning from a direct sales model to a 70% partner-led approach over seven years, discussing the motivations and challenges involved. He explores strategies like decentralizing approvals, simplifying processes, and building strong vendor-partner relationships. Sergio also highlights the importance of soft skills such as integrity and empathy in sales leadership, and shares insights from his personal journey, including his move to the U.S. with his family. Welcome to Scale Your Sales Podcast, Sergio Bea.   Timestamps: 00:00 Partner collaboration solved issues, boosted business significantly. 05:59 Technology consumption has evolved to cloud marketplaces. 10:05 Empathy, financial impact, integrity, collaboration, responsiveness, understanding. 13:48 Soft skills crucial in Cisco's hiring process. 17:48 Buyers prefer salespeople only at final stage. 19:31 Prospective customers seek value and business understanding. 23:18 Reduce approvals to improve customer experience. 28:28 Tailored microsites improve customer identification and personalization. 32:01 Left Argentina, thrived, became executive, my hero.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiobea/ https://twitter.com/SergioBea4   Janice B Gordon is the award-winning Customer Growth Expert and Scale Your Sales Framework founder. She is by LinkedIn Sales 15 Innovating Sales Influencers to Follow 2021, the Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Customer Experience Nov 2020 and 150 Women B2B Thought Leaders You Should Follow in 2021. Janice helps companies worldwide to reimagine revenue growth thought customer experience and sales. Book Janice to speak virtually at your next event: https://janicebgordon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/janice-b-gordon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaniceBGordon Scale Your Sales Podcast: https://scaleyoursales.co.uk/podcast More on the blog: https://scaleyoursales.co.uk/blog Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janicebgordon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScaleYourSales   And more! Visit our podcast website https://scaleyoursales.co.uk/podcast/ to watch or listen.

Host James Kernan sits down with Kevin Lancaster and Matt Solomon of Channel Program, a platform designed to unify the IT Channel industry. Kevin Lancaster and Matt Solomon are the co-founders of Channel Program, a platform designed to unify the IT Channel industry. Kevin Lancaster has a strong background in the channel technology space. He previously served as the CEO of ID Agent, a cybersecurity company, which he grew significantly before its acquisition by Kaseya. Matt Solomon also has extensive experience in the industry. He worked alongside Kevin at ID Agent and later became the Channel Chief at Kaseya. Matt has spoken at over 150 industry events across six countries. Together, they launched Channel Program to create a collaborative, video-enabled platform for IT Service Providers and Vendors. Do you have any specific questions about their work or the Channel Program? Check them out: Channel Program | Home --- Our upcoming events and more: MASTERMIND LIVE – Denver, CO – Sept 26-27th http://bit.ly/kernanmastermind  Use “EARLYBIRD” as the coupon code to save $200!! SMBTechfest Q4 - Irvine, CA - October 17-18 www.smbtechfest.com Check out Amy's weekly newsletter!  Sign up now: https://mailchi.mp/thirdtier/small-business-tech-news Kernan Consulting “Weekly Tips”!  Sign up now: https://kernanconsulting.com/  Our Social Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-kernan-varcoach/ https://www.facebook.com/james.kernan  

Have you ever heard of a fractional channel chief? This is a concept that's shaking up the industry, and we had the privilege of delving into it with Kameron Olsen, a leading expert with over 15 years of experience.So, what exactly is a fractional channel chief? Unlike a full-time in-house channel leader, a fractional channel chief offers their seasoned expertise to multiple companies, but only for a fraction of their time. This approach allows businesses to benefit from top-tier channel knowledge and experience without the full-time investment. It's a perfect solution for companies looking to dip their toes into the channel waters or needing to revamp their existing channel strategies.(See here for the video version of this episode https://youtu.be/ALnjOa-ABgw?si=X4XIg-YbzFpkC2wt)(01:02) Guest intro: Kameron Olsen(01:47) Highlights in your career in the channel thus far(04:29) How hiring a fractional channel chief differs from in-house + shortage of the role(06:01) Typical responsibilities and scope of work for a fractional channel chief(08:06) Most enjoyable part about the role of a fractional channel chief(09:15) Potential conflicts of interest or competing priorities channel chiefs may have to navigate when working with multiple clients(09:52) When is it more advantageous for a company to hire fractional channel chief vs. in-house employee?(11:58) Being thrown into a channel role for the first time & how to figure it out(14:04) The disillusion of hiring an inexperienced channel manager that you don't provide training to(14:54) Advice for companies that want to hire a fractional channel chief for the first time + steps to take(17:08) Steps for suppliers to ensure successful partnerships(18:10) Partner management tech stack recommendations to vendors(20:03) Customized recommendations partner management tech stack for each vendor(22:50) How to keep track of the partner experience aspect & increase likelihood of partner engagement & what mature partner programs might do(25:53) Do fractional channel chiefs have deeper insights than in-house channel chiefs?(27:20) Tips for organizations to nurture successful partnerships(28:56) How the role of a fractional channel chief may evolve (will there be a shortage?)This production is brought to you by Magentrix ✨

Fox News Channel Chief Religion Correspondent Lauren Green joins us on THE GOOD WORD PODCAST! We discuss her new book LIGHT FOR TODAY and we go DEEP!!! In LIGHT FOR TODAY, Lauren offers observations as a journalist, reflections from bible stories and spiritual encouragement of God's hope and strength to us.  Her new book is Light for Today (BroadStreet), is a companion to her previous book Lighthouse Faith: God as a Living Reality in a World Immersed in Fog. We also explore the question WHAT DO YOU WORSHIP? If it's not God, what is it because we all worship SOMETHING!

Shahin chats with Jenna Pipchuk, Chief Sales Officer at 3P Learning, about the Unified Commercial Engine (UCE) and how it can completely transform sales and marketing alignment. Jenna's commitment to excellence and innovation is turning heads for good reason. With a reputation for transparent leadership and building great teams, she is an influential force within the tech industry.  Former CSO of SMART Technologies, her insights and management transformed the SMART organisation to one driven by customer-centric, data-driven decision-making. Her relationship-driven approach to her role, and emphasis on building better ways of working, earned her the well-deserved title of 2022 Channel Chief by CRN and a feature in the Harvard Business Review. The episode covers: What is the Unified Commercial Engine?How the budgeting worksThe proof points of UCEThe mistakes made in approaching UCE Resources mentioned in this episode: Brené BrownRevenue Operations - Stephen Diorio & Chris K. HummelBrent's Breakdown - Brent Adamson You can access the extended show notes right here! _________________ Get your copy of the 2023 report here: https://abm.xgrowth.com.au/2023-report/ Join the Slack channel: https://growthcolony.org/slack Hosted & Produced by Shahin Hoda, Allysa Maywald & Alexander Hipwell, from xGrowth We would love to get your questions, ideas and feedback about Growth Colony, email podcast@xgrowth.com.au

Channel leader share his knowledge on how to leverage channel sales for suppliers, maximizing MDF and the power of after event plans.If you are in need of a channel plan, or question if your plan is working, Kameron can help. Learn more about The Channel Advisors- https://www.thechanneladvisors.com/ Learn more about Kameron- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kameronolsen/Support the show

In this episode of Tech Sales Insights, Randy welcomes Frank Rauch, Global Channel Chief at Cato Networks, to discuss the future of the channel. Frank shares insights on leadership, go-to-market strategies, and his extensive experience in the technology industry.The episode is sponsored by trender.ai, a sales intelligence company that helps accelerate ABM initiatives through targeted social media monitoring. The Trusted Tester Program by trender.ai is introduced, offering a white-glove onboarding experience for a year. The episode also highlights salescommunity.com, a platform with valuable sales content for professionals.Frank's personal interests, including golf and owning a rock and roll bar, are mentioned, along with his passion for Philadelphia sports and recent milestone of becoming a grandfather. Quotes from industry leaders commend Frank's integrity, leadership, and strong relationships within the channel community.INSIGHTS OF THE DAYThe Importance of Personal Relationships and Support in Channel Success - Frank Rauch: “I think it's a lot more than building your LinkedIn. It really is. I mean, that's part of it, but, you know, I think when I look at Joe and when I look at Dave, I can literally cite the day, the year, the month, where those relationships were strengthened and oftentimes they're strengthened in bad times. Rather than in good times, oftentimes the sky's falling and basically if you're there and you're willing to stand with the partner, absolutely. That helps.”Find out more about Frank Rauch in the link below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankrauch/This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/Sandler: https://www.sandler.com/

“Nearly nobody will answer a call from an “unknown caller”,” says Michael Coleman SVP, Enterprise Sales and Channel Chief, First Orion. Abusive use of cell phones by bad actors has drastically reduced the effectiveness of making outbound calls to customer cell phones. Large organizations with multiple outbound numbers, get stuck with “called unknown”, undermining large investments in contact centers, and much smaller but just as critical outbound calls from repair, delivery, and other typical outreach calls. In this podcast, Coleman discusses branded communication, including their Inform, Engage and other services, plus the technologies that enable them. The results enable a company to clearly identify itself to cell phone users, avoiding the cost and consequences of missed calls. Visit www.firstorion.com

Episode 165 - SysPro Channel Chief and Pax8 Goes Boom

We're seeing double this week on the Partner Channel Podcast. Host Tori Barlow is joined by both Mike Coleman, SVP of Enterprise Sales and Channel Chief at First Orion, and Mike Otting, SVP of Platform and Wholesale at First Orion. The trio talk all about what branded content is, and the kinds of challenges the First Orion partner team faced. Listen in and learn more!

Shahin chats with Jenna Pipchuk, Chief Sales Officer at 3P Learning, about the Unified Commercial Engine (UCE) and how it can completely transform sales and marketing alignment. Jenna's commitment to excellence and innovation is turning heads for good reason. With a reputation for transparent leadership and building great teams, she is an influential force within the tech industry.  Former CSO of SMART Technologies, her insights and management transformed the SMART organisation to one driven by customer-centric, data-driven decision-making. Her relationship-driven approach to her role, and emphasis on building better ways of working, earned her the well-deserved title of 2022 Channel Chief by CRN and a feature in the Harvard Business Review. The episode covers: What is the Unified Commercial Engine?How the budgeting worksThe proof points of UCEThe mistakes made in approaching UCE Resources mentioned in this episode: Brené BrownRevenue Operations - Stephen Diorio & Chris K. HummelBrent's Breakdown - Brent Adamson You can access the extended show notes right here! _________________ For your copy of the State of ABM in APAC Report (2022): https://xgrowth.com.au/abm-report/ Miss out on our latest webinar? Listen here: https://xgrowth.com.au/blogs/programmatic-abm/ Join the Slack channel: https://growthcolony.org/slack Hosted & Produced by Shahin Hoda, Allysa Maywald & Alexander Hipwell, from xGrowth We would love to get your questions, ideas and feedback about Growth Colony, email podcast@xgrowth.com.au

Sandy Carter is Senior Vice President and Channel Chief at Unstoppable Domains. The company, which recently raised $65M Series A led by Pantera Capital at a $1B valuation, creates NFT domains that give people control of their data. Each Unstoppable domain is a cryptocurrency address which serves as the user's login to the decentralized web, and in a sense can act as a user's universal username. Sandy and her team are responsible for driving new partnerships and integrations. Previously Sandy was Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Channel Chief at Amazon Web Services, and prior to that was the General Manager of Ecosystems and Startups at IBM. We cover in detail digital identity and its importance according to Sandy, how Unstoppable Domains educates and informs people on how they can establish a next generation online identity, Sandy's journey from IBM to Amazon Web Services to Unstoppable Domains and why it is so important that we have en ever growing diversity in the teams that are building the future of the Internet. https://www.intometamedia.com/

In this #FinancialFox episode, Steffy speaks with Sandy Carter, Senior Vice President and Channel Chief at Unstoppable Domains - the number one provider of NFT domains, a type of domain name that uses blockchain technology to handle registration and many other features. In this episode, Steffy and Sandy, both attending the DCentral Miami, the largest Web3 conference in Miami during Art Basel Week, explain to you why you should care about your identity in Web3. They discuss the utility of managing your verifiable credentials while interacting with different platforms, reputation management, the importance of ownership for users and artists, interoperability and the various things you know know. Tune in now!!!

Last episode, I spoke with Jay McBain about how to turbocharge your channel career. In this episode, I join Maciej Danielski, host of the Channel Voices podcast, to discuss my role as Global Channel Chief at BeyondTrust. I share my channel journey, the responsibilities of a channel chief, and some practical advice for those who aspire to sit in the top channel seat. LINKS & RESOURCES Connect with Maciej on LinkedIn Subscribe to the Partner Voices Podcast Learn How To Turbocharge Your Channel Career The post Maciej Danielski: The Role of a Channel Chief first appeared on Channel Journeys.

In this episode, I join Maciej Danielski, host of the Channel Voices podcast, to discuss my role as Global Channel Chief at BeyondTrust. I share my channel journey, the responsibilities of a channel chief, and some practical advice for those who aspire to sit in the top channel seat.

I've had the pleasure to speak with a fellow podcaster and the SVP, Global Channel & Alliances at BeyondTrust Rob Spee, on the role of a Channel Chief. Previously he has held channel leadership positions with companies like Carbonite, SAS and Outsystems as well as running his own Channel Consultancy business. Rob shares his channel journey and how he got to this point in his career. He takes us through some of the responsibilities of a channel chief, we learn about his typical day in the role and what are the areas of his focus. He also shares with us some very practical pieces of advice for those who aspire to become a channel chief one day. Rob Spee is an accomplished podcast host with his own Channel Journeys podcast which has more than 100 episodesExternal Links:Rob's LinkedIn ProfileChannel Journeys PodcastChannel Journeys episode with Rich Blakeman on the Hybrid Sales ChannelSupport the showThank you for tuning in to Channel Voices! If you appreciate this resource please consider supporting us. Thank you!To stay up to date follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.You can of course contact us on our social channels or by visiting our website: www.ChannelVoices.comSubscribe to Channel Voices Scope, a monthly LinkedIn newsletter where we provide you with additional information accompanying the podcast. We hope you find this newsletter informative and useful for your career and organisation.We would also like to invite you to join our growing Channel Ecosystems Community on Twitter, a community of channel professionals exchanging ideas, sharing insights and learning from each other. Let's grow together!Until next time

The Unfair Fight welcomes Matt Solomon, Chief Business Development Officer, Co-Founder of the Channel Program. A leading authority on sales and business development, Matt talks with Jon about his professional journey from the world of start-up, his position as Channel Chief for a multi-billion dollar organization, and now a business owner.  Matt gives expert advice on how vendors and MSPs can better support each other, how MSPs can better serve their customers, and where he sees the short- and long-term future going for MSPs.

Discover the framework to achieve gender equity Allies are essential for creating change and achieving gender equity. Gavriella Schuster is working to teach more people how they can become inclusive allies. During her more than 25 years at Microsoft, most recently as Channel Chief, Gavriella was a change agent for gender equity at the company and beyond to the channel ecosystem. She left in 2021 to focus on helping others become allies within their own ecosystems. Her e-book “BeCOME ALLIES” shares framework for great allyship and gives practical ways for people to get started. In this Beyond the Blue Badge episode, Gavriella sits down with host Ali Spain to discuss her experience as woman leading at Microsoft, how being the “only” in the room propelled her into this work, six actions you can take to become a supportive ally and why it's crucial for change.

In this episode, we spoke with Sandy Carter Senior Vice President and Channel Chief at Unstoppable Domains, a blockchain domain name provider and gateway to the decentralized web. We discuss the importance of an online identity in Web3, what some of the issues with centralized digital identity are today, and what role NFTs play in overcoming this. Last year Blockchain.com partnered with Unstoppable Domains to support their top level domain endings in the Blockchain.com Wallet, including .crypto, .nft, .wallet, .bitcoin. You can now buy a personalized .blockchain domain on the Unstoppable Domains website BUT if you're a Blockchain.com Wallet customer we're giving you the chance to claim your very own .blockchain domain for free! https://www.blockchain.com/waitlist/blockchain-domain Sign up for a Wallet https://bit.ly/3dpcCQw Sign up to the Exchange https://bit.ly/3QzCKGP

Join Nancy Ridge Founder of Ridge Innovative and Skyler Stewart, leader of AI+IoT of Epic iO, for a captivating conversation around Cultivating an Innovative Mindset. Nancy is honored to introduce Skyler Stewart. Skyler has been successful for the last 19+ years in building national and global channel partner sales organizations in the wireline, wireless, Voice, Data, and Cloud industries. He has served in various channel sales and executive leadership roles for successful start-ups that included such notable telecom companies as Stewart Electric & Communications, Mountain Telecommunications Inc. now Eschelon Telecom and Integra Telecom. Prior to that, he served as Channel Chief at Telesphere overseeing all Indirect Channel Sales nationally, and was instrumental in the expansion of the Indirect Channel, which was then acquired by Vonage Business in 2015. Currently, he serves as the head of AI+IoT for Epic iO leading a team of experts making a safer, smarter, & more connected world for smart cities across the country. In addition to being the recipient of numerous performance and President's Club Awards during his career, Skyler specializes in customizing solutions for large enterprise customers seeking a superior solution, ranging from Security, AI, IoT, UCaaS, CCaaS, CPaaS, SDWan, and various other SaaS services. While away from the office, Skyler enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys while seeking ways to fulfill his need for speed. Prior to his professional telecom career, Skyler raced motocross professional around the globe. Index: 00:52 – Introduction of Skyler Stewart and his Background 03:25 – Cultivating an Innovative Mindset; Definition of IoT 06:00 – Solving Business Problems; Core Pillars 07:58 – How can we put the concept of billions of connections and the metadata into our lives? 09:57 – Seeing applications everywhere; projected rate of adoption 13:27 – Countering resistance; Profitability 15:15 – The mindset and seeing the applications everywhere 18:49 – Solving for customer experience and reducing costs 21:15 – AI notifications immediately 23:19 – Customer and Employee Experience; Culture of Caring 25:28 – What innovation would you most like to see gain adoption? Helpful Links – Epic iO – https://epicio.com/ If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to subscribe to us on Soundcloud for more episodes and write us a review! Share this episode with anyone interested in unconventional ideas. Do you have questions, comments, insight on the topics discussed today? Send an email to support@ridgeinnovative.com with Subject: “Culture of Innovation S1 E14”! Follow Us On: iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-of-innovation/id1537650821 Website: https://ridgeinnovative.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/nancy_ridge LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-ridge-085988a YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjEMawW6iUoDcQDjvtKTBzA Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/culture-of-innovation Release Date: 24 May 2022

One Outlook, Microsoft's VPN, Windows 11 Broad Deployment One Outlook Microsoft starts rolling out new 'One Outlook' Windows email client to testers Quick Hands-On: Outlook (Pre-Release) Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams Lands on the Windows 10/11 Microsoft Store Microsoft Announces Secure Network for Edge Windows 11  Windows 11 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Docs Microsoft Corporate  Microsoft to Adjust Employee Compensation Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark departs  Microsoft goes public with planned changes to undo restrictive cloud licensing policies in Europe Xbox  Microsoft Imagines System Giving Disc-less Consoles Access to Physical Games  Jurassic World Evolution 2, More Coming to Xbox Game Pass in May  Bethesda's Starfield and Redfall Have Been Delayed to 2023  Sony Reveals Games Included With its New PlayStation Plus Plans Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Go back in time with Google Maps App pick of the week: Alternative browsers, again Vivaldi & Brave  Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft's eval center is broken. Here's a workaround  Codename picks of the week: Delridge and Quinault  Beer pick of the week: Talea Haba Haba Splash Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: kolide.com/ww go.acronis.com/ww drinktrade.com/windows

One Outlook, Microsoft's VPN, Windows 11 Broad Deployment One Outlook Microsoft starts rolling out new 'One Outlook' Windows email client to testers Quick Hands-On: Outlook (Pre-Release) Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams Lands on the Windows 10/11 Microsoft Store Microsoft Announces Secure Network for Edge Windows 11  Windows 11 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Docs Microsoft Corporate  Microsoft to Adjust Employee Compensation Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark departs  Microsoft goes public with planned changes to undo restrictive cloud licensing policies in Europe Xbox  Microsoft Imagines System Giving Disc-less Consoles Access to Physical Games  Jurassic World Evolution 2, More Coming to Xbox Game Pass in May  Bethesda's Starfield and Redfall Have Been Delayed to 2023  Sony Reveals Games Included With its New PlayStation Plus Plans Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Go back in time with Google Maps App pick of the week: Alternative browsers, again Vivaldi & Brave  Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft's eval center is broken. Here's a workaround  Codename picks of the week: Delridge and Quinault  Beer pick of the week: Talea Haba Haba Splash Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: kolide.com/ww go.acronis.com/ww drinktrade.com/windows

One Outlook, Microsoft's VPN, Windows 11 Broad Deployment One Outlook Microsoft starts rolling out new 'One Outlook' Windows email client to testers Quick Hands-On: Outlook (Pre-Release) Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams Lands on the Windows 10/11 Microsoft Store Microsoft Announces Secure Network for Edge Windows 11  Windows 11 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Docs Microsoft Corporate  Microsoft to Adjust Employee Compensation Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark departs  Microsoft goes public with planned changes to undo restrictive cloud licensing policies in Europe Xbox  Microsoft Imagines System Giving Disc-less Consoles Access to Physical Games  Jurassic World Evolution 2, More Coming to Xbox Game Pass in May  Bethesda's Starfield and Redfall Have Been Delayed to 2023  Sony Reveals Games Included With its New PlayStation Plus Plans Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Go back in time with Google Maps App pick of the week: Alternative browsers, again Vivaldi & Brave  Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft's eval center is broken. Here's a workaround  Codename picks of the week: Delridge and Quinault  Beer pick of the week: Talea Haba Haba Splash Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: kolide.com/ww go.acronis.com/ww drinktrade.com/windows

One Outlook, Microsoft's VPN, Windows 11 Broad Deployment One Outlook Microsoft starts rolling out new 'One Outlook' Windows email client to testers Quick Hands-On: Outlook (Pre-Release) Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams Lands on the Windows 10/11 Microsoft Store Microsoft Announces Secure Network for Edge Windows 11  Windows 11 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Docs Microsoft Corporate  Microsoft to Adjust Employee Compensation Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark departs  Microsoft goes public with planned changes to undo restrictive cloud licensing policies in Europe Xbox  Microsoft Imagines System Giving Disc-less Consoles Access to Physical Games  Jurassic World Evolution 2, More Coming to Xbox Game Pass in May  Bethesda's Starfield and Redfall Have Been Delayed to 2023  Sony Reveals Games Included With its New PlayStation Plus Plans Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Go back in time with Google Maps App pick of the week: Alternative browsers, again Vivaldi & Brave  Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft's eval center is broken. Here's a workaround  Codename picks of the week: Delridge and Quinault  Beer pick of the week: Talea Haba Haba Splash Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: kolide.com/ww go.acronis.com/ww drinktrade.com/windows

One Outlook, Microsoft's VPN, Windows 11 Broad Deployment One Outlook Microsoft starts rolling out new 'One Outlook' Windows email client to testers Quick Hands-On: Outlook (Pre-Release) Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams Lands on the Windows 10/11 Microsoft Store Microsoft Announces Secure Network for Edge Windows 11  Windows 11 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Docs Microsoft Corporate  Microsoft to Adjust Employee Compensation Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark departs  Microsoft goes public with planned changes to undo restrictive cloud licensing policies in Europe Xbox  Microsoft Imagines System Giving Disc-less Consoles Access to Physical Games  Jurassic World Evolution 2, More Coming to Xbox Game Pass in May  Bethesda's Starfield and Redfall Have Been Delayed to 2023  Sony Reveals Games Included With its New PlayStation Plus Plans Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Go back in time with Google Maps App pick of the week: Alternative browsers, again Vivaldi & Brave  Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft's eval center is broken. Here's a workaround  Codename picks of the week: Delridge and Quinault  Beer pick of the week: Talea Haba Haba Splash Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: kolide.com/ww go.acronis.com/ww drinktrade.com/windows

This week's episode of Tech Sales Insights LIVE features guest Bill Swales, VP and Channel Chief at VMware. This episode is sponsored by The Alexander Group, our GTM & Sales Compensation Partners. The Alexander Group provides revenue growth consulting services to the world's leading sales organizations. When clients need to grow revenue, they look to The Alexander Group for data-driven insights, actionable recommendations and results. Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message

This week on DisrupTV, we interviewed Kim Salem-Jackson, EVP and CMO, Akamai Technologies, Kate Prouty, SPV and CIO, Akamai Technologies, Sandy Carter, Senior Vice President and Channel Chief at Unstoppable Domains and Mark Sirower, Author of Synergy Solution and Deloitte U.S. Lead, M&A and Restructuring. DisrupTV is a weekly Web series with hosts R “Ray” Wang and Vala Afshar. The show airs live at 11:00 a.m. PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET every Friday. Brought to you by Constellation Executive Network: constellationr.com/CEN.

Frankie's guests are the producer and director of Elvis's '60 Comeback Special Steve Binder, novelist and author of Forbidden City Vanessa Hua, and senior vice president of global commercial operations for the Verizon Business Group: Wendy TaccettaSteve Binder (pronounced like Fender)BOOK: Elvis '68 ComebackThe Story Behind the Specialhttps://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Elvis-68-Comeback/Steve-Binder/9781645176732Steve Binder is an Emmy and ACE award-winning producer, director, writer, educator, and Golden Globe nominee. Steve has written, produced, and directed dozens of television specials, including multiple Diana Ross specials and Petula with British singer Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte. In 1968, Steve conceived, directed, and produced ELVIS, The ‘68 Comeback Special. TV Guide called this landmark event “the second greatest musical moment in television history next to the Beatles' debut on the Ed Sullivan Show.” https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004596/Vanessa HuaBOOK: Forbidden Cityhttps://bookshop.org/books/forbidden-city-9780399178818/9780399178818Vanessa Hua is an award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. For over two decades, she has been researching and writing about Asia and the diaspora. Her books, which integrate many of the themes she covers, are critically acclaimed. Vanessa Hua's forthcoming book, Forbidden City, has already been hailed “magnificent” by Publisher's Weekly, and is getting rave reviews. http://www.vanessahua.com/Wendy Taccettaverizon.com/smallbusinessWendy is Senior Vice President for Nationwide Small Business and Channel Chief for Verizon Business. As such, she is responsible for driving results in several strategic areas of the business. Wendy's focus is on developing a customer-centric Partner Program at Verizon. Channel Partners has called their strategic focus "a historic revamping" of Verizon's channel program. Their ambition is to make it easier than ever before to partner with Verizon. https://www.verizon.com/about/our-company/who-we-are

Pandemic recovery is in full swing. Optimism for the future and financial security are on the rise, but small and midsize business owners are still seeking assistance. With small business week kicking off on Sunday, we are taking a deep dive into the state of small and midsize business. Here to discuss findings from a new study about small business confidence, the challenges they are facing, and how technology is at the core of solutions, is senior vice president for nationwide small business and channel chief for Verizon business, Wendy Taccetta. Wendy joins Mark Alyn on this episode of Late Night Health. As Senior Vice President for Nationwide Small Business and Channel Chief for Verizon Business, I am responsible for driving results in several strategic areas of the business. We are focused on creating the best end-to-end wireless experience for small business owners who trust their business to Verizon.I am also focused on developing a customer-centric Partner Program at Verizon. We understand that a great partner experience will always deliver a better customer experience. Channel Partners has called our strategic focus "a historic revamping" of Verizon's channel program. Our ambition is to make it easier than ever before to partner with Verizon.My team of 1,400+ employees is committed to accelerating small business growth, driving transformation across the Verizon Business ecosystem, and fostering a culture of collaboration every day. I have held a variety of roles during my 21-year tenure at Verizon, which has allowed me to build a diverse resume of experience in business and consumer sales, business transformation and sales operations. Most recently, I served as Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Operations at Verizon Business.I am a second generation V-teamer, whose father was a field technician for 35+ years. I live in New Jersey with my husband of 17 years. When I am not working, I am baking, spending time with my family, cheering for the Yankees (or Cowboys) or planning for our next travel adventure. I currently serve on the Executive Committee for the Northeast Boys and Girls Clubs of America. In 2020, I was named a Channel Chief of the Year by CRN.My personal ethos aligns with Verizon's commitment to the four stakeholders: customers, employees, shareholders and society. I am a passionate employee advocate, committed to leadership development, and a champion of women and other minorities in business. I believe diversity is not only the right thing to do but that it creates a stronger company and society.Quote I live by: “When you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back, and you give others the same chances that helped you succeed.” - Michelle ObamaI work hard to keep the door of opportunity open and am committed to sustaining efforts that will give the same opportunities to others. I am proud of the work that I have played a role in over the last 20+ years and am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead.

Pandemic recovery is in full swing. Optimism for the future and financial security are on the rise, but small and midsize business owners are still seeking assistance. With small business week kicking off on Sunday, we are taking a deep dive into the state of small and midsize business. Here to discuss findings from a new study about small business confidence, the challenges they are facing, and how technology is at the core of solutions, is senior vice president for nationwide small business and channel chief for Verizon business, Wendy Taccetta. Wendy joins Mark Alyn on this episode of Late Night Health. As Senior Vice President for Nationwide Small Business and Channel Chief for Verizon Business, I am responsible for driving results in several strategic areas of the business. We are focused on creating the best end-to-end wireless experience for small business owners who trust their business to Verizon.I am also focused on developing a customer-centric Partner Program at Verizon. We understand that a great partner experience will always deliver a better customer experience. Channel Partners has called our strategic focus "a historic revamping" of Verizon's channel program. Our ambition is to make it easier than ever before to partner with Verizon.My team of 1,400+ employees is committed to accelerating small business growth, driving transformation across the Verizon Business ecosystem, and fostering a culture of collaboration every day. I have held a variety of roles during my 21-year tenure at Verizon, which has allowed me to build a diverse resume of experience in business and consumer sales, business transformation and sales operations. Most recently, I served as Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Operations at Verizon Business.I am a second generation V-teamer, whose father was a field technician for 35+ years. I live in New Jersey with my husband of 17 years. When I am not working, I am baking, spending time with my family, cheering for the Yankees (or Cowboys) or planning for our next travel adventure. I currently serve on the Executive Committee for the Northeast Boys and Girls Clubs of America. In 2020, I was named a Channel Chief of the Year by CRN.My personal ethos aligns with Verizon's commitment to the four stakeholders: customers, employees, shareholders and society. I am a passionate employee advocate, committed to leadership development, and a champion of women and other minorities in business. I believe diversity is not only the right thing to do but that it creates a stronger company and society.Quote I live by: “When you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back, and you give others the same chances that helped you succeed.” - Michelle ObamaI work hard to keep the door of opportunity open and am committed to sustaining efforts that will give the same opportunities to others. I am proud of the work that I have played a role in over the last 20+ years and am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead.

In this episode of SaaS Connect by Cloud Software Association, Ryan Walsh, Channel Chief and Chief Product Officer of Pax8—with its 3,000 partners, 200 employees, 20 vendors, and 900 supported products—shares how the company grew when it added the channel, and how you can, too. Some of the points that are discussed in this profitable presentation include: Why do you need a channel? There are a few reasons, the primary one being scale and reach, and other reasons such as the shift to the cloud which is being driven by customers. IDC (the global market intelligence firm) found that MSPs with >50% revenue from cloud offerings outperform those with less. Channel cloud opportunities and where they're coming from. The definition of a channel (essentially, this is a route to market for IT products or services). Five lessons from tapping into the channel, and what you can learn from them: Commit long-term to the IT channel, i.e. 18 months. Don't walk away because it's not profitable immediately. That's not to say you won't make money during that time, but things start happening at the 18-month mark. For instance, they noticed that they were helping channel partners sell their products to their customers. 18 months is the amount of time that lets the channel community know you're in, you're committed, and you're staying positive. Build a partner management console. Support a monthly billing term. Stay away from anniversary billing. Make it simple. Provide APIs for provisioning and billing. Partner with channel experts, such as channel communities, cloud marketplaces, integration partners, and new distribution partners. Q&A - What made Pax8 successful while others struggled? Resources Mentioned: Amazon Marketplace IDC Microsoft MX Logic Azure HTG Inc Robin Robins Thank you to our amazing podcast team at Content Allies. Want to launch your own B2B revenue-generating podcasts? Contact them at https://ContentAllies.com

In this episode, we have re-released a highly downloaded webinar episode from our Becoming a Channel Chief Series. This episode features Cody Jones, Head of Partnerships and Alliances, at Zapier. Daniel and Cody talk about the journey to becoming a channel chief and key lessons learned on the path to Zapier. Cody explains the WIIFM Factor and why this crucial piece of learning has helped him grow global channel teams.