What we have started to do now is take Powered By Zoom offerings out into the market for those partners that want to build their own offerings around the Zoom platform.”
Utilising the Channel That battle for the collaborations market has been dominated by two providers since the pandemic-induced explosion; Microsoft Teams and Zoom. While that battle continues to play out, one of the key advantages Microsoft has is a network of channel partners that have been selling their services for decades; not to mention the fact the platform is rolled into an overall package. Nevertheless, Smith’s ambition has been emboldened by an increasingly addressable market, as the partner programme Zoom builds becomes more appealing. “We’ve had to build this channel programme from a foundational level to improve our coverage in EMEA. Over the last 12 months, we’ve with signed agreements with three large scale distribution partners that have given us that footprint, so as of today, we now have 100% reach across EMEA. “The second piece was actually building out a properly structured partner programme that allowed us to be able to tier our partners in a way that reflected how invested they are in Zoom. Maturing our ecosystem into tiers gives us the ability to reciprocate the investment different partners give to us back into their businesses. “On top of that we are addressing the periphery businesses, such as ISVs and OEMs, who can take either parts of the Zoom product or the Zoom platform, and incorporate it into their own offerings. What
fortune for those seeking to improve their communications, the necessity to embrace the channel has become obvious. The appointment of Smith 13 months ago is a key part of the “maturing” that Zoom has gone through. Smith himself says that his focus has been on building a partner ecosystem that can cater to all manner of requirements. “My perspective when I was coming into the company was to ask ‘how do we actually pivot Zoom to being channel-led?” said Smith. “Building on my background in companies such as Dell and Hewlett Packard, I wanted to understand the ecosystem that we had up until a year ago and, more specifically, the ecosystem we needed for the future. “It’s important to remember that for the first six or seven years, Zoom was a meetings- only product. You look at it today, we have an all encompassing, market leading unified communications platform. That requires different partners with different skill sets, and different capabilities to be able to position, sell and support that platform. “When I joined, just over a year ago, we only had access to about 20% of the EMEA market, because we had not invested in our partners. We weren’t supporting partners whether in technical enablement, sales, accreditation. These are the things that give partners the skill sets and the experiences they need in order to be able to represent Zoom.”
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