Partner Profitability Roundtable with ARN

A few weeks back now I attended a roundtable wit ARN on the topic of partner profitability. It's now published online here: https://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;1124272855

The four key topics:

Six of one, half a dozen of the other

Deal registration: Planting your flag

Recruitment: Jumping the fence

Lead generation: Who owns the customer?

I'd be interested in anyone's thoughts on the transcript..

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 04, 2007
  Hey Nick, Very interesting to see a group of senior execs discuss things like this openly. One facet which did however surprise me was the issue about recruitment. IMHO keeping your employees around is not always jut about "thinking" you pay them 6 figure incomes and leaving it at that. The opening thought (i wont mention names) was poaching and if it should be a vendors (MSFT or other service provider) responsibility not to actively seek staff from within the partners, or alternitvely allied companies (not necessarily MSFT Partners). Many large scale corporates have set guides/rules in place as to how employees are being benefitted, both through enumeration but also via bonuses/extras. The fact that it was approached says a bit more about the companies which took the stance that there shouldn't be recruitment actively happening within their network than it does about the staff that's leaving. I personally don't see it as a responsibility of a partner (not thinking MSFT, but business wise) to ensure that they don't approach staff from within that network. It should be the responsibility of the corporation to retain their staff and ensure they have adequate proceedures in place to grow and support their staff - not other corporates within the network. Anyways, as i said, it's good to see you guys participate in discussions on an open front with the corporates of today. Great article...

• Anonymous
  June 04, 2007
  Thanks for your comments Brian. It was an interesting session for sure. Nick