Luis Picinini, Partner Director in Latam at Qlik, tells us about how his company works with channel partners, his management philosophy and how Qlik’s channel partners flourish in a highly competitive market.
What does your position entail?
My team is responsible for the full partner lifecycle, being the main point of contact with the partner for any Qlik-related need. It includes recruiting, onboarding, enabling, planning, supporting, demand generation and marketing among others. Basically, we are the face of Qlik to the partners, counting with many other areas support to deliver a world class experience to our partners.
Can you explain how your company works with channel partners?
Qlik is a partner driven organization, specially in Latin America. We look to provide the partners autonomy to sell solutions on top of our platform and our role is to enable them to be self-sufficient in most of the cases, while keeping the doors open if they need any support. In order to deliver this, we offer the partners a partner program with clear, well defined rules of engagement. This clear communication on the expectations, allows the partner to have a safe environment to make investment decisions and offers the predictability they need in their business.
We have different types of partners (distributors, solution providers, resellers, technology partners) and programs to address each type. Each program has its own set of requirements and expectations from Qlik and benefits and incentives to the partners. Some programs have different partner levels and the promotion/demotion rules are also detailed. So, when a partner joins a Qlik program, they know exactly what to do to have access to more benefits or to move to a different partner level.
What is your management philosophy?
At Qlik we optimize our resources usage. So, we are always trying to make the usual, basic stuff in a more effective way so we can shift our time and efforts to deliver more value to the partners and clients. We do this by automating many of our processes and information sharing, freeing up time for the Partner Account Manager to have higher value, business oriented discussions with partners. For this to work we need to make sure that the partners are enabled, so we invest heavily on enablement and in tracking that enablement. Our partners have access to the same enablement material as our sales teams and some of them are invited to our internal sales training. This combination gives the partner the feeling that every interaction is a rich experience worth investing time on.
Do you work differently with channel partners in Latin America compared to other regions?
We are a global organization, and as such we have a common framework for the programs that guarantees some basic guidelines for working with partners. Nevertheless, we have local flavors and initiatives depending on the maturity and actions that makes the most sense. One example (among others) for Latam is that beyond the regular Solution Provider program, we have a two-tier program (Master Reseller) that allows us to reach regions and customers we wouldn’t otherwise. We also have the autonomy to create and implement initiatives, and many of them end up being replicated globally or adopted by other regions.
How do your partners deliver Qlik solutions to end-users?
Each Qlik partner has it’s own secret sauce to deliver the solutions. Many of them have strong industry expertise and use our plarform to deliver their vision to customers. Others have implemented many functional solutions and became expert, for example, in logistics. Others also have a data integration background and use our solutions to provide their customers an efficient data management solution (including data quality, governance, etc). The expansion we had in our portfolio in the past few years allow our partners to provide their customers with much more value in their data journey needs. All of this represents service opportunities for the partners.
How do you ensure channel partners flourish in a highly competitive market?
The answer is based in three pillars:
- Partner program – With a very competitive compensation model and the respect/protection for partner investments. We ensure partners keep competitive and motivated to generate demand and bring new customers
- Technology – Our portfolio is expanding and we are always on the forefront of technology in all aspects of the data journey. Machine learning, AI and automation are technologies that are already available in our platforms and that our partners are ready to explore with our common customers.
- People – We invest in our people and we push them to be problem solvers. Our team (partner, sales, presales, ops, etc) is built with seasoned professionals that are partner oriented and have positive attitude towards partners.
The combination of these three factors bring to our partners the confidence that they can deliver a winning solution.
What are the latest trends you see emerging across the channel?
We see mainly three trends:
- AI and Machine Learning – This is here to stay and the partners need to understand how this can bring value to their customer. It’s not a technical subject. It’s business. Partners need to understand what these features can do for their customer business. Qlik has these technologies in its platform. Partners need to use them to answer to their customer needs.
- Data quality and governance – Data is everywhere, but reliable data is a different thing. Companies struggle with poor data, that bring zero to no value to their business. Partners who are able to transform their customers through the better management and transformation of their date will succeed. And all of these need to come under the umbrella of governance, protecting this data and the access to it.
- Business conversations – More and more partners will need to understand how to position their solutions in a way that resonates to the customer business. Customers are no longer buying technology per technology and are more looking for business solutions. Partners need to master the technology they represent (hence we invest so much in technology), know what it can do to their customer and talk about that to them. These business conversations will naturally bring the partners to an advisory position to their customers.
Which regions do you see offering the most opportunities for your company?
With the data explosion we see opportunities in every country in Latin America. Of course, due to the market size, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia are the biggest ones but partners can find opportunities in each and every country in Latin America. If I could provide one adivce to the partners it’d be: find two or three solutions that you’re really good at (can be vertical, or functional), learn the business benefits that they bring and prospect customers with that same business problem. That can be done in any country.