Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 20 | Page 66

FINAL WORD undoubtedly, the business will continue to run. Now, if our licencing engine data gets corrupted or I can’t access it, I can measure that on a minute-by-minute basis on loss revenue. I think it’s a great analogy of how you must learn about the business priorities and how you must prioritise the data pools and establish recovery and recall points that are We’ll be delivering a lot of these products in Q1 and then in Q2. It will become routine in the fact that we have to have this constant volley of new products to be relevant and more importantly, to be current. We’ve invested and doubled the R&D expenditures with StorageCraft’s acquisition of Exablox in early 2017. So, a lot of that money we used in our investment, we in-line with that business definition. This is why our partner strategy is so important, because our partners act as professional consultants that go in and help to find these descriptions of less mission- critical data, prescribe the recovery models that are necessary or the use models of the data that are necessary. We want people to be making much more intelligent decisions on what they should store. doubled down on the number of people we have in R&D and the expectation is that we’re going to double the number of products. So, look for a continued volley of new products, look for us to perfect our partner programme. I’m really pleased with the new partner programme, but I think there’s a great opportunity for us to now start demonstrating the economics to the partner on utilising not just our technology, but our partner programme. Plans for 2019 We introduced our new products at GITEX Technology Week 2018 and in the new year you’re going to see us continue to deliver on a whole host of new products. The importance of partners The only way we go to market is through our partners. We do not direct-sell; we believe in the model and understand that the model has the best reach so it’s the The only way we go to market is through our partners. single best way to increase customer and end-user satisfaction. We’ve perfected this with people like Andy Zollo, who’s a master in the process of partners in Europe and in the Middle East, with Lee Schor in North America and with Marvin Blough globally. These people have got a pedigree of leading channel environments. What’s amazing is that our net promotor score has steadily increased as we put more emphasis on the channel model of our business. Again, it’s not net promoter score measuring what the channel thinks of us, it’s the end customer and what they think of us that’s changing remarkably well. GDPR compliance I think what I’m experiencing, not just in Europe but also in North America, is that there’s a little bit of GDPR fatigue. People are tired of it but everybody’s trying to become compliant or has become compliant. I think the next time GDPR is going to be in everybody’s face again is when any government agency has a situation where there’s been a breach – a non-compliant factor. How does that work? I think the next step is to consider what happens when you are found to be violating intentionally or unintentionally. I don’t think all the breaches are necessarily going to be intended. If governments start to find a new revenue source, I think this could wreak havoc again for the industry and that’s where I think we have a great opportunity to apply some peace of mind. ˜ 66