CHANNEL CHIEF
STEVE LEWARNE is Vice President , Sales , Channel and Programmes at AVEVA , a British multinational IT consulting company and global provider of industrial software headquartered in Cambridge , England . Lewarne describes his management philosophy as being in the business to support channel partners who , in turn , help to ensure the success of mutual customers . He outlines here how the industrial software vendor is developing its business and growing the channel globally .
dDescribe your current job role and the parts that are somewhat challenging ? I ’ m the vice president of Channels and Programmes globally for AVEVA . Partners represent approximately a quarter of AVEVA ’ s overall business , and I work with our channel partners which consist of distributor partners and our special solution provider partners , which are different categories of resale partners for AVEVA . Globally , I manage the programmes and policies for these partners , working with our regional sales organisations to execute our programmes and strategies to drive growth through partners in the AVEVA business . A tricky aspect of the job , sometimes , is coordinating across different cultural and trade environments in different regions . That is , trying to create programmes that can be tailored and functional at a global level , without requiring mass customisation in each market , can be a challenge .
Can you explain how your company works with channel partners ?
AVEVA has a global set of channel partners that cover our entire market . While all of channel partners actively resell , many of our partners are also what we call certified support providers and certified training providers . Essentially , they represent AVEVA locally to their customer base . The advantage for us is that we have a global network of partners that can engage with customers at their local plant level , where our software is typically deployed and used . Having local support in the same time zone , that speaks the local language , and understands the project and the application of the software is critical to the overall success of our mutual customers . Therefore , partners play a key role for AVEVA in providing local services and support to those industrial customers , reducing their project risk and improving customer value and satisfaction .
How do you ensure channel partners flourish in a highly competitive market ?
Our programmes are all set up to ensure that our channel partners can be successful . The primary competitive advantage we offer partners is access to marketleading portfolio of software solutions for the industrial operations market . Our programmes address sales , marketing , technical support , and training . We have full for-partner and through-partner channel marketing programmes including market development funding ( MDF ).
What are the latest trends you see emerging across the channel ?
One of the biggest trends that we see is the transition from perpetual license sales to a software subscription business model .
This trend enables our customers to capture more value from the AVEVA portfolio but can present a challenge for AVEVA and our partners to move our business model from a project-based capital expenditure to an operational expenditure model which emphasises an ongoing customer success management model and recurring revenue . This transition creates
Steve Lewarne , Vice President , Sales , Channel and Programmes , AVEVA
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