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Success Stories
"We´ve been there, done that…"
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Watchguard Tecnologies
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Netscreen International
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Fortinet
Australians have a phrase for just about anything, and in this case it is all about hands on experience. The Principal Director of Imagineering Market Solutions, Michael Grace, has been there, and has done it.
With intensity and with success. He knows what is needed to establish a presence and launch a vendor in a new or emerging market. A couple of examples follow of the results achieved in previous launches and ramp-ups:
Watchguard Technologies:
Objective:
Establish and ramp up the Watchguard business & revenues in Europe and EMEA as aggressively as possible, in preparation for and beyond the foreseen IPO of July 1999.
Solution:
Relocated Michael Grace to Europe in mid-January, 1999, out of the Australian market, where Michael had established several resellers for Watchguard, Michael assumed the role as Regional Manager Europe, with an SE stationed in Amsterdam, (who only spoke and understood English).
Researched and analysed existing competitive product availability and partnerships, resellers and distributors. Identified existing security distributors/resellers, emerging technology distributors/resellers as well as related technology distributors/resellers.
Make a call on individual market readiness. (Country specific)
Identified suitable and potential candidates for engagement and pursued direct, personal contact to the principals of these organisations. The technology and market development business case as well as the technology & product cycle synopsis was presented to management, technical & competitive evaluation reviews were presented to engineering and technically capable sales.
The revenue model and market positioning was communicated to the sales and marketing staff.
Created region specific electronic collateral and presentations, go to market plans, reseller recruitment and lead generation. Distribution was accellerated by the direct reseller recruitment activities, with hand over to VAD.
Staff were brought on with expansion, both technical and sales.
Outcome:
Michael eclipsed his first QTR targets by 150% ($300k), although he spent 6 weeks of that in Australia whilst his son was born. He went on to produce 206% of quota in 1999 and 186% of an aggressive quota in 2000, achieving Global Region of the Year on both periods, and earned the Most New Partners awards in both years, eventually being promoted to Regional VP Europe, UK and MEA.
In all Michael signed and ramped up over 35 value added distribution contracts and relationships in less than three years with Watchguard, as well as numerous direct reseller relationships where required. He managed 46 distributors and achieved a company record of $4.78mioUSD quarterly revenue in Q1/2001. The majority of these partners are still active Watchguard distributors.
It was in one of these reseller recruitment campaigns, for DNS International in Germany, that the successful core strategies for channel engagement with emerging technologies and vendors were developed and introduced. The resulting months of business development activity for DNS sales staff and managers across Germany led to a substantial and telling growth in recruited resellers, activity and revenues.
Watchguard had been established as a mainstream security product of choice in the SME to mid markets.
Netscreen International:
Objective:
Restructure and ramp up the existing channel, introducung greater market penetration, scalability and revenue generation. Broader reseller access and engagement, stronger enterprise and telco business development, higher activity levels.
Solution:
Having been headhunted back to Australia in November 2001, Michael took on the role as Regional Director Australia New Zealand (ANZ) for this emerging security vendor. Directing operations remotely from his Melbourne office, and with two staff in Sydney.
Michael reshaped the channel, bringing on global value added distributor Lan Systems (Comstor/Westcon group), ramped up budding channel champion Channelworx through their restructure and implemented a clear two tier distribution strategy. Existing industry contacts were positively exploited and leveraged.
Visibility and exposure escalated through intense distributor activity and direct reseller engagement, driving channel communications programs, media and press engagement and evangalism, lead generation programs and the targeting of key decision makers in reference grade customers and potentials.
Australia and New Zealand specific and appropriate service and support options were identified and pursued, resulting in the contracting of national IT support organisation AWA.
Outcomes:
Major resellers were engaged, enterprise and telco relationships were taken to fruition and revenues climbed from under $USD500K to over $USD1,2mio in the space of 3 quarters, including the dreaded Q1, 2002 downturn.
Reseller, channel, training and certification programs were launched, a national support network was brought into operation (AWA), press and media coverage became regular.
Telcos, banks, enterprises and the broader market penetration established Netscreen as a mainstream security product of choice.
Fortinet:
Objective:
Establish and ramp up the Fortinet business, channel, strategic sales & revenues in Europe and EMEA as aggressively as possible, in preparation for and beyond the ambitious funding rounds and foreseen IPO.
Solution:
Researched and analysed existing competitive product availability and partnerships, resellers and distributors. Identified existing security distributors/resellers, emerging technology distributors/resellers as well as related technology distributors/resellers. Existing and significant industry contacts were positively exploited and leveraged.
Aggressively targeted competitive partnerships with an articulation of the superior technology, businesss and revenues model. Evangalised the security product cycle culmination: The "NoBrainer" syndrome.
Defined market entry timing on the individual markets. (Country specific)
High levels of direct contact and relationship development with key decision makers, coach their organisations through the complete process from introduction through to sales and support execution.
Identified suitable and potential candidates for engagement and pursued direct, personal contact to the principals of these organisations. The technology and market development business case as well as the technology & product cycle synopsis was presented to management, technical & competitive evaluation reviews were presented to engineering and technically capable sales. The revenue model and market positioning was communicated to the sales and marketing staff.
Created region specific electronic collateral and presentations, go to market plans, reseller recruitment and lead generation. Distribution was accellerated by the direct reseller recruitment activities, with hand over to VAD.
Staff were brought on with expansion, both technical and sales.
Outcome:
As the first man into Europe for Fortinet, and shortly thereafter taking over the UK and Scandanavian establishments, Michael signed and setup 17 value add distribution contracts in his 15 month tenure here.
Again here the reseller, channel, training and certification programs were developed & launched, excellent PR and media exposure was achieved and a ramp up growth from $0 to over $USD1mio was achieved in 3 quarters, with a total EMEA shipments of well over $2.0mio being reached within a year.
This was followed by a launch of the Strategic Sales initiatives, directly targeting enterprises and telcos. Michael assumed the role of Sales Director, Strategic Business Development.
This resulted in the engagement and partnerships with Deutsche Telecom (T-Systems), NTT Europe, VodafoneUK, HP Compaq, Cable & Wireless Sweden (PI.SE) etc.
Fortinet succeeded in achieving this exponential growth and market penetration through dynamic and aggressive channel as well as end user engagement, articulating and communicating the technology differentiators and it´s implications for businesses, building superior channel and sales models with the partners, and leveraging off the price/performance scenarios and market futures perceptions to ignite customer interest and engagement.
Fortinet is today considered a visionary market leader and a security technology standard offering across the business size spectrum. In this period at Fortinet, Europe was the leading revenue generator for the company.
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