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SES SMB Partner Research

SES SMB Partner Research. Xinyu Zhang, Peggy Kirk, Celeste Adamson,. SES SMB Partner Research. Background and Agenda. 1. Partner Profiles. 2. Partner Characteristics. 3. Key Findings. 4. SES Opportunities & Next Steps. 5. Background.

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SES SMB Partner Research

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  1. SES SMB Partner Research Xinyu Zhang, Peggy Kirk, Celeste Adamson,

  2. SES SMB Partner Research Background and Agenda 1 Partner Profiles 2 Partner Characteristics 3 Key Findings 4 SES Opportunities & Next Steps 5 Shared Engineering Services

  3. Background • With the formation of a new SMB organization under Rowan Trollope, we formed a team to see what opportunities might exist for SES in the Partner space • Productive and profitable partners are critical to winning in SMB • SES specializes in cross-product leadership in many areas • Individual product team focus on their own objectives, missing overarching objectives • Goal: Align SES with Rowan’s top priorities for FY12: • Deliver Solutions Designed for SMBs • Strengthen our Partner Relationships • Drive Customer Preference • Improve End-to-End Experience Shared Engineering Services

  4. Background • Two rounds of partner site visits were conducted in October & November 2011 – 13 interviews total Research Goals: • Gain knowledge of SMB market & partner needs • Identify partners’ pain points in re-selling and supporting Symantec products (e.g. processing maintenance renewals) • Gather insights to refine and validate current workflows and processes • Contribute to SMB knowledge base and promote collaboration with cross-product teams Shared Engineering Services

  5. Partner Profiles • Visited 13 US SMB partners • 7 Mid-West, 4 East Coast, and 2 West Coast • Partner Types: • 1 Large Account Reseller (CDW) • 2 traditional VARs (Value-Added Reseller) • 10 that had adopted the MSP (Managed Service Provider) model or were in transition • Partner Size*: • Partners had a minimum of 150 clients/active accounts • VARs had a wider range of client sizes; from 1 to 15K seats • MSPs were focused on a “sweet spot”: either 5-50 or 40-100 • Primary domains • County governments, community banks, education, healthcare, law firms, & finance *excluding LAR - CDW Shared Engineering Services

  6. SMB Characteristics • Moving from a VAR to an MSP model • Partners are clients’ trusted advisors, giving recommendations for brands that provide the best solutions for their business problems • Not usually any strong brand requests/awareness from clients • Definition of SMB sizes differ; S and M are more like different segments with very different needs • Smaller businesses usually have no in-house IT, usually 100 seats and under • In some cases up to 200 • Uptick in cloud needs for small businesses • Often managed or hosted by partners • Medium businesses usually have some in-house IT, usually 200-1000 seats • In-house IT usually means more customer-side brand preference and desire for process control • As the number of seats get larger, they have a rapidly growing need for virtualization and environmental complexities • Verified by interview with SE SMB Partner Research

  7. SMB Characteristics • Desire for simplification – clients and partners often possess a “good enough” mindset • Whatever will solve the stated business need is “good enough” for them, no bells & whistles needed • Want to “set & forget” products • Partners compete with bigger fish like CDW by offering more personalized service and individual attention • “Hybrid” MSP models • Ranging from completely managed and monitored to mixing and matching levels of partner involvement SMB Partner Research

  8. Key Findings • Installation, provisioning, & upgrade workflows are complicated • Maintenance renewal is not streamlined • Partner portal (PartnerNet) lacks key functionalities,ease of use, & relevant content “Since we’ve been with Symantec, the web portal has always been terrible” - Mark Feldman, Sr. Account Executive, ABC Services, West Babylon, NY • Symantec SMB & .cloud offerings lack key features and product awareness "Last year we put 30 people on Mosy cloud. I would much prefer to keep it a Symantec shop.” • Cory, CEO, Area-Wide technologies, Champaign IL • Monitoring status on multi-client installations is time consuming “I want one login to manage all my cloud clients. Some of your AV competitors have that.” • Fred Moore, CEO Moore Computing Saint Louis, MO Shared Engineering Services

  9. SES Opportunities • Createpartner-centricexperience for configuring and managing SMB products • Usability research and UI design for CMES portal, MSP console and RMM tool • Focus on Suites and product interoperability • Work with Licensing team to fix broken license purchase and renewal process • Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to provide solution content for critical partner issues Shared Engineering Services

  10. Next Steps • Create, update, and validate SMB Partner personas for use across the Symantec organization • Extend partner research outside the US: Canada, South America, EMEA, Asia Pac • Organize a F24H for Suites (focus on product interoperability) and a F24H for Partners (focus on multiple client setup & RMM vendor tools) • Create SMB-focused social CRM initiative • Promote ClientNET community Shared Engineering Services

  11. Thank you! Shared Engineering Services

  12. Appendix - Partner Profiles Shared Engineering Services

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