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Janet E Wood, Business Objects, an SAP company

Channel Chief NameJanet E Wood
Channel Chief TitleSenior VP, Partners and Integration
Company and DivisionBusiness Objects, an SAP company
Markets Served: Software
Company's overall 2007 revenue:$1.437 billion
Percentage of revenue from solution providers:n/a
Number of years with the company:7
Number of years involved with indirect sales:7
Number of employees in channel organization:275
To whom do you report in your organization?Dual reporting to John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects, an SAP company and Zia Yusuf, SAP Executive Vice President of the Global Ecosystem Group.
Does that individual report to your CEO/president?Yes
Describe your channel organization's major accomplishments over the past year:Business Objects partner organization's major accomplishments over the past year include: 1. Increase in partner revenues, including 20% increase in $1M+ deals with SIs and a 36% revenue growth from the Solution Provider channel in North America. 2. Recruited a host of new partners, including 133 OEM (ISV) partners and 120 Crystal VAR partners through Distribution. 3. Significant improvement in partner satisfaction ratings on measures such as product, education, sales consulting, quality of customer assurance and ease of doing business.
List up to 10 of your top products sold through the channel:Crystal Reports
• Crystal Reports Server
• XcelsiusTM
• BusinessObjectsTM Edge Series
• BusinessObjectsTM Enterprise
• BusinessObjectsTM Data Integrator
• BusinessObjectsTM Data Quality
• WebIntelligenceTM
Describe how your partner community has grown over the past year:Business Objects 2007 partner channel growth highlights include:
• 20% increase in $1M+ deals with SI's
• 36% revenue growth from Solution Provider channel
• 133 new OEM (ISV) partners added
• 120 VARs signed into Crystal VAR program managed through Distribution
Name the one individual who has had the most profound impact on your life:Bill Gibson, former COO at Crystal Decisions. While working with Bill at Crystal Decisions I learned a great deal from his leadership in demonstrating the critical value of partners for mutual success. He was always 100% committed to partners and was instrumental in taking partnering to the next level within the organization.
Please name the single most innovative initiative for which you were responsible for the past year?In 2007, Business Objects introduced automated lead distribution to partners through a newly implemented Partner Relationship Management (PRM) system. In combination with this roll out and the recent introduction of a new mid market product line (Business Objects Edge Series), Business Objects undertook an extensive mid market seminar series to drive leads with and for Solution Provider partners. This seminar series was co-run with partners in 50+ cities across NA. Business Objects provided centralized content and logistical support as well as provided new customer contacts to partners. In fact, Business Objects drove and distributed over 1750 mid market leads to partners through this campaign alone (5000 leads distributed to partners in total since the launch of PRM). This was the most large-scale partner-focused lead generation program ever executed in the history of Business Objects and contributed not only to the 36% Solution Provider license revenue growth for 2007 but also pipeline generation for continued success in 2008.
What were the key channel partner investments you made in the past year?See Question 13. Investments made in Partner Education Program including online systems and instructor-led training delivery, investment in improving Customer Assurance, and systems and implementation investment in the Partner Relationship Management system (PRM) system to automate deal registration and lead distribution.
How are you attracting the next generation of solution providers?The next generation of solution provider partners is being attracted to Business Objects through our best in class partner program, which includes top quality products, competitive sales margins and comprehensive sales, marketing and enablement benefits. In 2007, we demonstrated to the channel our commitment to continual improvement of our program by making significant improvements in customer assurance, partner education and ease of doing business, thereby further increasing partner value and ROI. In addition, we have expanded our partner program reach by creating a VAR program through Distribution, which provides a program to support an even broader set of channel partners.
• 30% improvement in satisfaction with Customer Assurance (Technical Support)
• Product Satisfaction reached Best in Class levels at the end of 2007
• 16% increase in partners' scores for Ease of Doing Business
• Partner Education received average score 7.5 out of 8
What is the greatest challenge you overcame in the past year?Our 2006 ARC Survey results and Q1 2007 Partner Satisfaction survey conducted by Business Objects indicated that our partners were experiencing challenges with customer assurance, partner education and the ease of doing business with Business Objects. We heavily focused our efforts on improving on these measures throughout the year and made some great strides improving significantly over a 3-quarter period. From our most recent survey conducted in Q4 of 2007, partner feedback indicated:
• 30% improvement in satisfaction with Customer Assurance (Technical Support)
• Product Satisfaction reached Best in Class levels at the end of 2007
• 16% increase in partners' scores for Ease of Doing Business
• Partner Education received average score 7.5 out of 8
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