Symantec’s New Channel Strategy Charts Course for Successful Partner & Customer Transformation

[John_Eldh]

Last week at our annual North America Partner Engage event, we pulled back the curtain on Symantec’s new Global Channel Strategy and shared how we are changing the way we go to market. We have committed to delivering more than 5 percent organic revenue growth with operating margins better than 30 percent, and we can’t achieve this goal without our partners. I’d like to take this opportunity to share more details about the new Global Channel Strategy and explain how it represents an important step forward in Symantec’s 4.0 journey.

But first, let me take a brief step back to provide some context around how we got to this point. When Steve Bennett, our CEO, joined Symantec over a year ago, he embarked on a global listening tour where partners, customers and employees voiced a need for Symantec to change. He learned that Symantec had great technology and great people, but we needed to do more to help our customers solve their bigger jobs. In addition, our structure, incentives and internal culture were hampering our growth. And while we have great point solutions, we also needed to develop new, integrated products that address important customer needs.

With that, we knew we had to completely revolutionize the way we do business and focus on delivering compelling, integrated, higher-value solutions that solve critical customer jobs better than anyone else. The changes we’re making as a company are reflected within our channel organization – with the goal of making it easier for partners to do business with us, by building partnerships that are more rewarding and by exceeding customer expectations. Here’s a look at the core components of our Global Channel Strategy:

• We’ve mapped out the playing field for our partners to offer them guidance on where to play and invest to win in the market. We looked at the jobs that our partners are solving for customers, in addition to how they work with our products. We then analyzed our channel ecosystem to determine which partner types would be best suited to deliver the solutions that our customers need, in an optimal way. We are confident that this approach will provide partners with the flexibility to turn investments into more profitable results.  
• We’re investing in our most committed and capable partners to drive deeper relationships with customers, while leveraging their unique value to help deliver a superior customer experience. Our partners will be recognized and rewarded based on the value they provide. Those who identify new opportunities, demonstrate expertise, close more deals and delight customers will have greater access to partner benefits. Additionally, we’ve re-evaluated our training tools and processes to better enable our partners with skills and capabilities to help address our customers’ most critical needs.
• We’re making it easier for partners to do business with us, and providing a more predictable and consistent experience to meet changing customer and market demands. We’re collaborating and aligning with our partners on their business objectives to ensure that we are growing our businesses together. We’ve also established clear rules of engagement to ensure more consistent interaction with our partners.
• We’re committed to building a channel-focused culture that understands, appreciates, and supports our partners’ growth and success – and ultimately the value that they bring to our mutual customers.

We are in the process of building our next generation Partner Program that supports this new strategy. It will help drive partner growth and profitability, while at the same time offering incentives to keep our partners focused in the areas of greatest opportunity. I can confidently say that we are more committed to our partners and distributors than ever before and we are focused on helping our partners solve our customers’ most important jobs together.

The Partner Program will be rolled out in phases starting in 2014 and our strategy will continue to evolve with the ever-changing market demands and business needs of our customers. Our intent is to ensure that we are always investing in the right channels at the right time, while also helping our partners to grow and sustain their business. The end results will be great for our customers and will help to widen the addressable market for ourselves and our partners.  Ultimately – together with our partners – we will make the world a safer place.