AV News meets Andrew Stone, Channel Team Manager at Promethean, to learn more about his newly created role and how the global education technology company has aligned its operations with evolving channel needs.
Andrew is somewhat of an industry veteran. Coming from an IT reseller background with a focus on the education market, he transitioned to Promethean about five years ago as an External Account Manager with the company’s dedicated channel team. Last year he stepped up as Channel Team Manager, a newly created role which is designed to bolster the support Promethean provides its partners. So, as we say goodbye to what is hopefully the last of the COVID restrictions, we talk to Andrew about his 2022 channel plans and find out the latest on what Promethean has to offer reseller partners.
AVN: “I suppose the best place to start our talking heads conversation, is to ask about the channel team changes at Promethean. What was the driver behind those last year?”
AS: “It’s quite simple, really. Our channel network continues to grow at the same time as partner needs evolve. We appraised what was needed and identified that our team structure would better align with channel operations if we had dedicated responsibilities for channel and distribution. This led to my appointment as Channel Team Manager, a brand-new position as you know, and my colleague Liz Barnes, moving into a UKI Distribution Account Manager role. In doing so, we’ve strengthened our ability to deliver reliable and quality support exactly where it’s needed.
AVN: “How did the transition go from team member to team leader?”
AS: “Very smoothly! Our team has a shared vision and a shared goal to support partners in every way we can. When I came into the new post, we were still a bit restricted due to COVID, but we’ve since managed some face-to-face meetings and are all looking forward to hitting the road properly and attending partner meetings and live events again.”
AVN: “What other changes have Promethean brought in to better support its channel partners?”
AS: “The biggest change is obviously the new channel team structure, which has given us greater bandwidth to support partners. Alongside this, a new dedicated channel marketing team has been established. This centralised marketing function focuses exclusively on supporting the channel. In the past few months alone we have already seen some exciting and impactful initiatives launched not just for the UKI, but globally as well.”
“We’re also launching a new Partner Portal. This is much easier to navigate than our previous platform and will enable partners to run their own marketing campaigns autonomously through the system. The Partner Portal is the backbone of our Partner Accreditation Programme, so continuous innovation and investment in its development is key for progress.”
AVN: “You mention the Partner Accreditation Programme, can you tell us a bit more about this please?”
AS: “Yes, absolutely. Partnership is at the heart of all our operations, and the accreditation programme sets out exactly what it means to be a Promethean partner. More specifically, what our partners can expect from us as a manufacturer, and what we, in turn, expect from our partners. It’s all about honesty, transparency and, ultimately, making it easier to do business with us.”
AVN: “That all sounds well and good, but what does that look like in practice? How can you ensure transparency, for example?”
AS: “That’s a fair point. It’s easy to make promises when it comes to partnerships. We’ve worked hard over the past few years to establish a programme that our partners can trust. We’ve achieved this by introducing processes and initiatives to reward partners that share our values and display behaviours that align with our approach. The best example of this is demonstration registration, more commonly known as ‘demo reg’ by our partners. Regardless of the business size or how much they spend with us a year, demo reg is a vehicle for partners to protect their opportunities with us.”
AVN: “But what if a partner doesn’t have the capability or capacity to deliver demonstrations? Surely that’s unfair?”
AS: “Not at all. While we obviously encourage partners to invest in their own ActivPanel demonstration kit, we’ve always offered demonstration support. We’re here to provide ActivPanel demonstrations on behalf of our partners, and they will still benefit from demo reg, providing they secure and log the opportunity.”
“In fact, we’ve expanded our demonstration support significantly over the past 18 months. There’s now the flexibility for partners to tap into virtual and on-site demonstrations, as well as a ‘remote’ offering where we deliver an online session followed by a two-week ActivPanel loan to the customer.”
AVN: “I can imagine that’s very popular with partners. Do you provide any additional sales support though?”
AS: “Demonstration support is extremely popular. Our after-sales support is possibly more popular, though! In the same way we provide demonstrations virtually or onsite, we have an orientation programme that equips new customers with the fundamentals of using the ActivPanel. This has long been available face-to-face and virtually, but more recently, we’ve also launched it ‘on demand’, to make it even easier for partners to share access with their customers.”
“From a technical perspective, we’ve obviously got a standard support desk that partners can access via telephone or online when troubleshooting product issues. However, we also have dedicated technical support for pre-sales. We’re lucky to have Peter Millar, Pre-sales Technical Support, who can help partners navigate more technical challenges during the specification and installation process, particularly with networking.”
“In fact, there’s a whole host of value-add support available for Promethean partners. From tender writing and bid responses to data analysis and account mapping, all the way down to seed units, our main objective is to equip partners with everything they need to succeed.”
AVN: “It was clearly a busy start to the new role for you, what are your hopes for 2022?”
AS: “Getting out to see partners again is absolutely top of my agenda. It’s been a hard slog working remotely for so long, so I’m looking forward to returning to events like Bett and meeting people in person. It’s obviously a strange one having Bett in March as opposed to its usual slot in January, but it is a great opportunity to catch up with old faces and hopefully meet some new people. Promethean will be on Stand SE51 with free coffee on offer, so I’d encourage everyone to drop by and say hello to the team!”
“Aside from that, building the team. We’re always looking for ambitious and committed AV/IT professionals to expand our channel operations.”
Thank you for taking the time out to get involved with this Talking Heads feature, Andrew, I really appreciate it. For anyone interested in learning more about becoming a Promethean partner and tapping into all the great support that Andrew has outlined, please visit: https://www.prometheanworld.com/gb/partners/
