Why are partners important for go-to-market? 

The digital HQ (headquarters) for a specific customer really depends on what industry they’re in, what stage of maturity they’re at, what size they are, what geography they are in. And the digital HQ in its simplest form comprises two major components. One is best-in-class technology, which is Slack and the Salesforce Customer 360.

The other major components are those ancillary services that bring it to life. So let’s start with advisory, for example. There’s a number of macro-industry trends that are impacting knowledge workers. Things like … a continuously proliferating set of applications … the ongoing consumerization of IT and what that user experience feels like, the shift from in-office to hybrid and fully distributed.

And some companies have formed an opinion. Other companies are still scrambling to figure out what that means for them. And they’re really looking to their consulting and strategy partners to help them understand, internalize the trends that matter to them and their industry.

So there’s an opportunity for advisory. There’s an opportunity for strategy – once they understand those macro trends, they need a strategy partner to help figure out, ‘What’s the roadmap that we need to put in place to navigate those?’

And then there’s, ‘OK, what are the tools that are the catalysts to help us make that change?’ And that’s really where Slack and Salesforce technology come into play.

And then ultimately, what’s the right change management methodology to ensure that we’re being really thoughtful about how we bring these changes in? So, deep needs analysis, business process reengineering, and the right stakeholder buy-in and training to ensure long-term adoption.