Janet Schijns, who recently took the reins as Motorola's vice president of worldwide channels, plans to keep the company's mobility mantra alive as she brings solution providers on board with the integral role mobility and wireless technologies will play.
And, while Schijns said those new technologies will be a catalyst for success for Motorola's channel, she said the channel will also play a massive role in Motorola's future successes. Motorola has 9,741 partners worldwide, 4,651 of which are in North America and Latin America. More than 80 percent of the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company's business runs through the channel via Motorola's PartnerSelect program.
First things first, Schijns said, her goal is to "enhance [Motorola's] channel-centricity" and promote channel health while also strengthening Motorola's global market through its breadth of solutions. "We have to help the channel to build expertise in new routes to market," she said. "And help them focus on solutions and services."
Schijns said the time is ripe for solution providers to embrace wireless and mobility, especially as companies start focusing on going all-wireless and more enterprises look to mobility and other technologies like Web 2.0 to keep employees connected, boost productivity and increase access to applications from anywhere. Companies are also turning to wireless and mobility to save money by eliminating costly wired deployments, which in this time of economic uncertainty can make a big difference to the bottom line, she said.
Mobility and wireless technologies offer solution providers more bang for the buck, she said, and can become highly profitable areas of expertise as their customers look to differentiate themselves and retain a competitive edge.
Schijns joins Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Business group from The JS Group, a channel consultancy for high-tech companies, where she was founder and CEO. Schijns developed channel empowerment programs for vendors and distributors, including Motorola Enterprise Mobility, to expand partner competencies, reach and worldwide market share. While there, she honed her expertise in new-route-to-market development, vertical market diversity and international channels development.
At Motorola, Schijns takes on a role vacated by Jeremy Butt, Motorola's former vice president of worldwide channels, who in June took the channel chief post at Avaya.
In her new role, Schijns will focus on expanding Motorola's channel solutions competencies and emerging technology routes, embracing channel health and empowering partners who can sustain growth through a disciplined, solutions-based go-to-market performance.
"Motorola is dedicated to transforming how enterprises go mobile," Schijns said, noting that its recent acquisition of AirDefense, a wireless security vendor, is a solid example of how Motorola plans to present more options to the channel by wrapping security into its cadre of WLAN products.
Schijns said she will continue investing and evolving Motorola's channel strategy to hit new verticals and capture the ever-important small to mid-size enterprise market. She also is devising programs to enable Motorola and its partners to hit those targets and aims to ease some of the challenges partners face, while helping them specialize in vertical markets, bring aboard and keep talent and build their competencies and capabilities. Education, training and working closely with partners to help them grow their mobility focus will be key, she said.
"Motorola is the leader in the enterprise mobility space now," she said. "This is an interesting opportunity to ensure it continues to be the customer preference and remove boundaries."
