Close collaboration between the business unit buyer and IT teams helped the company choose Impartner as the solution best suited to integrate with existing technologies and power efficient, scalable channel growth
When customer service and engagement software leader and long-time investor favorite Zendesk set out to find a new technology solution to power its channel operations, one thing was clear from the beginning: a close collaboration between the business unit buyers and IT would be key to choosing the technology best suited to integrate with the company’s existing technology stack and power the growth of their already global network of channel partners. In a new video case study released, Zendesk’s John Sampson, director of channel marketing, and Alana Hill, IT manager of marketing applications, detailed the company’s choice of Impartner, the industry’s best selling, most award-winning pure play Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solution, as the system of record to manage their channel.
“We focus on the partner experience first, so we wanted a solution that could allow us to not only provide a great experience for our global network of partners and the people that were interacting with us through our partner portal, but also a great platform for our sales and marketing people to collaborate and engage with partners in a way that was scalable and efficient,” said Sampson. “In conducting the technology search, we were looking for a better way to get good opportunity information from our partners and then make that information available to our salespeople and marketing people working with those partners to drive the sales cycle and ultimately close deals.”
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Hill says all options were considered in choosing a solution, including those from their existing CRM vendor and also the option to build a solution in house. “Development can be very expensive, and the question always needs to be, ‘Does it make sense to choose a company that understands that market and has built out a solution that is based off best practices, or does it make sense for us to try to develop something in-house based off the knowledge we currently have?’ In the end, we decided to go with Impartner and not built it ourselves, as we felt it would not be the best use of our resources, it would have taken us longer, and would not result in something that would enable us to the scale to the point we needed.”
In choosing Impartner, Sampson said, “We looked at a lot of different point solutions and found it was to our advantage to consolidate with one solution provider that offered all functionality on one platform. Impartner’s integration with our CRM, coupled with its capabilities to communicate with partners and provide a partner experience through the partner portal that was consistent with our own brand and look was really a great match for us. And now, everybody’s working off the same record and the same data and ultimately getting better engagement from both end customers – as well as partners and our own internal people – to drive the sales cycle forward and ultimately close deals.”
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The result is also a win for the IT team. “As an IT organization, we really appreciated Impartner’s ability to integrate with our existing tool stack and how they have listened to our needs and impact how we can meet our partners’ needs worldwide,” said Hill. “We were able to provide a fully functioning portal that extended to our international partner network. We were able to effectively leverage the integration to display the kind of metrics and reporting data that was essential to our business partners and within the organization.”
“We are fortunate to work with some of the world’s leading corporations, and time and time again, when we see this kind of collaboration between the business unit buyer and their IT team in making the purchase decision from the very beginning, it is always a smoother, faster process at every level,” said Dave R Taylor, Impartner CMO. “It’s a powerful combination of talent and it’s no surprise Zendesk is growing so quickly. We’re proud to have them as part of our amazing customer base.”
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