NEWS INTERVIEW Culmer peps up Avaya Simon Culmer
Simon Culmer is basing Avaya UK’s ascendancy on a forensic attention to communication, partner enablement, channel-centricity, a push into the mid-market and the phasing out of partners who do not deliver. Here, Avaya’s new UK Managing Director sends out a clear message that his words and action match.
C
ulmer joined Avaya in May this year and confirmed that he is on track with plans
to rationalise the number of UK partners to around 400. “The aim is to streamline our programme to focus time and resource on those partners that are committed to working with us,” he explained. “We expect to complete the process during early FY13. Our priority is rationalising partners that do not have up-to-date accreditation or who only put a very small amount of business through Avaya.”
For SME any partner that delivers under $10,000 of revenue a year is expected to be part of the rationalisation programme. For UC and contact centre the figure is $25,000. Accreditation also comes into play. If a partner resells Avaya’s SME products the minimum requirement is two members of staff with a valid Avaya Professional Sales qualification. If they resell the UC or contact centre products they must have two members of staff with a valid Avaya Professional Sales qualification plus someone with a valid Avaya Professional Design qualification.
Culmer’s desire to revitalise Avaya UK by shining a light on existing opportunities within the organisation could also bring about a far more
powerful force. Perhaps the biggest opportunity lies in Avaya UK’s potential as a wholly channel-focused operation driven by clear messaging from the top. “People now have clarity over the direction, backed up with action,” pledged Culmer. “I’ve seen how to build and evolve channels, and observed how companies get it fundamentally wrong when they take direct business in a channel model.”
With his feet barely under the table Culmer wasted no time reining in a substantial City deal that was going direct before promptly placing it into the hands of a partner. “The move cost Avaya short-term money but that was my investment in the partner,” said Culmer. “That’s my attitude and I’m driving this message through the High Touch sales force. There is no benefit in going direct and to do so requires my permission.”
Culmer’s indirect channel policy aims to increase the partner/direct ratio from an 80-20 per cent split to 90-10 in favour of partners. The final 10 per cent, explained Culmer, will be a mix of business done in conjunction with partners alongside the big legacy services contracts that naturally sit within Avaya’s direct arm. “It comes down to leadership from the front,” stated Culmer.
“Previously, individuals have made decisions that may have been short-term. I’ve taken that decision away. I’ve set the direction and I’m making that pledge. Judge me on what I do.”
Mid-market focus Aside from making partners the top priority, Avaya’s ambitions have found another target – the mid- market. In October 2011 the vendor moved to a vertical go-to-market strategy segmented into public sector, financial services and enterprise divisions. “I have grown up through various business verticals and enjoyed the power of having a message that cascades from top to bottom,” said Culmer. “We’re going to restructure this model and introduce a mid-market team to sit under financial services and enterprise.”
The launch of IP Office 8.1 last month provides the backbone of Avaya’s mid- market campaign. This channel-only product that can serve SMEs as small as five employees now scales up to 1,000 users in a single location (up from 384), providing Avaya business partners with new opportunities to target mid-market customers.
This mid-market campaign is being advanced alongside Avaya’s video conferencing
strategy following its acquisition of Radvision. “The focus is to bring Radvision’s incremental channels up to speed with Avaya products,” noted Culmer. “And we want to take existing channels and equip them to sell the Radvision proposition which offers customers richer, simplified video collaboration regardless of what system they’re currently using.”
The incorporation of Radvision’s video portfolio into Avaya’s open UC offering has opened up new conversations with customers who are frustrated with the lack of interoperability in their current video conferencing solution, observed Culmer. He also noted plans to equip and train partners around Avaya Networking.
Also in October Avaya moved from an entitlement-based MDF model to one based entirely on discretion. “This model enables Avaya to map funds to the partners that represent the best opportunity for growth,” said Culmer. “This helps us better support our partners that are committed to a long-term future with Avaya and on areas where we see growth potential such as video and networking.”
Avaya is also focusing on helping partners build pipeline. “We’ve run six successful Blitz Days that
offer training and customer calling designed to generate a pipeline of opportunity,” added Culmer. “The training has proved successful, generating a pipeline for our partners that participated of over $10 million. We plan to run more sessions in FY13.”
Also symbolic of Avaya’s strategy as a channel enabler is its big focus on streamlining the performance of partners in the ‘quote to cash’ business cycle. “There is a lot of process in this cycle that erodes margin,” said Culmer. “I want to focus on being more efficient so I’m creating an ‘inside desk’ to take some of the workload away from partners, enabling them to concentrate on high value sales creation. This resource makes us easier to do business with while removing barriers to retained margin.”
Culmer aims to be the guardian of an indirect citadel. He treats the idea of direct sales as beyond the pale of reason and is acting to cascade the message with clarity and determination. “I’m passionate about communication: Deciding what the messages are, delivering against those messages and repeating them consistently,” commented Culmer. “This makes us more credible and predictable for channels. It’s not rocket science to build trust.” n
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