‘7 Minutes’ with SourceDay SVP Alliances and Channel Emeka Obianwu

SourceDay, a supply chain automation SaaS solution, has grown its annual recurring revenue more than 125% over the prior year and maintains a customer renewal rate of more than 95%. That’s according to the company’s first-quarter numbers.

This establishes SourceDay as a “leading technology partner” to the $8 trillion U.S. manufacturing and distribution industry, the company said.

SourceDay recently has added two executives to its leadership team — Emeka Obianwu, formerly with NSS Labs and Ping Identity, as senior vice president of alliances and channel; and Sarah Moore, formerly with Spredfast, as chief marketing officer.

“Attracting seasoned leaders like Sarah and Emeka is an important milestone for us as we prepare for next-level growth,” said Tom Kieley, SourceDay’s CEO. “Sarah’s unique experience driving high-growth companies will be instrumental as we extend the reach of SourceDay’s brand, and Emeka’s proven track record developing alliance relationships will help us build a world-class partner program.”

SourceDay’s Emeka Obianwu

Obianwu will be responsible for the strategy and management of SourceDay’s technology and consulting partner ecosystem.

SourceDay secured $6.5 million in Series A funding late last year to continue growing its customer base and to bring new products to market.

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Obianwu talks about how his company works with partners and the advantages it has over its competitors.

Channel Partners: Tell us what customers love about your product or service. What’s the secret selling sauce?

Emeka Obianwu: Time to value is the ultimate strategic pillar of the SourceDay platform. Unfortunately, manufacturers and distributors have historically seen technology-enabled transformation come with a very significant time-to-value tax. The problem has been further compounded by the lack of any solution provider with a singular focus on how technology should drive the adoption of supply chain collaboration.

SourceDay is breaking this cycle with a unique combination of cloud-delivered software, productized integrations with ERP systems, and software designed with a maniacal focus on the value and usability that must be built in to successfully drive adoption across manufacturers, distributors and their suppliers. We literally have customers getting on stage with us at customer events to describe how their SourceDay projects have resulted in savings and paybacks after just three months.

CP: Describe your channel program — metal levels, heavy on certifications, open or selective, unique features?

EO: I am blessed to have joined a company that already had a culture of partnering. I’m not spending any of my time convincing my colleagues and board of directors on the merits of embracing the channel. Instead our team is spending time building out a formal partner program that will make it easier for partners to engage and self enable when possible. We have compelling margin compensation for referral and reseller partners, and will remain committed to ensuring our partners share in the opportunity to redefine supply chain collaboration.

CP: Quick-hit answers: Percentage of sales through the channel, number of partners, average margin. Go.

EO: We’re currently running at 40% of net-new business impacted by channel partners. The trend line indicates this will be even higher when 2019 is all said and done. We have formal relationships with about 30 partners, but there’s an 80/20 rule that applies to which partners are impacting the SourceDay channel book of business.

CP: Do you work with any master agents or distributors now? Is so, which ones, and if not, do you expect to establish these relationships?

EO: No, we do not work with any entities defined as such. But as we start to look at …