https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501 Application
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501 Application
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Digital Service Providers
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • CHANNEL PARTNERS ONLINE
 Channel Futures

Leadership


Meet the Channel: Scott Erickson, M-Files

  • Written by Kris Blackmon
  • February 22, 2017

This week we chatted with Scott Erickson, vice president of Channel Sales at M-Files

This week we chatted with Scott Erickson, vice president of Channel Sales at M-Files, a secure document management solution provider. Erickson is a 17-year channel industry veteran, and previously served as vice president of Sales at Alibre. Erickson joined M-Files in 2009 to help the company jumpstart its global channel business.

TVG: Did M-Files have any partner program in the works when you came on board, or did it start whenever you joined the company?

Erickson: I was essentially hired to breathe life and formalize our partner program at the time. Just to give you an idea, I was the first channel person hired at that point. I think we had 25 to 30 total employees globally back in 2009, whereas today we have close to 400, and we have 35 people that are really focused on our channel program, including channel sales people, channel marketing people, and what we call channel consultants that are essentially sales engineers helping our channel partners.

TVG: What were the big challenges that you were facing trying to build a global channel program being based here in the states for a Finnish company?

Erickson: The challenges were many to say the very least, I don’t know if you’ve ever interviewed anyone from Scandinavia in technology companies before, but I can tell you from working with them for a number of years now that they have a really strong focus on product quality and product innovation.

That is an absolute strength of our company. And now that we’ve got our U.S. operation off the ground, a lot of the sales and marketing strengths are coming into play now. It’s kind of a really unique, beautiful marriage of the two in how we do business.

The other thing I would add is back then we were the new kid on the block and in a way we still are the new kid on the block because the document management, ECM space is really quite mature but back then no one really knew about us. We were having to really fight for everything we could possibly get. A lot of the more substantial experienced or successful partners didn’t really want to talk to us because we didn’t have a track record at that time.

TVG: How have you seen the channel change the most, both for partners and for vendors in the last 17 years that you’ve been in the channel?

Erickson: At its core, M-Files is really a document management system. Given the maturity of the overall document management space, we’re carving out a new niche for ourselves because of that exact point. We believe based on our experience that information is kind of a new gold, if you will. We’re well tailored to take advantage of that. As companies in the IT industry have figured this out or started to figure out that they need to help customers manage their information, again not just documents but their overall information much better, that’s where we turn a ripe opportunity for us because we can show them how to help those customers.

TVG: When it comes to partners today versus partners in 2007, are they facing the same challenges with their businesses? Are they asking vendors for the same sorts of help or enablement or training or have those paradigms changed for partners?

Erickson: Cloud and licensing pieces might be the biggest pieces of the puzzle now, and we work with customers that are enterprise scale all the way to SMB level. They themselves are rethinking how they’re managing software and applications and hardware. Many of them are moving to the cloud or have already moved to the cloud. That trend is only going to get stronger in our opinion. We have a track record of helping our partners educate their customers on how can help them do that effectively and cost effectively.

I would also touch on mobile solutions. As you know, pretty much everyone in any company is probably using their mobile device in some capacity whether it’s authorized or not. M-Files brings that core competency to the table for our partners. We’re arming our partners with all of the required IT tools where they can go to any customer and give them the confidence so they can help solve very specific business challenges or business processes they need help with.

TVG: How is the move to the cloud changing partner’s approaches to their own business models?

Listen to Erickson’s answer below:

 

TVG: When a partner is trying to move from a business that is based on one time sales into something that is more of a recurring revenue based business, what kind of challenges are they facing?

Erickson: Well obviously the immediate impact is just cash flow management because it does have an impact that at least initially, so that’s one of the top challenges they face. Again if they are committed to it in the long run and they have the financial stability to make that transition, I can’t think of a partner I’ve spoken to that has not been happy with moving to a model like that. Going back to one of my other points, the overall IT industry is moving in that direction. Microsoft has been there for a number of years already. For our purposes, I think we’ve been quite effective at helping partners make that transition.

TVG: What specific elements in your partner program address helping partners make that transition?

Erickson: As far as our sales model is concerned, you can think of our direct sales effort as a kind of a laboratory. We often do testing to see what works with customers and what doesn’t, and then we take those lessons learned and then adopt those lessons into kind of best of class or best of category approaches for our partners. That approach works extremely well.

We try to develop sales boot camps or business boot camps that we often lead in person, and we do a lot of that at our annual partner meetings. We host webinars to speak about these topics. We publish white papers and other pieces of collateral that touch on it. Our product managers that own the cloud solution are all involved with all of our partners, or at least the partners that are actively trying to sell cloud solutions.

We’ve got a forum that’s open for asking these types of questions and then of course all of our channel people are educated to help them make that transition. We’re trying to put our best foot forward on all fronts to help partners do that. We try to keep our pricing infrastructure and model quite simple and affordable, which I think is another strength of the program.

TVG: What kind of challenges do partners and businesses face when it comes to shadow IT? Especially in regard to mobile, how quickly are the threats evolving, and how does it impact everything that we do in the enterprise world?

Listen to Erickson’s answer below:

TVG: When you take a look at the technology that’s just starting to be talked about, like the real emergent kind of cutting edge stuff, what gets you most excited?

Erickson: In our environment machine learning and intelligence is maybe at the top of the mountain for us. We’ve got some new technology coming out, middle of this year that we believe is going to be another level of a game changer for us, and we’ve done great work. We’ve been growing at about 50 percent year-to-year historically the last seven or eight years in a row, and once this product comes out we think that’s going to escalate us to an entirely new level because of some of that technology that I’m touching on. Our customers are kind of demanding that, and our partners are demanding that of us now, and we’re kind of banking on that to lead us to the promised land, so it’s kind of where our collective heads are at this point.

TVG: On the flip side of that question, what gets you most frustrated about working within the channel specifically?

Erickson: I’m a huge proponent of wanting to build the best channel program in this industry on a global basis, and I think we’re well on our way to accomplishing that. One of my frustration is that we often can’t help as many partners in real time as I would like to. I mean I want to support partners as quickly and as deeply as we possibly can. We do still have a relatively small team, so we do have limitations in what we can do on a daily and even hourly basis but again I’m a huge proponent of delivering best in class support, and just sometimes our response time isn’t quite what I want it to be, but again we focus on that and do our absolute best in all cases.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Leadership

Related


  • Businessman stepping up ladder
    Andy Jassy of AWS Is Movin' On Up: Partners React
    Find out what some of your peers and suppliers have to say about Jassy becoming Amazon CEO.
  • No Racism
    Racially Charged Tweet Costs Alteryx CRO His Job
    Numerous individuals, including a customer, criticized Alteryx for the tweet, which led to the CRO's resignation.
  • Select a Hire
    AvePoint Taps Ingram Micro, Palo Alto Networks Vet to Lead Channel
    He held channel exec roles at Ingram and Palo Alto Networks
  • 2021 Channel Influencer Awards
    Spoiler alert: COVID-19 is not the Channel Influencer of the Year.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Jeff Bezos Surprises with Plans to Step Down as Amazon CEO
  • HPE Distributors Key to as-a-Service Strategy
  • Former Google, Microsoft Exec Takes Helm at CloudSphere
  • Microsoft’s New Channel Head: ‘I’m Making Sure I’m Listening’

Galleries

View all

Channel Partners Virtual 2021 Is the Hottest Ticket in Town

February 26, 2021

Industry Perspectives

View all

Backup Vulnerability: 4 Targets Hackers Might Utilize to Infiltrate Your Backup Solution

March 2, 2021

The “Roaring 20s” Are Coming

February 25, 2021

Three Ways MSPs Can Improve Supply Chain Security

February 24, 2021

Webinars

View all

A Partner’s Perspective on Channel Success in 2021

March 23, 2021

XDR and Why it Matters to MSPs

March 24, 2021

Top Security Trends Impacting Technology Security Providers In 2021

March 25, 2021

White Papers

View all

Why Fortinet for my MSSP?

March 2, 2021

Small and Mid-Size Business Security: 4 Steps to Success

March 2, 2021

How SMBs Can Secure Endpoints and Remote Workers for the Long Haul

March 2, 2021

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Virtual

March 2, 2021 - March 4, 2021

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

November 1, 2021 - November 4, 2021

Videos and Fastchats

View all

FASTCHAT: How SOAR Eliminates Security Challenges and Elevates Service Provider Revenues

January 6, 2021

Happy Holidays from Channel Partners & Channel Futures!

December 21, 2020

FASTCHAT: How Old, Unpatched Technologies Are Creating New Security Threats for MSPs and Their Customers

December 3, 2020

Twitter

ChannelFutures

.@Netrality launches expanded partner program. #datacenters dlvr.it/RtrKXt https://t.co/2qHhnqrF7g

March 3, 2021
ChannelFutures

With day one of #CPVirtual in the books, we offer a recap of highlights and look ahead to day two. @Channel_Expo… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 3, 2021
ChannelFutures

Why Fortinet for my MSSP? @EXN_Networks dlvr.it/Rtr1JS https://t.co/VV1dfuEK3r

March 2, 2021
ChannelFutures

Small and Mid-Size Business Security: 4 Steps to Success @EXN_Networks dlvr.it/Rtr1J9 https://t.co/ENfDHBfajN

March 2, 2021
ChannelFutures

How SMBs Can Secure Endpoints and Remote Workers for the Long Haul @EXN_Networks dlvr.it/Rtr1Hq https://t.co/3aAZL31Y2e

March 2, 2021
ChannelFutures

Mapping the Ransomware Landscape @EXN_Networks dlvr.it/Rtr1F6 https://t.co/oTSoIJKlA5

March 2, 2021
ChannelFutures

Top 5 Considerations when Selecting an EDR Solution @EXN_Networks dlvr.it/Rtqt8V https://t.co/g9VLXbj2Rx

March 2, 2021
ChannelFutures

[email protected] launches new #partnerprogram. #zerotrust dlvr.it/RtqhZB https://t.co/yIUhvYkYUs

March 2, 2021

MSSP Insider

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Channel Partners Online

Want more? Find more channel news and analysis on our sister site, Channel Partners.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Online
  • Channel Partners Events
  • MSP 501
  • MSSP Insider
  • IoT World Today
  • Webhostingtalk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X