Different Partner Types

CF: It’s intriguing to see you join a company that appeals to such a broad base of partner models, including resellers, MSPs and agents. In particular, I’m curious of your familiarity with the agent/advisor model and what you expect from working with that route to market.

FR: I had the opportunity to be on a lot of different advisory boards and make friends with a lot of people that have global responsibility. Some of them you know very well, like [AT&T’s] Chris Jones and [Comcast’s] Craig Schlagbaum. We had the opportunity to openly discuss routes to market. And once I better understood the master agent – or what are now called technology services distributors – I was really really interested. Once I understood the percentage of channel-led that was coming from the agents, I was even more interested. I had the opportunity when I was over at Check Point to be able to explore and kind of be able to talk to the big three, but also some of the ones that specialize more in security.

My intention is honestly to not disrupt anything. My intention is to be accretive in everything we do. To be able to create new business, not to displace anybody. I very much look forward to working with [the TSDs], and reaching out to the CEOs of the various TSDs this week to say, “Hey, we had a great conversation three weeks ago; that conversation has changed a little bit,” and to be able to develop those relationships and understand how they’re modeling their business.

Everything’s moving. Everything’s converging, whether it’s marketplaces, technology solutions brokerages, global systems integrators, or resell models that are establishing global footprints. It’s all coming together, and it’s really cool. I had described myself that I would never use the word “channel ecosystem” in my career. But I’m telling you, “ecosystem” is absolutely the right word for what’s happening now.