CHANNEL CHIEF
GHASSAN ABOU RJEILY , Regional Channel Sales Manager – Emerging EMEA , Riverbed , explains how the company performs all its business through the channel ecosystem to drive growth in the region . He also explains how AI and cloud adoptions will play a major role in defining the channel ecosystem .
dDescribe your current job role and a summary of the business model of your organisation ?
I lead the role of Regional Channel Sales and Alliance Manager looking after of the Emerging EMEA region . Riverbed performs all business through the channel ecosystem . The channel community with their local connections and expertise proved this model to be the best in driving demand in the region . In line with this , my responsibility is to develop our channel and empower our partners to ensure that they are fully equipped with all the technical and sales knowledge they need to address customers ’ interests and develop our business . Additionally , I handle our alliances with technology vendors at a regional level . This largely involves aligning with them on our GTM strategies and engaging with joint partners in providing bundled solutions to our customers .
What are your strengths and abilities that you bring to the above role ?
I have a deep and extensive technocommercial experience . Holding a master ’ s degree in computer and communication engineering , I began my career as a technical engineer in the field and attended to challenging customer cases . I have also been a PMP certified project manager since 2012 . I have handled many complex projects in Information Technology and homeland security . Furthermore , I have led diverse teams from operations , professional services , sales , marketing , procurement , finance and business development . My strength is being able to understand and act with multiple stakeholders and deliver quality results by applying all the accumulated knowledge in methods , processes and tools to accelerate the development of the partners .
Please describe the opportunities and challenges that exist for channel partners in your market ?
While emerging EMEA presents many opportunities for channel partners , navigating the region ’ s complex regulatory environment , fierce competition and cultural diversity can be challenging . However , with the right knowledge , skills and expertise , channel partners can thrive in this dynamic and growing market . An agile approach is needed in addressing the different demands from every country , industry vertical or even sometimes the nuances of specific customer accounts .
Our distributors and channel partners play a major role in amortizing the impact and providing the needed flexibility to our customers . And Riverbed provides all the support possible to meet in the middle without jeopardizing the business .
For example , we face forex challenges in countries like Lebanon , Egypt , Turkey and South Africa where partners can potentially incur significant losses due to delayed payments in local currency which fluctuates from one day to the other .
However , challenges are sometimes opportunities for other partners to capture and benefit from . Reverting to the example above , some partners are acting now like banks to absorb the differences in the forex exchange . These partners usually own branches in foreign stable countries and use their strong liquidity to fund projects from
Ghassan Abou Rjeily , Regional Channel Sales Manager – Emerging EMEA , Riverbed
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