According to Forrester, growth is the top priority for a majority of companies in 2015. To help us and our customers grow, we are building a vibrant ecosystem full of deep and lasting partnerships with our customers, technology partners and channel partners.
Today three expert panelists from NICE will be speaking on "Achieving Hyper Business Growth by Developing Partnerships" at a Women Tech Council Event in Salt Lake City, UT. Each speaker has a unique viewpoint of how to engage with partners and how the right relationships can help you expand your footprint, gain valuable insight and experience, and can help you be prepared when challenges arise. Below are some key takeaways from each of the three NICE panelists.
Victoria Head
Director of Cloud Connectivity
Victoria began her career as a representative in contact centers, both large and small. Quickly promoted to leadership roles, she began learning the ropes of attracting, motivating and keeping the right talent. Following an acquisition, she moved into more technical roles where she thrived in analyzing and solving problems. Having fulfilled roles on the front and back end of the sales cycle, prepared her to understand the criticality of impeccable engineering of connections between provider and customer networks.
Victoria’s Key Takeaways on Partnering:
- For success with partners, you must have effective strategies, processes, and communication methods in place.
- Cross-functional buy-in on both sides of the table is key.
- Dedicated resources committed to the partnership on both sides are essential to get maximum value.
Sarah Udy-Hegvik
Manager, Professional Services
Sarah Udy-Hegvik is a manager in NICE’s Professional Services. She has approximately 13 years of experience working with SaaS (software as a service) in the contact center and Workforce Optimization space. Sarah leverages her technical aptitude to objectively drive business transformation. Her aptitude for aligning technology and solutions to complex business challenges continually reaffirms her role as a trusted advisor to her team members, customers, and peers, while her dedication to projects ensures she is a catalyst for achieving measurable results.
Sarah’s Key Takeaways on Partnering:
- Utilize the strengths of each partner – leveraging unique capabilities of each to continually move forward, to adapt and to build lasting success.
- Each entity in a partnership brings special capabilities, unique authorities, and different flexibilities to further the work of the partnership.
- At the end of the day, remember this is a relationship! Challenges will be presented that will test the relationship. Take into account what is best for the business and the partnership all while handling the relationship with care.
Jessica Smith
Product Marketing Manager
Jessica’s deep understanding of a product’s technical positioning affords her the ability to craft key market messages to drive revenue. Jessica supports the product marketing initiatives that contribute to the success of sales, marketing, and product management groups. With the aid of market intelligence, Jessica creates collateral to effectively communicate NICEs solutions and offerings for lucrative product launches. Jessica works within the Market Intelligence team which is responsible for monitoring trends in the market, analyzing needs of existing customers, and establishing future value-adds in the industry.
Jessica’s Key Takeaways on Partnering:
- Have a common understanding of what defines a successful partnership – outline specific success metrics that can be agreed upon by both parties.
- Recognize that partner enablement is going to differ drastically depending on each partner’s business model – know your audience and tailor a strategy specific to their needs as far as understanding your business and working with your company.
- Enablement is ongoing and needs to be handled with flexibility!
About the Women Tech Council:
“We provide leadership, resources and mentoring for women while maintaining a strong bond with the business community supporting avenues for top technology talent and visible sponsorship opportunities. We support women-owned and women-operated technology companies. We pride ourselves on recognizing women leaders and entrepreneurs in the technology business and supporting them.”
