Growth through its EMEA partner network is already generating strong results. Just nine months into the financial year, the firm’s channel-led strategy is already set to deliver double digit growth against year-on-year sales targets. Strong collaboration with regional distributors has helped to increase EMEA partners in 2015 by 45 per cent and is on track to double by the end of 2016. More than 40 per cent of those new partners have already transacted multiple deals.
Ipswitch is also expanding its EMEA team with some significant executive appointments.
Michael Hack joins the team as Senior Vice President EMEA Operations. Previously President at Sitecore, a global customer experience management software firm, Hack will oversee the existing EMEA business and will drive further expansion of the strategic partner network. As part of his remit, he will be responsible for initiating on-the ground resources and directing the efforts of channel teams to support partners in their sales and solution delivery activities.
He’s to be joined by Roland Renner, who is appointed to the newly created role of Senior Director DACH/Eastern Europe. Responsible for spearheading Ipswitch’s deeper penetration of these key country markets, Mr. Renner’s appointment marks a milestone in the company’s EMEA expansion strategy. Mr. Renner will be joining previously appointed Robert Farmer who is now responsible for sales across UK, Northern Europe and MEA and Yannick Hello responsible for sales across France and Southern Europe.
“Having a dedicated senior team will make a huge difference to our performance in EMEA, and will enable us to support our partner network in the pursuit of new deals and opportunities across the region,” commented Diane Albano, Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer Global Sales.
In a bid to enable enhanced cross sell programmes and better align territory strategies to target growth, Ipswitch has expanded the terms of its distribution agreement with Infinigate.
The move sees Infinigate, a Value-Added Distributor (VAD) which offers a broad range of business services to the reseller community, acquire VAD status for both File Transfer and Network Management products in seven European countries: the UK, France, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Norway and Denmark.
“In recent months we’ve consulted closely with our EMEA distributors, significantly expanding our sales, marketing and support field-based teams to enable accelerated growth for our European partner network,” said Albano.
“This completes the integration of the two formerly independent partner programmes that served our business lines. The new agreement with Infinigate complements our existing distributor ecosystem, while giving us a presence in some key Nordic territories for the very first time.”
To drive further growth for its partners and resellers, Ipswitch has undertaken a comprehensive review of its incentive programme, unifying the discount matrix across all product lines. Highlights of the new PartnerSynergy scheme include:
Distributors now benefit from enhanced rewards for new reseller recruitment and a streamlined, more transparent progression path through the ranks of the programme.
Distributors and resellers now benefit from enhanced rewards for new license sales and renewal/maintenance sales; a new deal registration process will further enhance this process for new license sales.
“We’re already seeing a marked increase in partner requests, demonstrating that the PartnerSynergy programme is delivering against expectations,” said Albano. “We’re confident that our presence in EMEA will continue to accelerate, generating enhanced benefits and opportunities for our partners across the region.”