Ultimate Guide to Partnering®

Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ The Shift from Attention to Trust In this compelling episode, Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO of Transcends, joins Vince Menzione to discuss the tectonic shifts occurring in the global partner ecosystem. Ashleigh shares her firsthand experiences studying AI at Oxford, the rise of the “Trust Economy,” and the controversial Amazon vs. Perplexity lawsuit. They dive deep into the practicalities of becoming a “Frontier Firm,” the importance of building proprietary AI agents, and the ways Gen Z and AI-driven marketplaces are revolutionizing the buyer journey. Whether you are looking to win Microsoft Partner of the Year or navigate the demise of traditional SaaS, this conversation provides a strategic roadmap for leading through the AI revolution. Key Takeaways The economy is shifting from a focus on human attention to a foundation of verified trust. Future commerce will involve “selling to machines” as AI agents begin making purchasing decisions on behalf of humans. Microsoft is prioritizing “Frontier Firms” that integrate AI into every customer interaction and internal process. Gen Z buyers are prioritizing product value and “dupes” over traditional brand names, with 75% of buyers expected to be Gen Z by 2030. To win Partner of the Year, organizations must publicly celebrate “better together” stories with validated customer wins. Modern leaders should transition from a “growth mindset” to a “frontier mindset” to keep pace with rapid technological change. https://youtu.be/xJmd43NvfnI If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Trust Economy, Selling to Machines, Amazon vs Perplexity Lawsuit, Frontier Firm, AI Agents, Copilot Studio, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Partner of the Year, B2B Marketplaces, Gen Z Buyer Behavior, Digital Freedom, AI Therapy, Ray Kurzweil Singularity, Substack Growth, Co-selling Partnerships, MCI Funding, Azure Accelerate, Agentic AI, Transcending Tech, Ashleigh Vogstad. Transcript Asleigh Vogstad Audio Podcast [00:00:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: The attention economy is about selling to human beings. Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines. [00:00:19] Vince Menzione: We just finished Ultimate Partners Winter Retreat here in beautiful Boca to a sold out crowd. Today I’m joined by Ashley Waad. The CEO of transcends for this compelling discussion. Ash, welcome back to the podcasts. [00:00:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s so good to be here, Vince. Thank you. Uh, [00:00:37] Vince Menzione: so well, we’re back in Boca again and we were just here yesterday for the Ultimate Partner Executive Winter Retreat in person. [00:00:44] Vince Menzione: What a great event we had together. [00:00:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: It was phenomenal. Thank you so much for having us there and on stage and, and genuinely the community is like a family, so seeing so many familiar faces and spending some quality time was just great. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: It has really, truly become like family. It really, I’m, I’m, I’m having so much fun with this and getting to watch. [00:01:04] Vince Menzione: Not just our business grow and our community grow, but to see all of our friends and, uh, organizations like Transcends that have been with us since the beginning, since the very first ultimate partner acting even before the first ultimate partner. And, uh. We were just talking about. I’d love to catch up with what you’ve been doing. [00:01:22] Vince Menzione: Like you just came, you’ve been on a whirlwind. I mean, you’re always, every time like it’s, where’s Ash? She’s, uh, she’s on a plane again, or she’s on, she’s on the slopes. But tell us where you were just this week. [00:01:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. The week started in a snowstorm, actually transporting myself from Whistler. I didn’t know if I would make it to the airport, but then down to Silicon Valley and [00:01:45] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:01:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: Wow, that place is just inspiring and eyeopening. I mean, seeing the Nvidia campus, a MD, it’s really just other worldly and it had me reflecting on, it’s [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: not Whistler. Yeah, it’s [00:02:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: definitely not Whistler. Definitely not Whistler [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: about, [00:02:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: um, yeah, it just had me reflecting on being down there. I used to spend a lot of time in the Valley around 2017 and. [00:02:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: In this theme of AI and kind of what’s really coming, I was, I was thinking about, I had met this woman, Julia Moss Bridge, who’s a neuroscientist studying ai. She had a project called Loving Ai, and I was down there when they had borrowed Sophia, this humanoid robot from S and Robotics. [00:02:32] Vince Menzione: Oh yes. Yes. [00:02:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: Really interesting. [00:02:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Sophia’s actually a citizen of Saudi. Mm-hmm. First, first robot to actually be made citizen of a country. So they had Sophia set up and the part that was just mind boggling at the time was that Sophia was hosting in real life therapy sessions with actual human beings sitting across the table. And what really struck me as. [00:02:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Kind of just, you know, that was only eight, nine years ago. And that was esoteric. Wacky and [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: eerie. [00:03:05] Ashleigh Vogstad: Weird. [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: Eerie at the time. [00:03:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Incredibly eerie. Yeah. I mean, a, a human getting, uh, you know, therapy sessions from a robot sitting across the table. Yeah. And it just had me thinking how far we’ve come today. In 2025, Harvard Business Review said that therapy is actually the number one use case for ai. [00:03:26] Vince Menzione: I’ve heard that. That is striking. I go back to COVID. We were having this conversation last night at at the dinner for the Ultimate Partner event, and I think that COVID allowed us to transcend, [00:03:42] Ashleigh Vogstad: mm-hmm. [00:03:42] Vince Menzione: No pun intended there, but actually accelerate where we are today, that the acceptance of AI and the acceleration, or the ability to accept change so quickly. [00:03:56] Vince Menzione: Started with COVID because we were so, so we were forced on whatever it was, March 10th I think, here in the United States to shut down everything and move to this remote life. [00:04:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm-hmm. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: And I think we’ve been shocked by that. I think our systems have all been shocked by that. And then here comes chat GBT in November of 2022 and we’re like. [00:04:20] Vince Menzione: Shocked in some respects, but like really everyone has embraced it in such a strong way, and now we’re getting. It’s almost daily update. You know, we’re gonna talk, I know we’re gonna talk about Anthropic and some of the things that’s been happening just in this last month that are striking and changing that have a lot of organizations trying to navigate, which is what, you know, you, you help organizations do. [00:04:43] Vince Menzione: But it feels like this is happening so fast and will continue to happen so fast. And as I said yesterday, I don’t know what this world’s gonna look like by 2030. [00:04:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, and I think the thing is, is that nobody knows what the world is gonna look like in 2030. I’ve been reading Ray Kurz Well’s, the Singularity is nearer, so the original book, the Singularity is near and he’s known to be a very accurate predictionist on the future. [00:05:11] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. But even with someone like that, you know, there, there nobody really knows what the world is gonna look like. And when you talk about COVID. At transcends, we have a value of digital freedom. So I founded the business in 2018, which was pre COVID. I as a fully remote organization, and at the time that was, you know, more groundbreaking, but then very quickly with CI that, that became the so-called new normal. [00:05:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: But we’re always thinking about. You know, remote first doesn’t mean remote only, and I think in this tide of what you’ve talked about, technological change being more acceptable and the pace of change. One of the interesting things that we see as a go-to-market agency is that in-person events are increasing. [00:05:56] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:05:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: People want and crave the face-to-face. Just like with the ultimate partner series. [00:06:02] Vince Menzione: I felt it. So it was striking yesterday. It, it seems like it’s, again, this was event number nine for us, but to see the, um, uh, receptiveness isn’t the right term, but it was this, uh, people, the, the embracing. Of seeing each other and hugging each other and being in the same room with each other. [00:06:22] Vince Menzione: And even people that didn’t know each other, like by the, the, as the day evolved, this, uh, connection that they all seemed to have with one another during the sessions and participating, everyone actively participated in the sessions. And, um, I said this in the beginning, we’re not a Slack channel and we’re not like some post on LinkedIn. [00:06:43] Vince Menzione: Uh, we’re there, there’s no playbook that’s set today around partnerships or even go to markets and marketing that we could espouse and say, this is the playbook for the next year. Right. It’s, it’s changing so rapidly. [00:06:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: So rapidly, [00:06:57] Vince Menzione: and you’ve embraced it. And I, and what we’re gonna talk about right now, I mean, I,

The Deal You Never Knew Existed. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this deep dive, Jay McBain reveals the harsh reality of the “28 Moments” in a modern B2B buying journey, using a multi-million dollar SAP deal at AstraZeneca as a wake-up call for vendors. He explains how traditional marketing leads are failing in the “decade of the ecosystem,” where trusted partners like NTT and SoftwareOne are winning deals in “light blue” partnership moments months before a customer ever downloads an ebook. If you aren’t visible in the seven-layer stack or collaborating with the partners who hold the customer’s trust, you aren’t just losing the deal—you’re losing the entire market. https://youtu.be/NO-P6X2dTAo?si=8e_sVesqvwaC0M-E Key Takeaways Most vendors lose major deals without ever knowing a transaction was even taking place. The average considered purchase involves 28 distinct moments of research and influence before a sale. Trusted partners often close the deal in the “middle moments” months before the money is actually spent. Traditional marketing leads (MQLs) are often too “flimsy” compared to deep partner-led relationships. Winning in the ecosystem requires being part of a “seven-layer stack” of integrated technology and services. Data-sharing platforms like Crossbeam and Workspan are now essential to seeing the “invisible” pipeline. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: 28 Moments, Jay McBain, Ecosystem Strategy, AstraZeneca SAP Deal, Seven Layer Stack, B2B Buying Journey, Partner Ecosystem, NTT, SoftwareOne, Channel Strategy, Buyer Intent, Informa TechTarget, Collaborative Selling, Crossbeam, Partner Tap, Workspan, Marketplace Tracking, Co-selling, Tech Integration, Revenue Architecture, Pipeline Growth, Trusted Advisor, Digital Transformation, SAP Optimization, Microsoft AWS Competition. Transcript: [00:00:00] Jay McBain: So if you’re a vendor trying to get into that seven layer stack and you don’t have that relationship, or you don’t have the knowledge that NTT or software one is going in, this will have been a deal that would’ve never hit your pipeline and you’ll have no knowledge. So you will have lost this deal without knowing there was a deal. [00:00:19] Vince Menzione: We’ve been talking 28 moments, but you have a slide. I thought we’d spend some time here because, you know, every conversation with you is about 28 moments, but you finally took the time to analyze one of your deals or one of the deals that was going on with one of your clients and come up with the 28 moments. [00:00:36] Vince Menzione: I thought we’d spend a little time here because this journey slide is a wake up call. Uh, it’s, it’s, it’s all around. Why, why we need to think about all of those. Points we need to think about communities and analysts and marketplaces and proof of concepts and architecture and everything else. I thought maybe you’d take us through this a little bit. [00:00:53] Vince Menzione: ’cause this was for a client, AstraZeneca, by the way. This was, uh, if you don’t know this, ICI Americas was the precursor of mm-hmm. AstraZeneca. It was the first SAP customer in North America. [00:01:03] Jay McBain: Nice. I did [00:01:04] Vince Menzione: not know that. That’s why Microsoft and SAP both headquartered. In that area, near nearby, that client. [00:01:10] Vince Menzione: That’s, uh, news, new news. [00:01:11] Jay McBain: And by the way, this is an SAP deal we’re looking at. Yeah. Uh, so two things here. One is that, um, while I was declaring the decade of the ecosystem, you know, spending time with you and Boca, in between that time we got acquired. Canals, which was Latin for channel, got acquired by oia, part of Informa TechTarget, part of this bigger informa company, which is a Fortune 100 company outta the uk. [00:01:32] Jay McBain: Fantastic. You know, we’re part of this massive organization that is really around buyer intent. How, you know, a tech target and, uh, running hundreds of magazines like Information Week and Computer Week that customers and partners read running hundreds of events, the biggest events on the planet. [00:01:49] Vince Menzione: Crazy [00:01:49] Jay McBain: in B2B, like Black Hat and all these things are run by [00:01:52] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:01:53] Jay McBain: informa. [00:01:53] Jay McBain: So it’s got this massive mountain of data. About the 28 moments. So when you start to think if you’re a CMO and you start to think about the early moments, you, you think about somebody reading an ebook or, um, going to a, a webinar or going onto a LinkedIn live just like this one. Yeah, going to a major event and getting a pair of socks from you. [00:02:13] Jay McBain: Um, but anything early in the journey. These are the m qls. These are the things that I need enough of them to be credible before I hand them over to my sales team. ’cause I don’t wanna be laughed out of the room. Hey, they read an ebook. They must, AstraZeneca must be buying millions of dollars of stuff. [00:02:27] Vince Menzione: Traditional marketing lead. [00:02:29] Jay McBain: Traditional marketing lead. So they’re a bit nervous about sharing that. And then later on, the sales motions, the demos and all the progression of the sales. This was the two decades before us, the decade of sales, decade of marketing. But the 28 moments, just to take a step back, if you haven’t heard, it is just a considered purchase. [00:02:46] Jay McBain: It’s about psychology, human psychology. When you go and buy a car, second most expensive thing that you will purchase you on average will go through 28 moments getting ready for that purchase. Some people go through two moments and they just drive to the Cadillac dealership to see Larry, who’s been selling Cadillacs to the family for 80 years. [00:03:04] Jay McBain: Yep. Some people spend 58 moments. That’s probably me. [00:03:07] Vince Menzione: That’s you, a, [00:03:08] Jay McBain: you know, going through all the depreciation, watching every YouTube video, you know, going to the end of the earth. But the average is 28. So you start to think about this, this is the same buying a car considered purchase, that you would buy a million dollars in software. [00:03:21] Jay McBain: From Microsoft or SAP. So when you look at these moments, you start to think, you know, how is you before you buy that car, downloading the invoice price, downloading this month’s backend rebates. Should I buy it in January? Should I buy it in February? All these decisions you make before you get to that dealership, you’re smarter than the salesperson, smarter than the sales manager. [00:03:39] Jay McBain: You know what 5,000 people bought the car for within 50 miles of you? I mean, you’re just so smart. You actually don’t need the dealership anymore. Just Carvana to me, hand me the keys. Exactly. But now in buying technology, hardware, software services, customers are getting this smart. And here’s all the moments they take to get this smart. [00:03:57] Jay McBain: But the thing we always had in mind in this decade of the ecosystem was the 96% there are trusted people. Yeah. Spending decades building that trust that come in in critical moments. They’re not marketing moments, they’re not sales moments. They are fully partnership moments. Yeah. And they’re on this slide in light blue. [00:04:15] Jay McBain: So if you were to look at this deal and, and somebody in marketing is finding these eBooks and webinars and they think there might be something, AWS got a direct hit on their website. So there’s something brewing at AstraZeneca. It, it might be in, it’s a big pharmaceutical company, so you’re probably spending millions of dollars if something’s brewing. [00:04:31] Jay McBain: Yep. But guess what? At the same time, in December on this six month journey. Partners come in with five different paid projects, consulting, advisory design projects, and in this case it was NTT software one, Yash and uh, ISV was there. Yep. But NTT won three different. Deals right at that critical stage. It wasn’t Accenture, it wasn’t Deloitte, NTT at this particular department of AstraZeneca had spent the decades building those relationships. [00:04:58] Jay McBain: So they were the one, and they won critical part of this. And so that’s when the deal is won. And it’s not at April when the money’s being spent. Yeah, it’s, it’s not in March when a couple more ISVs joined the mix, that seven layer stack that solves this particular problem, it was right there. So if you’re a vendor trying to get into that seven layer stack and you don’t have that relationship, or you don’t have the knowledge that NTT or software one is going in, this will have been a deal that would’ve never hit your pipeline and you’ll have no knowledge. [00:05:30] Jay McBain: So you will have lost this deal without knowing there was a deal, which makes up again, the majority of your tam. [00:05:34] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:05:35] Jay McBain: But what if I did have this agentic ability to see this deal coming, and I’m a cybersecurity company, I’m just competing for layer five of the deal, but I know that it’s all happening in December. [00:05:46] Jay McBain: So the two things that jump out on this particular slide is one, they don’t just show up in December. [00:05:51] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:05:51] Jay McBain: this went closed one in their Salesforce CRM in August, September, well, before the customer ever read an ebook. So now you’re not dealing with a flimsy MQL. You’re dealing with a couple of great, you know, top partner 1000 sized firms. [00:06:09] Jay McBain: One of them is a partner, 30 firm. [00:06:11] Vince Menzione: Exact

Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ https://youtu.be/-flNeKF6CxQ?si=xIIQ4LUl7oraQjkg Microsoft’s Cyril Belikoff joins Vince Menzione to reveal the seismic shift occurring within the newly reimagined Microsoft Marketplace. As the industry moves toward a predicted $300 billion partner opportunity by 2030, this discussion deconstructs the evolution of the “Frontier” vision, the launch of the AI apps and agents category, and the critical “Resale Enabled Offer” (REO) that is currently doubling deal sizes for early adopters. Whether you are a software company looking to scale globally or a reseller aiming to stitch together complex AI solutions, the message is clear: the flywheel is already spinning, and those who wait for a “perfect strategy” risk being permanently displaced by more agile competitors who are getting their feet wet today. Key Takeaways The Microsoft Marketplace has been reimagined into a single destination for discovering, buying, and deploying AI apps and agents. Analysts predict a staggering $300 billion opportunity for partners within the Microsoft Marketplace by 2030. The new Resale Enabled Offer (REO) allows software companies to authorize channel partners to resell on their behalf across specific geographies with minimal overhead. Cloud migration is far from over, as massive amounts of on-premise data and ISV apps still need to be modernized for the AI era. Marketplace deal sizes are doubling as customers use Azure commitments to retire their marketplace acquisition costs. Successful partners are moving away from “boiling the ocean” strategies and instead focusing on transacting one or two deals to learn the ecosystem’s mechanics. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: Microsoft Marketplace, AI apps and agents, Resale Enabled Offer, REO, Cyril Belikoff, Azure Marketplace, AppSource, cloud solutions, software companies, digital transformation, AI strategy, channel led sales, ISV solutions, cloud migration, Azure commitments, Microsoft Cloud, Frontier vision, MSP opportunity, marketplace transacting, AI monetization, global scale, procurement, IT deployment, technical modernization, partner ecosystem, business applications. Opening Lines: [00:00:00] Cyril Belikoff: Marketplace is really the extension of our vision for Frontier, uh, and the Microsoft Cloud. You know, the, the Microsoft technology takes a customer a long way, but in many ways to complete the thought. If you’re in football terms, you want to cross over the line and score touchdown. You can’t just get, uh, to the red zone. [00:00:20] Cyril Belikoff: You actually need partner solutions. [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: So let’s, let’s kick off to Marketplace a little bit right, too, because, uh, it’s been a big year for Marketplace, or 20, the first half of 2026 fiscal year 2026 has been a big year. A lot of announcements, a lot of things going on in the world, in marketplace. Where do we wanna start there? Let’s recap some of it. [00:00:44] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. Um, so, um. It feels like a long time ago, but in, at the end of September, [00:00:51] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:00:52] Cyril Belikoff: Um, at the AR tour, uh, in Chicago, we announced a new Microsoft marketplace. We reimagined that experience. It’s a new customer experience, single destination for customers to. You know, discover, find, try, buy, and deploy cloud solutions, AI apps and agents all in one place. [00:01:11] Cyril Belikoff: And so historically, we’ve had a little bit, uh, of decentralization. We had this thing called the Azure Marketplace and AppSource for different experiences. AppSource was more for teams and, and copilot. Um, and, and office, Azure Marketplace. Of course, that was for Azure. We brought all of that into one place. [00:01:30] Cyril Belikoff: So customers, whether they are looking for a SaaS solution running on Azure, an agent that snaps into copilot, an experience that runs in our security store, now they can go to one place. Um. marketplace.microsoft.com. It’s one, it’s the new Microsoft marketplace. And we have an, of course, we have a, we had, we launched a brand new category, AI apps and agents, and we launched that category in September. [00:01:54] Cyril Belikoff: Uh, bringing together numerous, uh, uh, partner offerings. Yeah. And today we have the largest catalog, um, probably in the mid four thousands of AI and agents. Wow. Available to customer. So fantastic. There was, there was quite a big moment in September. Um, and then fast forward a little bit to November, we announced a resale enabled offer, um, at Ignite [00:02:15] Vince Menzione: eo. [00:02:16] Vince Menzione: Eo [00:02:16] Cyril Belikoff: eo. I, [00:02:17] Vince Menzione: I like EO reminds me of the band back in the day. [00:02:19] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. R Speedwagon. There you go. Uh, well, and it’s, it’s not that far from it because Oreo accelerates. Yeah. Um, what partners can do, uh, with the marketplace and really connects. Software companies and resellers, which I’m sure we’ll talk about in a second. [00:02:34] Cyril Belikoff: But that’s really the recap, um, of, uh, you know, the new Microsoft marketplace, how we enabling it for, uh, for partners through the the resell enable offer. [00:02:45] Vince Menzione: So, I know we talked on this a little bit, but I wanna maybe just expand on it. What does the frontier push and the marketplace evolution mean for partners? [00:02:53] Vince Menzione: Because I, I think it’s huge for both, for these partners to really monetize and accelerate their success working with you. [00:03:00] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. So, um. Marketplace is really the extension of our vision for Frontier, uh, and the Microsoft Cloud. You know, the, the Microsoft technology takes a customer a long way, but in many ways to complete the thought and to, you know, uh, uh. [00:03:20] Cyril Belikoff: If you’re in football terms, you wanna cross over the line and score a touchdown, you can’t just get, uh, to the red zone. You actually need partner solutions. [00:03:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:03:29] Cyril Belikoff: Uh, and so that’s where the partner solutions, combined with Microsoft’s first party offerings become a really, really. Great offering and powerful offering for our customers to, to become Frontier. [00:03:40] Cyril Belikoff: So we have obviously a ton of AI experiences, our own co-pilot experiences, uh, Microsoft Foundry, which is a platform for ai, but in, in many ways, we need those industry solutions. We need those AI apps and agents from partners to complete that offering. And that’s really. How it comes together and, uh, you know, uh, I heard you from o was just on before me. [00:04:01] Cyril Belikoff: They actually predict that the Microsoft marketplace, uh, is a 300 billion partner opportunity by 2030. Yeah, they’re talking about, I think, mid eighties growth. We have literally seen our business for the last three years, and we are in the middle of our, uh, you know, third year doubling. And so when you get three or four years of doubling every year, that’s compounded doubling. [00:04:24] Cyril Belikoff: Um, so, uh, we have seen lots of momentum from customers, lots of interest. We’ve made it, you know. Interesting for customers. Um, and incentivize our customers with their Azure commitments that can retire their marketplace, uh, acquisitions that way. We’ve made it, we’ve put incentives for partners and for our own sellers. [00:04:44] Cyril Belikoff: So we really creating the flywheel for everybody in the market to see value from, uh, the marketplace. So. Like, like, like you mentioned, like m the, uh, you know, suggested [00:04:55] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:04:55] Cyril Belikoff: It’s only exploding the opportunity on marketplace. [00:04:58] Vince Menzione: Well, and you both touched on the fact that the data is not in the cloud yet. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: Not all the data that needs to be in the cloud in order to drive the future of where we wanna go from a society. Mm-hmm. And from a business application perspective needs to be in the cloud. So huge opportunities for partners around data states, around securing that data, governing that data, and so on, on top of all the business applications, [00:05:19] Cyril Belikoff: right? [00:05:19] Vince Menzione: As promise. So incredible. Yep. So let’s [00:05:22] Cyril Belikoff: talk about, yeah. The call migration. The call migration, people think that is over and it’s long from over because customers have plenty, uh, on premise, uh, not only Microsoft technology, but the, the, the, the software company or the ISV app that sits on top of it. Yeah. [00:05:36] Cyril Belikoff: And that needs to be migrated, managed, modernized, um, and marketplace is a big part of that too. Um, but there’s so many services and, um, opportunities around it. [00:05:45] Vince Menzione: Incredible opportunity. Let’s talk about the channel and the channel opportunity. You, you touched on this earlier, right? So this really lighting up the channel. [00:05:53] Vince Menzione: I saw this loud and clear when we were at Ignite. Like this is a huge opportunity for the Es, for the resellers, for all the partners. And as part of REO, you’ve got huge opportunities you’re laying out for them for the 500,000 part partners. You know, we talk about the Bill Gates moment down here in Boca. [00:06:09] Vince Menzione: This is where it all started. Uh, yep. How, how do you think about marketplace in the channel today? [00:06:16] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. You know, it’s, um, it’s vital. You know, we have a customer need, um, from. The smallest is small business all the way to enterprise. And the real

Stop losing the AI revenue multiplier game. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode, Jay McBain reveals why focusing solely on consumer AI hype is a massive mistake that causes businesses to miss the real opportunity: the 99% of business data currently sitting in cold storage. We discuss the critical shift toward “Agentic AI” and integrations, where the real money lies for partners—moving from a standard transaction to a $3 to $7 multiplier effect. Jay also issues a stark warning about the “book of failure” waiting for companies that refuse to adopt a platform mindset, explaining why you can’t hire your way out of the talent shortage and must embrace the seven-partner ecosystem to survive the next decade. https://youtu.be/RXRJW027Qz8 https://youtu.be/RXRJW027Qz8 Key Takeaways Partners can unlock a $3 to $7 multiplier on every dollar of Microsoft revenue by focusing on the full customer journey. 99% of the world’s business data is not yet trained into models, representing the massive “Agentic AI” opportunity. The talent shortage is forcing end customers to outsource because they cannot compete with hyperscalers for AI skills. Integration is now the number one buying criteria for modern customers, necessitating a platform approach. We are overestimating the AI change in two years but vastly underestimating the transformation coming in ten years. Your visible pipeline may be less than 10% of your total addressable market because you aren’t seeing the 28 moments before a sale. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Agentic AI, AI Multiplier, Cold Storage Data, Business Integration, Jay McBain, Platform Economy, Ecosystem Strategy, Managed Services, Co-selling, Hyperscaler Partnerships, Talent Shortage, Magnificent Seven, Digital Transformation, 28 Moments, AI Governance. Transcript: [00:00:00] Jay McBain: And getting from one to two to $3 a multiplier. So if Microsoft wins a hundred thousand dollars, I win $300,000 at 75% margin. And a sticky customer that’s gonna continue to enrich every 30 days forever. [00:00:16] Vince Menzione: I want to double click here. You talked about ag agentic technology and ai. I just wanna go back in on this. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: So where is the money? Where’s the real money for the partners that are, that are participating? Microsoft? We’ll talk to Microsoft about Frontier Firm in a little while, but is it on advisory? Is it on build? Is it on managed services or ongoing optimization? Of the, of the stack. Where, where is it? [00:00:36] Jay McBain: Yeah. All the above. [00:00:37] Vince Menzione: All of the above. [00:00:38] Jay McBain: So Microsoft is famous for, you know, $8 and 45 cents of multiplier. We’ve written probably three dozen of these reports. Just this year. So whether you’re in a cyber platform, whether you’re in a hyperscaler platform, big SaaS platform, the first thing the CEO does when they get on CNBC or they get, uh, on their keynote in Vegas is say, Hey, you know, you can make $7 and 5 cents. [00:01:01] Jay McBain: You can make $7 and 13 cents, and here’s where it’s. This percentage of it is in consulting advisory. This percentage is in design and architecture, implementation, integration, managed services. This is how much, it’s a small little slice in procurement. If you wanna resell, that’s fine, but here is the opportunity and there’s no customer on the planet that’s gonna outsource seven to one. [00:01:23] Vince Menzione: Right? [00:01:23] Jay McBain: You know, it’s not advisable that anyone hands over the keys. You have to have some insourced talent Absolutely. To keep the thing running. But what would’ve been in the past, maybe one to one, or you know, two to one, is quickly becoming three to one to say that I can’t find, as an end customer, the AI talent to do this. [00:01:43] Jay McBain: I can’t find the cyber talent. I can’t find the infrastructure talent. I, I can’t find the talent. Even if I did, I can’t compete with these magnificent seven. I can’t compete with these big partners in terms of what they can pay. So now my ability, and now a younger buyer, majority buyer, now being a millennial loves a team sport. [00:02:02] Jay McBain: So they don’t mind this outsourcing of talent where they need it, and that’s why there’s seven partners around the table. But in this multiplier effect, the biggest opportunity for partners is not a specific skill or not a specific part of the journey. It’s actually understanding this multiplier and better serving the customer. [00:02:20] Jay McBain: Through before, during, and after the transaction and getting from one to two to $3 a multiplier. So if Microsoft wins a hundred thousand dollars, I win $300,000 at 75% margin. And a sticky customer that’s gonna continue to enrich every 30 days forever. [00:02:38] Vince Menzione: I love that. Uh, we can talk all day about ai. There’s a couple things specifically though, but what is the one missed? [00:02:45] Vince Menzione: Conception that partners have about Agen, AI’s impact on go-to market? [00:02:50] Jay McBain: Well, the misconception I can broadly at this point is that all of the hype cycle in the first, you know, two to three years of build out has been all consumer. [00:02:58] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:02:59] Jay McBain: So, Nvidia being the richest company and you know, Elon Musk becoming the richest person and all the changes that are happening and you know, how, how the world’s mostly it’s a consumer story. [00:03:08] Vince Menzione: It is. [00:03:09] Jay McBain: You know, Chachi PT became the fastest growing product in history. And you know, to the point of having 850 million, you know, daily users. Crazy. You know, just in a couple of years we’ve all changed our behavior from going to do a search and getting a bunch of links and then clicking the links to try to find the answer to answer first. [00:03:25] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:03:26] Jay McBain: And you start to think now through the business side of it, 99% of world’s business data has yet to be trained or tuned into models. 83% of it sits in cold storage at the edge. So I, I always tell the story. I mean, probably the most likely story in our industry is when you get your flight canceled and now you’ve got this chat bot [00:03:45] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:03:45] Jay McBain: You know, that comes and cancels your flight and is very empathetic, you know, feels really bad for you, but it can’t do anything. [00:03:52] Vince Menzione: No. [00:03:53] Jay McBain: So what I would like as a consumer when you do that, is to go download my 53 years of flying and understand what kind of flyer I am. ’cause I could be the, you know, we’re sorry we canceled your flight. [00:04:05] Jay McBain: We’ve already got a Marriott night for you and an Uber waiting at the curb and we’ll have you back here at 5:00 AM for the next available flight. Or you happen to be like me. We’re gonna get you on a flight. You gotta run across the airport. But we got a flight, you know, waiting to go and that’ll get you about six hours away from your home and your kids. [00:04:24] Jay McBain: We already have a hertz rental waiting. Yeah. And you’re gonna drive that six hours, but you’re gonna be home, you know, to take your kids to school tomorrow. Exactly. So that’s the business data. And that goes to finance, that goes to pharmaceutical. I mean, it goes into every industry, but if that chat bot got access to the business data and being able to act on a richer set of data about you personally, and then became AG agentic. [00:04:46] Jay McBain: Again, I don’t want to go to Marriott. I don’t wanna go to Uber. I don’t wanna go to Hertz. There’s a thousand permutations in a canceled flight and I, and I, you know, wanna notify my family and there’s so many things going on that age Agentic work becomes everything, which I love it, by the way, in our partnership term is called integrations. [00:05:03] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:05:04] Jay McBain: Our buyers now in integration, first buyer, it’s their number one criteria and every company thinking through their adjacencies. Including technology companies have to be the most integrated of their set of competitors. [00:05:17] Vince Menzione: So we need to get this part right. [00:05:19] Jay McBain: We have to get this part right. [00:05:20] Vince Menzione: What do you think, what do you think the time horizon is for that? [00:05:23] Vince Menzione: When are we gonna, when are we gonna see that chat bot that comes back and says, Jay, I’ve rebooked your flight. I’ve got the Hertz rental car ready for you. I’ve notified Michelle and the kids, and here you go. [00:05:33] Jay McBain: Yeah. Well for me that’s a 10 year horizon. [00:05:36] Vince Menzione: Okay. [00:05:37] Jay McBain: I mean, the biggest problem is no airline right now. [00:05:39] Jay McBain: No company right now wants to open up their cold storage and, you know, forklift it up into. You know, a consumer level, large language model. Yeah. So the security isn’t set yet. The governance, the compliance, the risk, all the different things. Nobody wants to be first, uh, in, in that area. So we’re running little pilots. [00:05:59] Jay McBain: The pilots, you know, aren’t converting into production at the level we want. But that, that, that goes back to the Bill Gates quote. You know, we tended to overestimate what would happen in two years. Two years, but we’re absolutely underestimating what’s gonna happen in 10. [00:06:12] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:06:13] Jay McBain: This has been the fastest growing industry for 50. [00:06:15] Jay McBain: It’s going to be for the next 10 guaranteed, but

Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode, we dive deep into Microsoft’s new “Frontier Firm” concept—a strategic framework designed to help organizations become AI-first. We explore the four key pillars of the success framework: enriching employee experiences, reinventing customer engagement, reshaping business processes, and bending the innovation curve. The discussion also covers critical updates from Microsoft Ignite, including the introduction of “IQs” (Work, Fabric, and Foundry) and the new Agent 365 for observability. Finally, we outline the massive opportunities for Azure partners, from core migration to building unified data platforms and deploying AI agents. Key Takeaways A Frontier Firm is an AI-first organization built on a four-pillar success framework. The four pillars are enriching employee experience, customer engagement, business process, and innovation. New “IQs” (Work, Fabric, Foundry) provide the intelligence layer for AI agents to operate effectively. Agent 365 was announced to provide security, identity, and observability for AI agents. Change management is just as critical as technology implementation for AI adoption. Azure partners have three main opportunities: migration, unified data platforms, and building AI apps. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: Frontier Firm framework, Microsoft AI strategy, Azure partner ecosystem, AI-first organization, enriching employee experiences, reinventing customer engagement, bending the innovation curve, Work IQ, Fabric IQ, Foundry IQ, Agent 365, AI observability, AI agents, Azure migration, unified data platform, Microsoft Ignite announcements, AI change management, Ultimate Partner winter retreat, Boca studio, ISV success, Azure incentives, tech leadership. https://youtu.be/ZbS61Kr6gGw?si=_ET6-Z5i2JYvFj1c Transcript: [00:00:00] Cyril Belikoff: AI is changing our daily operations. And how can, uh, on a day-to-day, uh, basis can those people get their heads around what AI is and then help them, um, you know, leverage ai more [00:00:16] Vince Menzione: talking about leadership, Microsoft’s leadership around frontier firms. How should partners think about frontier firms? [00:00:23] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah, it’s a great question. [00:00:25] Cyril Belikoff: Uh, in the last, you know, six months or so, we introduced, uh, this concept of a frontier firm, which is really around an organization that is AI first. Yeah. Uh, now of course that’s not new. Um, but really we wanted to try and leverage all the experiences that we’ve had with many, many customers and partners and put it into some sort of. [00:00:47] Cyril Belikoff: Success framework and provide sort of, uh, uh, ingredients, if you will, on how to best get there. And so we came up with the success framework for Becoming Frontier, uh, in, in four areas. One is about, uh, enriching employee experiences, reinventing customer engagement, reshaping business process, and bending the innovation curve. [00:01:07] Cyril Belikoff: And if you look at any of the innovation that’s happened around AI and, and, and becoming AI first, um. All of the projects that we’ve done, the thousands, the tens of thousands of projects on a LA we’ve done have fallen into one of those four categories. So we really, we, we spoke about the success framework and how we can help customers, you know, become frontier. [00:01:28] Vince Menzione: Take us through it one more time. Maybe just a, a, a few, a little comment on each one of those four, because I think, yeah. Every single one of ’em standing on their own is so important for organizations. [00:01:36] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. That if you really think about it, it’s about how are we driving business outcomes. So the first one is en enriching employee experiences. [00:01:44] Cyril Belikoff: Nice. So each of us is an employee of some organization. And how is that organization enriching that experience, leveraging AI so that individuals can do great work, uh, whether they’re a developer. Or a marketer like myself or a salesperson or someone in HR or finance, AI is changing our daily operations. [00:02:06] Cyril Belikoff: And how can, uh, on a day-to-day, uh, basis can those people get their heads around what AI is and then help them, um, you know, leverage AI more? Then there’s reinventing customer engagement that’s really about. Our, our customer’s customer. And so how do we rethink that, uh, help them rethink those engagements with ai. [00:02:28] Cyril Belikoff: The third is reshaping business process. Of course, uh, we know about the opportunity with AI and agents and how we can streamline process, you know, remove hurdle, move, remove friction, make it faster and easier. Then the final is about bending the innovation curve, and that’s really about the new wave of, of experiences and applications and maybe even business models that might come up for our customers and how we help them with ai. [00:02:54] Cyril Belikoff: So, uh, like I mentioned, this concept of becoming frontier is relatively new, but we have the success framework on those four areas and, and deep experience in those four areas where we’ve helped, you know, thousands and thousands of customers over the last three or four years. [00:03:09] Vince Menzione: So you lead the Azure partner business. [00:03:11] Vince Menzione: How do you think about product strategy and can you share more about Azure partner opportunities specifically? [00:03:21] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. Um, I’ll take a little, a, a minor step back and talk just more broad, more broadly about, uh, Microsoft and then I’ll drill into Azure. It’s a great question. I love Azure. As you know, I’m Yes. [00:03:32] Cyril Belikoff: Um, part of the Azure team, um, but I, I mentioned becoming Frontier and at. At, um, at Ignite, we announced some company-wide announcements around products that we have available to help fulfill on those promises of becoming Frontier. Um, we announced three, what we call IQs, a work iq, a Fabric IQ, and a Foundry iq. [00:03:54] Cyril Belikoff: Those are really the intelligence within the organization that your AI and agents can leverage as a platform to get smarter. So Work IQ is essentially the knowledge about your employees and how your employees work. Um, of course, that’s, uh, confidential and proprietary to you, so no one else gets to see it. [00:04:12] Cyril Belikoff: Yeah. But we provide you with the ability to leverage that information so that employees can, you know, work better. Then Fabric iq, that’s the how your business operates. Uh, so your business processes and then Foundry iq, that’s the sort of business knowledge, how, you know, different types of knowledge, whether it’s a database or a web storage or. [00:04:31] Cyril Belikoff: Document storage and how you can curate that so that you can have AI and agents sort of get smarter in the organization. Nice. And then of course, observability. You want to be able to observe all of this as an organization. AI can do interesting things and so you want to, you know, govern and observe. And so we announce this thing called Agent 365. [00:04:49] Cyril Belikoff: They’ve got a lot of news, which, um, just think about that as a, um. Like Microsoft 365 provides security and identity for a human agent. 365 does that for agents. So of course you want to make sure that agents, uh, have access to some things, not everything. They have an identity so you can track them and what they’ve, and what they’ve done on your behalf. [00:05:12] Cyril Belikoff: Um, and, uh, there’s observability in terms of, you know, how they operate. So we made a ton of product announcements to serve how we are helping customers becoming frontier. So lots of great new and, and lots of opportunity. ’cause as you, as you know, um, in ai it’s not only about the technology implementation or project identification, there’s a lot of change management there, um, in, in, in the technical systems, but in humans like. [00:05:40] Cyril Belikoff: We all workers today, and we, we operate our daily work in a certain way. In order to operate differently with ai, we have to train ourselves and there’s a bunch of change management opportunity for partners in addition to the technology adopt, uh, adoption implementation opportunity. So that’s sort of at the all up Microsoft level for Azure. [00:06:01] Cyril Belikoff: Obviously Azure’s, you know, fabric and foundry I mentioned earlier, that’s part of Azure and so yeah. Azure is the AI foundation, but we have other areas that customers are looking to us for. First is, you know, core migration and modernization. There are many customers that have plenty on premises estate and in order to Yeah. [00:06:19] Cyril Belikoff: Put AI around their data, it needs to be in the cloud. Exactly. Um, and so we’re still working with customers to migrate and modernize their infrastructure and then build a unified data platform. Uh, sort of the next area. Once they get the, their data in the cloud, they wanna stitch it together, whether it’s structured data or unstructured data into one sort of experience. [00:06:41] Cyril Belikoff: And then finally, obviously you wanna build AI apps and agents on top of all of that. So those are three major areas and tons of opportunities for partners, you know, in those areas. Uh, through things like our incentive programs, uh, Azure accelerates our, our, um, program for software companies or ISVs IV success, all layering out incentives, programs, and assistance to help customers in those three or four areas. [00:07:06] Vince Menzione: The Ultimate Partner Winter Retreat is gonna be here in the Boca Studio. This i

Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this high-impact podcast episode to kick off 2026, Vince Menzione sits down with Jay McBain (Canalys/Informa) to decode the tectonic shifts reshaping the technology ecosystem. Jay reveals why the tech economy is forecasting double-digit growth while the broader economy lags, introducing a “Tale of Two Cities” where direct infrastructure sales are booming but partner influence is more critical than ever. He explains the drop in channel transact share to 66.7% and why the “96% Partner Assist” is the new metric for success. Jay also details the shift away from traditional “Gold/Silver/Bronze” programs toward point systems that recognize partners at every one of the “28 moments” in the customer journey, from influence to long-term retention. Key Takeaways The tech industry is forecast to grow 10.2% in 2026, outpacing the global economy’s 2.7% growth. Channel transact share has dropped from 75% to a forecast of 66.7% as infrastructure deals go direct. Nvidia and the “Magnificent Seven” are driving a massive direct infrastructure build-out for the next era. Microsoft measures a 96% “Partner Assist” rate, with up to seven partners involved in every deal. 80% of customers now prioritize partner certifications and competencies over relationships when choosing partners. The number one request from partners is to be recognized for value across all 28 moments, not just the point of sale. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: Jay McBain, Canalys, Informa Tech, Partner Assist, 28 Moments, Tech Growth 2026, Channel Strategy, Nvidia, Infrastructure Buildout, Partner Economics, Microsoft Ecosystem, AWS, Direct Sales, Indirect Sales, Partner Influence, Multiplier Effect, Customer Journey, Partner Programs, Tech Economy, Ecosystem Orchestration. https://youtu.be/ntogEr6mjKg?si=_AaBPBfv9KcMRA9D Transcript: [00:00:00] Jay McBain: By the way, marketplaces, the massive growth in marketplaces for everyone that doesn’t own the marketplace is also an indirect sale. It should be helping these numbers. Yeah, so, but there’s one company that’s driving and happens to be the most valuable company in the world right now. [00:00:15] Vince Menzione: Let’s start off with the first, my burning question I have first, let’s cover it first. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: If you had a sum up 2026 for partners in one sentence. What is it and what are people still underestimating? [00:00:29] Jay McBain: Yeah, it’s one, one word is probably opportunity. Opportunity. Um, so we look around the world, uh, the world economy without technology in it is gonna grow at 2.7%. That’s about $120 trillion with technology in it, technology industry, we’re forecasting to grow by double digits. [00:00:47] Jay McBain: Amazing. You know, in a world that’s growing at two, uh, we’re expecting 10.2%. Growth. And this industry, as you know, is surrounded by partners. Yes. And there are opportunities in hardware, in software, in services, in telco, all the different parts of the customer’s budget. And to look through the double digits though, I mean the, the extension of the sentence is, it’s a tale of two cities. [00:01:11] Jay McBain: Yeah. I was gonna ask you about this. Police do. There isn’t an opportunity in every slice. You know, some of the slices are shrinking by single digits. Some of them are growing by low single digits, but some of them are in the 20, 30, 40% growth range. And this is what partners are starting to think, these tectonic shifts that are happening, the ultimate partnerships that are happening are in very specific places that you kicked off this session talking about. [00:01:35] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So I would love to di dive in here because we have your, we have your slide up behind us. In fact, in talking about this $6.1 trillion economy around te uh, tech and telco and this opportunity. So, you know, we’re, there are gonna be winners and losers right in, in terms of these, uh, these segments or slices of the economy. [00:01:55] Vince Menzione: We can talk about that now. I, I think maybe it would be a good idea to talk about both the channel and, and why the par the channel plays such a big role in this growth. And then talk about what the winners and losers are gonna be. [00:02:07] Jay McBain: Yeah, I mean, broader. Um, actually if we go to the next, uh, slide, there is, um, a declining number and in the world economy that 120 trillion, 75% of it. [00:02:20] Jay McBain: Uh, moves indirectly. You bought your last car from a dealer. Yeah. You bought your last, uh, TV from a retailer, you know, peanut butter from a grocer, that type of thing. But the agencies, the brokers, the resellers, the retailers, the franchisees, the gas stations, pharmacies, grocery, all the different parts of the 27 industries, you know, play an incredible role. [00:02:40] Jay McBain: Our industry was at 75, not just three years ago. Wow. It dropped to 73.2. Two years ago, down to 70.1 last year, and this year’s forecast to be 66.7, so it’s dropping by about 3% each year and it’s this how money changes hands. Yeah. By the way, marketplaces, the massive growth in marketplaces for everyone that doesn’t own the marketplace is also an indirect sale. [00:03:05] Jay McBain: It should be helping these numbers. Yeah, so, but there’s one company that’s driving and happens to be the most valuable company in the world right now, Nvidia. Yeah. And the broader data center buildup mostly on consumer side, but this infrastructure data center build out globally happening right now is mostly happening direct. [00:03:22] Jay McBain: Yeah. There are the magnificent seven who are spending hundreds of billions of dollars each. On these chips and on this, uh, capability and capacity for this next 20 year era. And this is not a resell gain. They’re not buying through distribution and not buying through a reseller. And that’s where you talk about haves and have nots. [00:03:40] Jay McBain: You talk about this economy that, you know, Nvidia for example, was growing at triple digits, quarter in, quarter out, you know, becoming the most valuable company. And it’s not. A traditional technology opportunity, right? There isn’t managed service providers inside these data centers. There isn’t technology folks like VARs and system integrators in plugging in the equipment. [00:04:02] Jay McBain: Yeah. So we gotta watch and, and look at where this next shift takes us and where this multiplier opportunity wraps around it. So that’s the second number here. 96%. Which hasn’t changed. This is a number by the way, that Microsoft measures Yes. Understand. And, and Microsoft looks at it and, you know, second most valuable company in the world measures every deal they’re in and then have been for decades. [00:04:26] Jay McBain: And they measure this 96% of partner assist upwards of seven partners in every one of their deals. And looking at this partner assist number is what drives them. And in Microsoft’s case. You know, perhaps without a better product price or uh, promotion than their lead competitor. AWS, they’ve outgrown them for 26 straight quarters. [00:04:45] Jay McBain: Yes. And they point to place as the reason why that two, three, maybe even four of those seven partners may be leading with Microsoft in critical moments. And so every company, large, medium, and small, look at this partner assist number. And this is where we take that ecosystem conversation. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: So with 96% partner assist, why do partners touch, touching, everything still feel invisible in many cases. [00:05:11] Vince Menzione: And what’s the one move that they, they make? Or need to make to make them undeniable to [00:05:15] Jay McBain: vendors in 2026? Yeah, I mean, this is a long legacy. There’s 44 years of legacy of being measured at the point of sale where programs were built and paid at the point of sale. Yeah. Assuming you did a bunch of stuff like consulting and design and advisory before the point of sale, assuming you’re gonna stay after the sale and get the renewal and get the upsell, cross sell, and enrichment, there was this assumption, but you were really recognized only at one moment. [00:05:41] Jay McBain: And when we did the survey last year across, you know, 20,000 partners around the world, the number one thing they’re asking vendors for now. Is to recognize, measure monitor me at every moment. Mm-hmm. 28 of them before the sale every 30 days. Forever after the sale. Yep. At the point of sale, the provisioning, the procurement, all the pieces of where we add value. [00:06:02] Jay McBain: And now Microsoft was one of the leaders that came out with a point system over three years ago to say, we’re gonna start measuring and, you know, spreading the program dollars around a little bit like peanut butter. There’s over 400 companies now who have followed suit. You know, Cisco goes live in two weeks, so we’re in this mode now where the world is changing of economics, of partnering. [00:06:23] Jay McBain: It’s changing how recognition happens and it’s the number one thing partners want. [00:06:27] Vince Menzione: Yeah, we’re moving away from the gold, silver, bronze, uh, days of the past and, and tying ’em to these moments. In particular, the Ultimate Partner Winter retreat is gonna be here in the Boca Studio. This is the third year. [00:06:41] Vince Menzione: That we’re gonna be here in Boca. This is always a favorite of our community members, our executive members, our sponsors and speakers. We’ll all be here in the studio, which is a really intimate setting. We can see it upwards of 40, 50 people. We’ll be hosting an in

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/  Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this exclusive interview, Vince Menzione sits down with Darryl Peek, Vice President for Partner Sales (Public Sector) at Elastic, to decode how Elastic achieved the rare “triple crown”—winning Partner of the Year across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud simultaneously. Darryl breaks down the engineering-first approach that makes Elastic sticky with hyperscalers, reveals the rigorous metrics behind their partner health scorecard, and shares his personal “one-page strategy” for aligning mission, vision, and execution. From leveraging generative AI for cleaner sales hygiene to the timeless lesson of the “Acre of Diamonds,” this conversation offers a masterclass in building high-performance partner ecosystems in the public sector and beyond. https://youtu.be/__GE0r2fPuk Key Takeaways Elastic achieved “Pinnacle” status by aligning engineering roadmaps directly with hyperscaler innovations to become essential infrastructure. Successful public sector sales require a dual approach: leveraging resellers for contract access while driving domain-specific co-sell motions. Partner relationships outperform contracts; consistency in communication is more valuable than only showing up for renewals. Effective partner organizations track “influence” revenue just as rigorously as direct bookings to capture the full value of SI relationships. Generative AI can automate sales hygiene, turning scattered meeting notes into actionable CRM data and reducing friction for sales teams. The “Acre of Diamonds” philosophy reminds leaders that the greatest opportunities often lie within their current ecosystem, not in distant new markets. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Elastic, Darryl Peek, public sector sales, hyperscaler partnership, Microsoft Partner of the Year, AWS Partner of the Year, Google Cloud Partner, partner ecosystem strategy, co-sell motion, partner metrics, channel sales, government contracting, Carahsoft, generative AI in sales, sales hygiene, Russell Conwell, Acre of Diamonds, open source search, observability, security SIM, vector search, retrieval augmented generation, LLM agnostic, partner enablement, influence revenue, channel booking, SI relationships, strategic alliances. Transcript: Darryl Peek Audio Episode [00:00:00] Darryl Peek: I say, I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. [00:00:13] Darryl Peek: Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal, right? When you’re at end of quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi. Own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. [00:00:34] Vince Menzione: We just came off Ultimate Partner live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. So we have another privilege, an incredible partner, another like we call these, if you’ve heard our term, pinnacle. [00:01:00] Vince Menzione: I think it’s a term that’s not widely used, but we refer to Pinnacle as the partners that have achieved the top rung. They’ve become partners of the year. And our next presenter, our next interview is going to be with an organization. And a person that represents an organization that has been a pinnacle partner actually for all three Hyperscalers, which is really unusual. [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: Elastic has been partner of the Year award winner across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud, so very interesting. And Darrell Peak, who is the leader for the public sector organization, he’s here in the Washington DC area, was kind enough. Elastic is a sponsor event, and Darryl’s been kind enough to join me for a discussion about what it takes to be a Pinnacle partner. [00:01:47] Vince Menzione: So incredibly well. Excited to welcome you, Darryl. Thank you, sir. Good to have you. I love you. I love your smile, man. You got an incredible smile. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. So Darryl, I probably didn’t do it any justice, but I was hoping you could take us through your role and responsibilities at Elastic, which is an incredible organization. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Alright. Yeah, [00:02:09] Darryl Peek: absolutely. So Darrell Peak vice President for partner sales for the US public sector at Elastic. I’ve been there about two and a half years. Responsible for our partner relationships across all partner types, whether that’s the system integrators, resellers, MSPs, OEMs, distribution Hyperscalers, and our Technology Alliance partners. [00:02:26] Darryl Peek: And those are partners that aren’t built on the Elastic platform. In regards to how my partner team interacts with our team. Our ecosystem. We are essentially looking to further and lean in with our partners in order for them to, one, understand what Elastic does since we’re such a diverse tool, but also work with our field to understand what are their priorities and how do they identify the right partners for the right requirements. [00:02:50] Darryl Peek: In regards to what Elastic is and what it does elastic is a solution that is actually founded on search and we’re an open source company. And one of the things that I actually did when I left the government, so I worked for the government for a number of years. I left, went and worked for Salesforce, then worked for Google ran their federal partner team and then came over to Elastic because I wanted to. [00:03:11] Darryl Peek: Understand what it meant to be at an open source company. Being at an open source company is quite interesting ’cause you’re competing against yourself. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah, that’s true. [00:03:18] Darryl Peek: So it’s pretty interesting. But elastic was founded in 2012 as a search company. So when you talk about search, we are the second most used platform behind Google. [00:03:28] Darryl Peek: So many of you have already used Elastic. Maybe on your way here, if you use Uber and Lyft, that is elastic. That is helping you get here. Oh, that is interesting. If you use Netflix, if you use wikipedia.com, booking.com, eBay, home Depot, all of those are search capabilities. That Elastic is happening to power in regards to what else we do. [00:03:47] Darryl Peek: We also do observability, which is really around application monitoring, logging, tracing, and metrics. So we are helping your operations team. Pepsi is a customer as well as Cisco. Wow. And then the last thing that we do is security when we’re a SIM solution. So when we talk about sim, we are really looking to protect networks. [00:04:03] Darryl Peek: So we all, we think that it’s a data problem. So with that data problem, what we’re trying to do is not only understand what is happening in the network, but also we are helping with threat intelligence, endpoint and cloud security. So all those elements together is what Elastic does. And we only do it two ways. [00:04:18] Darryl Peek: We’re one platform and we can be deployed OnPrem and in the cloud. So that’s a little bit about me and the company. Hopefully it was clear, [00:04:24] Vince Menzione: I’ve had elastic people on stage. You’ve done, that’s the best answer I’ve had. What does Elastic do? I used to hear all this hyperbole and what? [00:04:32] Vince Menzione: What? Now I really understand what you do is an organiz. And the name of the company was Elasticsearch. [00:04:36] Darryl Peek: It was [00:04:37] Vince Menzione: elastic at one time when I first. Worked with you. It was Elasticsearch. [00:04:40] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. Yeah. So many moons ago used to be called the Elk Stack and it stood for three things. E was the Elasticsearch which is a search capability. [00:04:48] Darryl Peek: L is Logstash, which is our logging capability. And Cabana is essentially our visualization capability. So it was called Elk. But since we’ve acquired so many companies and built so much capability into the platform, we can now call it the elastic. Platform. [00:05:00] Vince Menzione: So talk to me about your engagement with the hyperscalers. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: You’ve been partner of the Year award winner with all three, right? I mentioned that, and you were, you worked for Google for a period of time. Yes. So tell us about, like, how does that work? What does that engagement look like? And why do you get chosen as partner of the year? What are the things that stand out when you’re working with these hyperscalers [00:05:19] Darryl Peek: and with that we are very fortunate to be recognized. [00:05:23] Darryl Peek: So many of the organizations that are out there are doing some of the same capabilities that we do, but they can’t claim that they won a part of the year for all three hyperscalers in the same year. We are able to do that because we believe in the power of partnership, not only from a technology perspective, but also from a sales perspective. [00:05:39] Darryl Peek: So we definitely lean in with our partnerships, so having our engineers talk, having our product teams talk

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/  Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ https://youtu.be/vEdq8rpBM3I In this data-rich keynote, Jay McBain deconstructs the tectonic shifts reshaping the $5.3 trillion global technology industry, arguing that we are entering a new 20-year cycle where traditional direct sales models are obsolete. McBain explains why 96% of the industry is now surrounded by partners and how successful companies must pivot from “flywheels and theory” to a granular strategy focused on the seven specific partners present in every deal. From the explosion of agentic AI and the $163 billion marketplace revolution to the specific mechanics of multiplier economics, this discussion provides a roadmap for navigating the “decade of the ecosystem” where influence, trust, and integration—not just product—determine winners and losers. Key Takeaways Half of today’s Fortune 500 companies will likely vanish in the next 20 years due to the shift toward AI and ecosystem-led models. Every B2B deal now involves an average of seven trusted partners who influence the decision before a vendor even knows a deal exists. Microsoft has outpaced AWS growth for 26 consecutive quarters largely because of a superior partner-led geographic strategy. Marketplaces are projected to grow to $163 billion by 2030, with nearly 60% of deals involving partner funding or private offers. The “Multiplier Effect” is the new ROI, where partners can make up to $8.45 for every dollar of vendor product sold. Future dominance relies on five key pillars: Platform, Service Partnerships, Channel Partnerships, Alliances, and Go-to-Market orchestration. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Jay McBain, Canalys, partner ecosystem, channel chief, agentic AI, marketplace growth, multiplier economics, B2B sales trends, tech industry forecast, service partnerships, strategic alliances, Microsoft vs AWS, distribution transformation, managed services growth, SaaS platforms, customer journey mapping, 28 moments of truth, future of reselling, technology spending 2025, ecosystem orchestration, partner multipliers. T Transcript: Jay McBain WORKFILE FOR TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: Just up from, did you Puerto Rico last night? Puerto Rico, yes. Puerto Rico. He dodged the hurricane. Um, you all know him. Uh, let him introduce himself for those of you who don’t, but just thrilled to have on the stage, again, somebody who knows more about what’s going on in, in the, and has the pulse on this industry probably than just about anybody I know personally. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: J Jay McBain. Jay, great to see you my friend. Alright, thank you. We have to come all the way. We live, we live uh, about 20 minutes from each other. We have to come all the way to Reston, Virginia to see each other, right? That’s right. Very good. Well, uh, that’s all over to you, sir. Thank you. [00:00:35] Jay McBain: Alright, well thank you so much. [00:00:36] Jay McBain: I went from 85 degrees yesterday to 45 today, but I was able to dodge that, uh, that hurricane, uh, that we kind of had to fly through the northern edge of, uh, wanna talk today about our industry, about the ultimate partner. I’m gonna try to frame up the ultimate partner as I walk through the data and the latest research that, uh, that we’ve been doing in the market. [00:00:56] Jay McBain: But I wanted to start here ’cause our industry moves in 20 year cycles, and if you look at the Fortune 500 and dial back 20 years from today, 52% of them no longer exist. As we step into the next 20 year AI era, half of the companies that we know and love today are not gonna exist. So we look at this, and by the way, if you’re not in the Fortune 500 and you don’t have deep pockets to buy your way outta problems, 71% of tech companies fail over the course of 10 years. [00:01:30] Jay McBain: Those are statistics from the US government. So I start to look at our industry and you know, you may look at the, you know, mainframe era from the sixties and seventies, mini computers, August the 12th, 1981, that first IBM, PC with Microsoft dos, version one, you know, triggered. A new 20 year era of client server. [00:01:51] Jay McBain: It was the time and I worked at IBM for 17 years, but there was a time where Bill Gates flew into Boca Raton, Florida and met with the IBM team and did that, you know, fancy licensing agreement. But after, you know, 20 years of being the most valuable company in the world and 13 years of antitrust and getting broken up, almost like at and TIBM almost didn’t make payroll. [00:02:14] Jay McBain: 13 years after meeting Bill Gates. Yeah, that’s how quickly things change in these eras. In 1999, a small company outta San Francisco called salesforce.com got its start. About 10 years later, Jeff Bezos asked a question in a boardroom, could we rent out our excess capacity and would other companies buy it? [00:02:35] Jay McBain: Which, you know, most people in the room laughed at ’em at the time. But it created a 20 year cloud era when our friends, our neighbors, our family. Saw Chachi PT for the first time in March of 2023. They saw the deep fakes, they saw the poetry, they saw the music. They came to us as tech people and said, did we just light up Skynet? [00:02:58] Jay McBain: And that consumer trend has triggered this next 20 years. I could walk through the richest people in the world through those trends. I could walk through the most valuable companies. It all aligns. ’cause by the way, Apple’s no longer at the top. Nvidia is at the top, Microsoft. Second, things change really quickly. [00:03:17] Jay McBain: So in that course of time, you start to look at our industry and as people are talking about a six and a half or $7 trillion build out of ai, that’s open AI and Microsoft numbers, that is bigger than our industry that’s taken over 50 years to build. This year, we’re gonna finish the year at $5.3 trillion. [00:03:36] Jay McBain: That’s from the smallest flower shop to the biggest bank. Biggest governments that Caresoft would, uh, serve biggest customer in the world is actually the federal government of the us. But you look at this pie chart and you look at the changes that we’re gonna go through over the next 20 years, there’s about a trillion dollars in hardware. [00:03:54] Jay McBain: There’s about a trillion dollars in software. If you look forward through all of the merging trends, quantum computing, humanoid robots, all the things that are coming that dollar to dollar software to hardware will continue to exist all the way through. We see services making up almost two thirds of this pie. [00:04:13] Jay McBain: Yesterday I was in a telco conference with at and t and Verizon and T-Mobile and some of the biggest wireless players and IT services, which happen to be growing faster than products. At the moment, there is more work to be done wrapping around the deal than the actual products that the customer is buying. [00:04:32] Jay McBain: So in an industry that’s growing at 7%. On top of the world economy that’s grown at 2.2. This is the fastest growing industry, and it will be at least for the next 10 years, if not 2070 0.1% of this entire $5 trillion gets transacted through partners. While what we’re talking to today about the ultimate partner, 96% of this industry is surrounded by partners in one way or another. [00:05:01] Jay McBain: They’re there before the deal. They’re there at the deal. They’re there after the deal. Two thirds of our industry is now subscription consumption based. So every 30 days forever, and a customer for life becomes everything. So if every deal in medium, mid-market, and higher has seven partners, according to McKinsey, who are those seven people trying to get into the deal? [00:05:25] Jay McBain: While there’s millions of companies that have come into tech over the last 10 to 20 years. Digital agencies, accountants, legal firms, everybody’s come in. The 250,000 SaaS companies, a million emerging tech companies, there’s a big fight to be one of those seven trusted people at the table. So millions of companies and tens of millions of people our competing for these slots. [00:05:49] Jay McBain: So one of the pieces of research I’m most proud of, uh, in my analyst career is this. And this took over two years to build. It’s a lot of logos. Not this PowerPoint slide, but the actual data. Thousands of people hours. Because guess what? When you look at partners from the top down, the top 1000 partners, by capability and capacity, not by resale. [00:06:15] Jay McBain: It’s not a ranking of CDW and insight and resale numbers. It is the surrounding. Consulting, design, architecture, implementations, integrations, managed services, all the pieces that’s gonna make the next 20 years run. So when you start to look at this, 98% of these companies are private, so very difficult to get to those numbers and, uh, a ton of research and help from AI and other things to get this. [00:06:41] Jay McBain: But this is it. And if you look at this list, there’s a thousand logos out of the million companies. There’s a thousand logos that drive two thirds of all tech services in the world. $1.07 trillion gets delivered by a thousand companies, but here’s where it gets fun. Those companies in the middle, in blue, the 30 of them deliver more tech services than the next 970. [00:07:08] Jay McBain: Combined the 970 combined in white deliver more tech services. Then the next million combined. So if you think we live in an 80 20 rule or maybe a 99, a 95 5 rule, or a 99 1 rule, we actually live in a 99.9 0

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/  Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode, Vince Menzione sits down with SHI leaders Joseph Bellian and Stefanie Dunn, alongside Microsoft’s Marcus Jewett, to dissect SHI’s massive evolution from a traditional Large Account Reseller (LAR) to a strategic Global Systems Integrator (GSI). They explore the cultural and operational shifts required to move from a transaction-heavy model to a services-led approach, highlighting their alignment with Microsoft’s MSEM methodology, the implementation of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), and their cutting-edge work with AI Labs and Agentic AI. Key Takeaways SHI has evolved from a transactional powerhouse into a Global Systems Integrator (GSI) focused on services and outcomes. The organization implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to align vision, people, and data across sales and delivery. SHI serves as “Customer Zero” for Microsoft AI, implementing Copilot internally to better guide customers. The partnership mirrors Microsoft’s MSEM methodology to ensure seamless co-selling and customer success lifecycles. SHI’s AI Labs in New Jersey provides a secure environment for clients to build and test custom AI solutions. The shift requires moving from a “Hulk” (strength/sales) mindset to a “Tony Stark” (brainpower/strategy) mindset. Key Tags: SHI International, global systems integrator, Microsoft services, Joseph Bellian, Stefanie Dunn, Marcus Jewett, AI labs, agentic AI, MSEM methodology, entrepreneurial operating system, digital transformation, customer zero, copilot implementation, solution provider, cloud migration, data governance, services led growth. Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Transcript:Transcript: Joseph Bellian – Stefanie Dunn – Marcus Jewett WORKFILE AUDIO [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: We’ve got it. So it is interesting how these sessions kind of follow each other. Hopefully you’re seeing kind of a flow from marketplaces and the conversation about how to be a really great ISV to how an ISV took and built a channel strategy and how they integrated alliances and channels together. [00:00:16] Vince Menzione: Well, we have an, we have another really great example here to talk through. I have this, uh, incredible like background. Like I’m a hundred years old, basically. I don’t even want to tell anybody that. But, uh, I got to work with this organization way back in my days at Microsoft. They are, they were and are one of the top, I’ll call them, they were classically a reseller company. [00:00:40] Vince Menzione: They one of the largest, we call ’em large account resellers back in the day. Uh, their leader built a multi-billion dollar organization. I’m gonna let them talk through who they are today, but we have an opportunity to talk about transformation. From that lens now too, like how does an organization that’s really good at doing one thing evolve, transform and take advantage of these tectonic shifts we’re seeing? [00:01:03] Vince Menzione: So, uh, we’ve got some incredible leaders. I’m gonna have them come up on stage. And everybody introduced themselves from SHI and also from Microsoft. And we’re gonna have a really great conversation today. Great to have you. [00:01:26] Vince Menzione: So I’m gonna let, I’m gonna let you guys introduce yourselves because, uh, everybody knows you as DJ Marco Polo. So we’re gonna, we’ll start with you over in the far end, Marcus. Okay. Vince, I, [00:01:36] Marcus Jewett: I’ll try to be shy. [00:01:37] Vince Menzione: No, [00:01:37] Marcus Jewett: uh, hi everyone, my name is Marcus Jut, I am the Global Partner Development Manager for the SHI partnership. [00:01:43] Marcus Jewett: Uh, I have been overseeing this partnership for just under 12 years. Wow. So I have seen the evolutional journey of this partner and really proud of where they, uh, have matured their business and the partnership with Microsoft. [00:01:57] Stefanie Dunn: Thank you. Oh. [00:01:58] Marcus Jewett: Is there, is yours on? Oh, [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: mines [00:02:00] Stefanie Dunn: on. Hi, I am Stephanie Dunn, a director of Microsoft Services at SHI. [00:02:07] Stefanie Dunn: And it is an, it’s a pleasure to be here. It’s a pleasure to have Marcus as our PDM and, uh, Joe and Vince, uh, very, very happy to be here. Um, and I lead our Microsoft Services sales, uh, area. So across, uh, cloud AI business transformation and, uh. And, uh, data and ai. [00:02:28] Joseph Bellian: Great, great to have you, Stephanie. Thank you. [00:02:30] Joseph Bellian: Joe. Joe Bellion. I’m the VP of Microsoft Alliances and programs. Uh, I’ve been here at SHI for about eight months now, but been in and around the partner ecosystem for about a decade. Uh, I think of my organization of like kind of two aspects. So leading the charge around alliances, aligning our field sellers and specialists with Microsoft, as well as the, the programs backend incentives and operations. [00:02:51] Joseph Bellian: But, um, the real focus is driving the go to market strategy here at SHI. [00:02:55] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So great. So I started to allude to this earlier about like traditional, one of the top three or four companies actually. And we used to use the term, uh, LSP back in the day, or lar, we’ve got several iterations. Microsoft’s gone through several iterations of that name. [00:03:11] Vince Menzione: Marcus knows all of them probably by heart. Tell us what was the impetus to change the organization? Become more like a ser, a services led company as opposed to a transaction led organization? [00:03:21] Joseph Bellian: Yeah, absolutely. Throw one more acronym. SSP. SSP, that was another one. So, uh, solution provider. Um, but, uh, yeah, I, I’d say probably a couple things. [00:03:29] Joseph Bellian: Um, one, the big one, no news to anybody in the room and online as well. The shift with EAs, director of Microsoft, as well as, uh, the whole CSP hero motion. So we do recognize that opportunity, uh, to have services attached, to engage with our clients as well as our joint partnerships with Microsoft, uh, with services out in the field. [00:03:48] Joseph Bellian: Uh, the second one, probably the biggest one is our clients. Hearing out our clients that shift. Um, we’re talking about ai, ai, everything, AI services. Uh, we’re now in the whole era of agentic ai. What does that mean? How do you take advantage of those offerings? And so we recognize that, that our clients are spending millions of dollars with the Microsoft products, but how do you take advantage of that investment and maximize it in their environment? [00:04:13] Joseph Bellian: And so having services to help navigate those complex solutions, that’s where we’re, we’re leaning in. [00:04:18] Vince Menzione: So what did it take to change? Transformation doesn’t come easy. There’s mindset. There’s all these cultural changes that need to happen. From your perspective, both of your perspectives, what did it take internally for this change to happen? [00:04:31] Joseph Bellian: Yeah. Um, so if you, if you heard of the entrepreneurial operating system EOS Yes. And we’ve adopted that internally. Um, if you’re not familiar, it kind of comprises of six components. So vision, people, data, um, process. Issues and, um, uh, traction. So I apologize, that’s, uh, but take, take that model and put it into our business of what we did. [00:04:57] Joseph Bellian: Um, so two kind of twofold. One, moving our entire services practice organization under one, one operating rhythm, um, under Jordan Ello, our CTO. So pre-sales and delivery. So looking at that, the how we go to market with our services, single vision. Uh, single process. So it’s consistent as we’re engaging not only through our partners, but through our clients, but then also on the other side of the house, our Microsoft practice, having all of our resources under one roof so that it’s a single way we go to market. [00:05:28] Joseph Bellian: Aligning our go to market strategy, one-to-one with Microsoft. Why it, it does two things. One, it allows us to be very clear of how we are going to market to our clients, but it allows us to partner even better with our Microsoft counterparts. Yeah, when, when Microsoft, it’s always ever changing. You’re familiar, every six months to a year solution plays and the go-to-market strategy changes, uh, we’re there at the forefront in ensuring that we have our solutions mapped a hundred percent so that we can just co-sell together. [00:05:58] Joseph Bellian: Break down those walls. Let’s do more together. [00:06:00] Vince Menzione: And, uh, geographically you were sep, your teams were separated. You have a big operation in Texas. You also have a big New Jersey operation, which was where the company was founded, in fact. So I’d love to get the perspective on this, Marcus. From your perspective, like what did it do, what was it like before and what did it become? [00:06:17] Marcus Jewett: Oh yeah, let’s go back in the way back machine to 12 years ago. Um, it was a different partner, a different operating model, uh, in those early days. And this is really when we started to move customers from on-premises to more cloud-based subscription technologies. Uh, SHI was always just an incredible selling machine. [00:06:36] Marcus Jewett: If they could not do anything, they could always sell. And for any of you who are familiar with the Marvel movies, um. I, I, I, I use a reference internally with them. SHI

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/  Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Jen Odess, Group Vice President of Partner Excellence at ServiceNow, joins Vince Menzione to discuss the company’s incredible transformation from an IT ticketing solution to a leading AI-native platform for business transformation. Jen dives deep into how ServiceNow has strategically invested in and infused AI into its unified platform over the last decade, enabling over a billion workflows daily. She also outlines the critical role of the partner ecosystem, which executes 87% of all implementations, and reveals the company’s strategic initiatives, including its commitment to the hyperscaler marketplaces, the goal to hit half a billion dollars in annual contract value for its Now Assist AI product, and the push for partners to adopt an ‘AI-native’ methodology to capitalize on the fact that customers still want over 70% of AI buying to be done through partners. Key Takeaways ServiceNow is an ‘AI-native’ company, having invested in and built AI directly into its unified platform for over a decade. The company’s core value today is in its unified AI platform, single data model, and leadership in workflows that connect the entire enterprise. ServiceNow will hit $500 million in annual contract value for its Now Assist AI products by the end of 2025, making it the fastest-growing product in company history. An astonishing 87% of all ServiceNow implementations are done by its global partner ecosystem, highlighting their crucial role. The company is leveraging the half-trillion-dollar opportunity of durable cloud budgets by driving marketplace transactions and helping customers burn down cloud commits using ServiceNow solutions. To win in the AI era, partners must adopt AI internally, co-innovate on the platform, and strategically differentiate themselves to rank higher in the forthcoming agentic matching system. Key Tags: ServiceNow, AI-native platform, Now Assist, Jen Odess, partner excellence, workflow leader, AI platform for business transformation, hyperscalers, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, marketplace transactions, cloud commits, AIDA model, agentic matching, F-Pattern, Z-Pattern, group vice president, MSP, GSI, co-innovation, autonomous implementation, technical constraints, visual hierarchy, UX, UI, responsive design. Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Transcript: Jen Odess Audio Podcast [00:00:00] Jen Odess: The AI platform for business transformation, and I love to say to people, it sounds like a handful of cliche words that just got stacked together. The AI platform for business transformation. Yeah. We all know these words, so many companies use ’em, but it is such deliberate language and I love to explain why. [00:00:20] Vince Menzione: Welcome to, or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi on your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. Today we have a special leader, Jen Odes is the GVP for Partner Excellence at ServiceNow. And joins me here in the studio in Boca Raton. [00:00:40] Vince Menzione: Jen, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Vince. It’s so great to be here. I am so thrilled to welcome you. To Boca Raton, Florida. Our podcast home look at this amazing background we have Here is this, and this is where we host our ultimate partner Winter retreat. Actually, in February, we’re gonna give that a plug. [00:00:58] Vince Menzione: Okay. I’d love to have you come back. I’d love to have an invite. And you flew in this morning from Washington DC [00:01:04] Jen Odess: I did. It was 20 degrees when I left my house this morning and this backdrop. Is definitely giving me, island South Florida like vibes. It’s fabulous. [00:01:13] Vince Menzione: And we’re gonna talk about ServiceNow. [00:01:14] Vince Menzione: And you’re also opening an office down here? We [00:01:17] Jen Odess: are [00:01:17] Vince Menzione: in West Palm Beach. Not too far from where we are. Yes. Later 2026. Yeah. I love that. And then so we’ll work on the recruiting year, but let’s dive in. Okay. So thrilled to have ServiceNow and to have you in the room. This has been an incredible time for your organization. [00:01:31] Vince Menzione: I have been watching, obviously I work with Microsoft. We’ve had Google. In the studio, Amazon onboard as well. And other than those three organizations, I can’t think of any other legacy organization that has embraced AI more succinctly than ServiceNow. And I thought we’d start there, but I really wanna spend some time getting to know you and getting to know your role, your mission, and your journey to this incredible. [00:01:57] Vince Menzione: Leadership role as a global vice president. We’ll talk about Or [00:02:01] Jen Odess: group. Group Vice president. I know it doesn’t roll off the tongue. I get it. A group vice president doesn’t roll. [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: G-V-P-G-V-P doesn’t roll off the time. And in some organizations it is global. It is in other organizations, it’s group. So let’s, you’re not [00:02:12] Jen Odess: the first to say global vice president. [00:02:14] Jen Odess: Okay. I’ll take either way. It’s fine. [00:02:15] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Yeah. And might be a promotion. Let’s talk. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about you and your career journey and your mission. [00:02:22] Jen Odess: Yeah, so I’ve been at ServiceNow for five years. In fact, January will be like the five year anniversary and then it will be the beginning of my sixth year. [00:02:31] Jen Odess: Amazing. And I actually got hired originally to build out the initial partner enablement function. So it didn’t really exist five years ago. There was certainly enablement that happened to Sure. All individuals that were. Using, consuming, buying ServiceNow, working with ServiceNow. But the partner enablement function from pre to post-sale, that whole life cycle didn’t exist yet. [00:02:54] Jen Odess: So that was my initial job. I got hired to run partner enablement and it before. And how big [00:02:59] Vince Menzione: was your partner organization at that point? It must have been pretty small. [00:03:01] Jen Odess: It was actually not as small as you would think. Gosh, that’s a great question. You’re challenging my memory from five years ago. [00:03:08] Jen Odess: I know that we’re over 2,500 partners today and we add hundreds every year, so it had to have been in the low one thousands. Wow. Is where we were five years ago. But the maturity of the ecosystem is grossly larger today than it was then. I can imagine. So back then there was less than 30,000 individuals that were skilled on ServiceNow to sell or solution or deliver. [00:03:34] Jen Odess: Today there’s almost a hundred thousand. Wow. So yeah that’s like the maturity in the capability within the ecosystem. But before I start on my ServiceNow and my group vice president. Which is a great role, by the way. Group Vice President. Yeah. Partner Excellence group. I’m very proud of it. [00:03:49] Jen Odess: But but let me tell you what brought me here, please. So I actually came from a partner, but not in the ServiceNow ecosystem. Okay. I won’t name the partner, but let’s just say it’s a competitor, a competitive ecosystem. And I worked for a services shop that today I would refer to as multinational. [00:04:11] Jen Odess: Kind of a boutique darling, but with over 1,500 consultants, so Okay. A behemoth as well? Yeah. Privately held. And we were a force to be reckoned with, and it was really fun. I held so many roles. I was a customer success manager. I led the data science practice at one point. I ran global alliances and partnerships. [00:04:35] Jen Odess: At one point I was the chief of staff to the CEO at the time that company was acquired. Big global si. And and then at one point I even spun off for the big global SI and helped run a culture initiative to transform co corporate culture. Wow. Very inside the whole organization. Wow. That is very, yeah. [00:04:54] Jen Odess: Really interesting set of roles. And the whole reason I came to ServiceNow is by the time I was concluding that journey in that ecosystem on the services side, I felt like. I didn’t fully understand what it meant to be on the software product side. And I often felt like I approached friction or moments of frustration and heartache with resentment for the software company. [00:05:20] Jen Odess: Sure. Or maybe just a lack of empathy for what they must be going through as well. It always felt like I was on the kind of [00:05:26] Vince Menzione: negative you were on the other side of the table. Totally. [00:05:27] Jen Odess: Yeah. And, or maybe like the redheaded stepchild kind of a concept as a partner. And so I sought out to. Learn more, which is probably a big piece of my journey is just constant curiosity. [00:05:38] Jen Odess: Nice. And I thought I think the thing I’m missing is seeing what it means firsthand to be on the software product side. And that was what led me to a career at ServiceNow. Five years strong. Yeah. So [00:05:50] Vince Menzione: talk about partner experience for those who don’t know what that means. [00:05:53] Jen Odess: Yeah. Today my role is partner excellence, but it used to be partner experience. [00:05:58] Jen Odess: Okay. And so the don’t. Yeah, that’s normal to say both things. And they actually mean two very different things. [00:06:04] Vince Menzione: Yeah, I would say so. [00:06:05] Jen Odess: And we delibera

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/  Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this insightful session, Vince Menzione is joined by Erika Irby of Veeam and Pat Primavera of Microsoft to discuss the evolution of their strategic partnership. They unpack Veeam’s transition from a “drinking company with a software problem” to a $2 billion enterprise aiming for $5 billion, revealing the tactical shifts in engineering alignment, sales play development, and co-sell activation that led to their landmark five-year agreement. Pat shares his framework for precision execution within the Microsoft ecosystem, while Erika details how Veeam leveraged “customer zero” strategies and internal alignment to drive success. Key Takeaways Engineering alignment is the critical first pillar before attempting to execute go-to-market strategies. Successful co-selling requires specific packaged plays tailored to distinct seller roles like security specialists or ATSs. Alliance leaders and cloud sales leaders must be in the same room to create joint plans rather than doing internal selling later. Veeam’s commitment to Azure and aligning with Microsoft seller compensation was vital for their five-year agreement. Partners should act as “Customer Zero” by using tools like the Data Resilience Maturity Model on themselves first to prove value. The next major growth opportunity lies in Partner-to-Partner (P2P) collaboration to bundle solutions for the marketplace. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: Veeam, Microsoft partnership, co-sell activation, ISV strategy, engineering alignment, precision execution, Veeam Data Cloud, Data Resilience Maturity Model, Azure commitment, partner-to-partner, P2P collaboration, channel marketing, sales plays, crossing the chasm, cyber resilience, agentic AI, customer zero, marketplace growth, alliance strategy, ecosystem transformation. Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Transcript: [00:00:00] Erika Irby: Kinda what you were talking about earlier about the, the idea of the channel is non-existent anymore, right? Like we’re, we’re all in this kind of universe of different entities and we all, you know, work together and orbit each other and compliment even, you know, frenemies. I mean, we look at them like, how can we learn? [00:00:15] Erika Irby: How can we grow? You know, how can we be better? [00:00:19] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner, live at Carahsoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. [00:00:35] Vince Menzione: Over two days, we gather top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. We have another incredible group of another organization here, and this is a really great conversation point too. Maybe I kind of alluded to it. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: Um, you know, those who know me, when I started the podcast, I was actually doing individual consulting work, uh, before we got to do these events and really started to get front and center with the community in a big way. Uh, and Veeam was actually a client of mine back for several years. Um, so this is gonna be a really interesting conversation. [00:01:17] Vince Menzione: Uh, so we have two incredible leaders gonna be joining me up on stage here. Uh, Eric, I guess I’m gonna introduce ’em, right. So, Erica Irby, who recently rejoined Veeam, who’s been on stage before at other ultimate partner events and is a sponsor for us, and Eric Irby, who leads the channel marketing organization. [00:01:38] Vince Menzione: So taking Veeam, which is a large ISV, and making ’em front and center with the channel and the reseller community. And Pat Primavera, who I worked with at Microsoft, in fact, way back in the day, and his wife as well, who is now a leader in the ISV organization. We’re gonna have ’em go in the specifics of their roles, but having them join me on stage today. [00:01:57] Vince Menzione: So welcome you both on stage. Come on up and join me. I feel like come on down. Come on now. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Thank you. So good to see you, pat. So great to have you here. It’s really great. So, um, yeah, so we are interesting. Great conversation by the way today. Uh, and it kind of flow, it’s kind of flowing into each other, right? ’cause we, we just had a couple of marketplace leaders up on stage talking about marketplace. [00:02:27] Vince Menzione: And at one point people thought that it was ISVs directly selling to customers, right? And there’s this whole other world out there. Uh, when I was working with Veeam, um, there were some, uh. Pratfalls, I guess probably looking for the right word here. Uh, but things have really changed in the last several years. [00:02:46] Vince Menzione: So first of all, Erica, maybe an introduction first to you and your new role. You were at Microsoft before this, but you were at being before that. So you boomerang back and then a leadership role. So take us through your, your role and your organization. [00:03:00] Erika Irby: Yeah. Uh, we call it, uh, Veeam Ringing, er, everything at Veeam. [00:03:05] Erika Irby: Uh, you have to have put Veeam in front of it, but, um, I started back at Veeam in 2014 and you had brought up earlier about, um, you know, when cloud. Was the new thing. And I remember very distinctly, um, attempting to get people to trust that they could put their backup in this nebulous thing called the cloud. [00:03:25] Erika Irby: And, you know, it was pretty wild back then. Yeah. Um, but I, I had several roles and then I ended up, um, moving to Microsoft and my ex-boss is right over there. Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, and then Veeam had an opportunity for me to come back and, and run their America’s channel marketing, and I said, sure. And I have been on board now for th my second three months, and, um, I’m loving it. [00:03:50] Vince Menzione: Very, very cool. Great to have you back again. And Veeam is, and Mark e sponsored the event as well. So really appreciate your support ultimate. Sir, uh, new role for you too, or fairly new. You’ve been around Microsoft. I’ll let you go through your history and [00:04:06] Pat Primavera: background. Sure, [00:04:06] Vince Menzione: sure. [00:04:07] Pat Primavera: Uh, what Vince didn’t share when he introduced me is he actually enjoys working with my wife better than working with me. [00:04:13] Pat Primavera: She, Kelly was an amazing, that’s leader. She was really great to work with. She’s doing great. She’s doing great. Uh, yeah, so Pat Primavera, uh, I’ve been with the company 16 years recently, came back to the ecosystem after doing some other things within Microsoft. I like to joke that I’ve completed my ecosystem Bingo card, where I’ve run distribution. [00:04:32] Pat Primavera: I’ve run the reseller channel. I’ve run OEM. I ran our hardware business, hardware business for a while too. I got to ISB and, and my bingo card is complete. Nice, nice. Uh, but listen, it’s, it’s, I’m super excited. This is right in the growth and heartbeat of the company. Uh, it’s where transformation’s happening with great partners like Veeam. [00:04:51] Pat Primavera: And so I, I wouldn’t want to be in any other place at Microsoft. And so there’s just a ton of opportunity for everybody in this room. Yeah. [00:04:57] Vince Menzione: And you work with some amazing friends of ultimate partner as well? Uh, yeah. Your leader is, was a podcast guest and was up on stage at one of our events. One of our first, yeah. [00:05:05] Vince Menzione: We, we [00:05:05] Pat Primavera: worked with some of the most strategic ISVs in the ecosystem and so, um, you know, I have a, a portfolio of a lot of the, the partners that are driving the application and infrastructure modernization out there happening. And so it’s, it’s just, it’s a great time to, to be in the ecosystem together. [00:05:21] Vince Menzione: So for those, I, I, you know, we, leaving out the audience, we’re, we’re gonna have a great conversation up here on stage, but I do wanna ask people like, how many of you actively working with Veeam or No, Veeam. [00:05:32] Vince Menzione: Uh, so show of hands. So a lot of, a lot of organizations here. That’s really terrific. And then also working with Microsoft. I’m just gonna take the, like a lot of hands there, I’m just assuming. Right. So that’s, I I just thought I also like Gipping and we we’re all gonna dance a little bit later too, so I hope everybody’s up for that. [00:05:47] Vince Menzione: So, uh, so great to have you both. I have a personal, like sit, you know, I worked with Veeam way back at, at a point when I was. Again, doing some consulting work and uh, it was an interesting time for Veeam. Veeam had been a top partner, Microsoft, um, and kind of fallen out of favor, I guess is probably the right term to use. [00:06:10] Vince Menzione: A few years. It was a, that was a way back period of time, but then had a lot of learnings from that experience. And I thought today we would share some of those learnings. And one of the things I, I remember

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/  Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this critical discussion, Mike Levy from AWS and Jon Yoo from Sugar sit down with Vince Menzione to explore the seismic shifts occurring within the AWS Marketplace, focusing heavily on the recent launch of AI Agents and Tools. Mike Levy details AWS’s comprehensive strategy to provide not just off-the-shelf agents, but the foundational ‘ingredients’—like security, guardrails, and knowledge bases—via the marketplace to help enterprises become “agentic.” Jon Yoo provides the partner perspective, highlighting the immense but often misunderstood role of channel partners in marketplace revenue, and provocatively challenges the current state of AI ‘features,’ emphasizing that the future requires agents to truly understand a business’s tribal knowledge and processes, not just rules-based workflows. The conversation culminates with the two sharing best practices, including the AWS COSS (Characteristics of Successful Sellers) framework, to help ISVs and partners accelerate their growth and effectively monetize in this new, AI-driven cloud economy. Key Takeaways The AWS Marketplace is now offering a comprehensive suite of AI agents and tools, including agent development platforms and essential security ingredients. AWS is working across the AI stack, from underlying hardware like Inferentia chips to foundational services like Bedrock for accessing LLMs. The Marketplace organization at AWS is strategically integrated within the Partner Organization to build go-to-market channels and procurement systems. The growth of the private offer business and the inclusion of Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPOs) is fundamental to the Marketplace’s future strategy. Successful sellers on AWS Marketplace are guided by the COSS (Characteristics of Successful Sellers) framework, which has been shown to accelerate growth by 31 times. Partners new to the Marketplace should “start narrow” by proving their motion manually before investing in automation, focusing on a clear, simple value proposition. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AWSMarketplace, AIagents, Bedrock, ISVstrategy, ChannelPartner, COSSframework, CloudMonetization, Sugarplatform, AmazonQ, AgentCore, PrivateOffers, LLMs, GenerativeAI, GoToMarket, CloudEcosystem Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Transcript [00:00:00] Michael Levy: Uh, if we just double click on, you know, what it, what is an AI agent? ’cause it’s probably important, then we kind of have a shared understanding of what that is. Um, there’s a number of, uh, call it ingredients to the recipe of an AI agent. [00:00:15] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you. [00:00:22] Vince Menzione: Achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. [00:00:43] Vince Menzione: Let’s dive in. So I am thrilled to welcome. So the first time as a sponsor of Ultimate Partner, and also to be up on stage with me, an organization that I also had a, you know, I was at Microsoft, you have to realize the lineage of how these organizations all work together. Uh, this little company that was a, they were like a bookseller company, a little company. [00:01:10] Vince Menzione: And then they, uh, decided that they were gonna, they had all this computing horsepower and never, but wasn’t being used consistently. And what if we just like, share, you know, sell some, swipe a credit card and we’ll share some timeshare on it. Uh, this little company called AWS incredible and so I’m really privileged to have AWS join us as a sponsor this year. [00:01:32] Vince Menzione: Um, and just I think it gives the world a much more well-rounded view of what we’re seeing in our world of ecosystems as well. And I would love to invite to join me up on stage. Mike Levy from AWS Mike is nearby somewhere. Here he comes. Uh, so, so great to have you, Mike. Join us. Thank you so much for joining us. [00:01:54] Vince Menzione: Absolutely. Um, and then also we’re gonna have, we’re gonna have some really good conversation today. So I want to, you have the distinction of being the very first AWS guest and an ultimate partner event. Hopefully not the last It’s an honor. [00:02:05] Michael Levy: Yeah. First, uh, first of many, hopefully. [00:02:07] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Well, great to have you. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Uh, we got to meet recently and we’re, and, and we’re also gonna be joined by a partner, uh, in a little bit here. So, uh, John Yo is a good friend of ours and he is also gonna be up on, on with this as well. But I thought we’d spend a few minutes because you are up on stage this summer, in fact, and really carrying the message. [00:02:26] Vince Menzione: We be, we talk about marketplaces and it’s incredible world, world of mar marketplaces and AWS really led the, the fold on this, right? Because coming from the pedigree of retail and all the automation that AWS had. You were the first to market with marketplace, and you’ve also been an incredible innovator. [00:02:43] Vince Menzione: So I thought we spent a little time, I wanna give you a little time to talk about that, if you don’t mind. [00:02:47] Jon Yoo: Absolutely. [00:02:47] Vince Menzione: And I can stay up here with you or give you a couple minutes alone if you like. Yeah, we can have a seat. That’s fine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let’s, [00:02:52] Michael Levy: let’s [00:02:52] Vince Menzione: sit down and talk. [00:02:53] Michael Levy: Happy to. Um, so yeah, so for those who don’t know me, Mike Levy from the AWS Marketplace Team, um, and as Vince was referring to this summer, we launched, uh, an extension of AWS marketplace. [00:03:04] Michael Levy: Which is AI agents and tools in marketplace. So first I wanna say thank you to, to Vince for having us as a sponsor, uh, and to the incredible community that you built here. It’s, thank you. It’s really super impressive. Thank you. And we’re very glad to be a part of it now. Um, and second, I want to thank all the partners in the room, a number of which were part of that launch of AI agents and tools in marketplace. [00:03:24] Michael Levy: And I think the big thing for us and importantly for our mutual customers is really launching a comprehensive strategy when we say AI agents and tools. We really mean AI agents and tools, because I think we all know in this market, many of our enterprise customers or even startup customers, you’re not just buying an a w you know, you’re not buying an AI agent off the shelf and just setting it free in your production environment. [00:03:47] Michael Levy: Um, and so it’s really the, the tools aspect that’s an important part of the launch for us, um, and really a comprehensive offering. Of kind of, regardless of where a company is on their Ag agent AI journey, the idea is that there’s something for them in marketplace that they can procure and use in, in their own business. [00:04:04] Vince Menzione: So tell us more about that. Take, take us down another level or, or step within that conversation. Yeah, so we’ll [00:04:09] Michael Levy: double click. So the, the launch was big and we’ve seen a lot of momentum since then. Uh, but we had over 900 listings in marketplace. Uh, and that really runs the gamut. So there are off the shelf AI agents that you can take. [00:04:22] Michael Levy: Procure, uh, and deploy through marketplace and through AWS. And there’s, uh, things in between, like agent development platforms, think Salesforce agent force, uh, LR writer, some of these newer companies that are really focusing on this space and how to help enterprises really transform and become agentic, um, or develop their own ai. [00:04:42] Michael Levy: And tons of services partners as well. So obviously tying it all together, really honing, you know, what is the agent strategy for your enterprise is really part and parcel with what a lot, a lot of our services partners are helping customers with. And so the listings that we have in marketplace, uh, and the solutions that we have and the partners that we’ve worked, been working with really kind of run the gamut. [00:05:03] Michael Levy: Um, and then tools. When I say tools, uh, if we just double click on, you know, what it, what is an AI agent? ’cause it’s probably important, then we kind of have a. Shared understanding of what that is. Um, there’s a number of, uh, call it ingredients to the recipe of an AI agent. Things like memory, things like security, things like observability, um, guardrails is a part of it. [00:05:25] Michael Levy: Um, MCP servers, if we’re, if we’re familiar with MCP. Uh, we can double click on that. That’s really just, it’s a common protocol of, uh, basically calling various tools. So an agent is nothing, uh, if it doesn’t have the right data sources, like a knowledge base, if it doesn’t have the right tools, the right capabilities to call and actually implement a, a plan. [00:05:48] Michael Levy: An

AI is changing everything: Are you ready?  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. As we kick off Thanksgiving in the United States this week, I’m incredibly grateful for this exclusive interview with Craig Abod, President of Carahsoft, which reveals the mindset and unique market strategy that fueled the company’s astronomical growth, hitting over $22 billion in bookings. Craig discusses the crucial role of the channel in serving the government and public sectors, how Carahsoft built its foundation by partnering with emerging technology companies like Salesforce and Splunk before they were giants, and how they balance massive $30 million deals with tiny $30 orders. He also shares his vision for the next chapter, including expansion into a $10 billion hardware business and a focus on accelerating partner implementation services, alongside his perspective on the inevitable, fast-approaching ‘aha moment’ for AI transformation across all industries. Craig shared this journey as we kicked of Ultimate Partner LIVE. This was the second LIVE event we hosted this year and the fourth Ultimate Partner Event of 2025, including Winter Retreat, UP Live Spring, and our Executive Breakfast at Microsoft Ignite. Through our events and community, you have access to exclusive content, workshops, and strategies that help you achieve more and stay ahead of what’s next. The buzz around our community is simply astounding. We are building something I couldn’t even dream of when we started a simple podcast almost 9 years ago out of my spare bedroom. If you haven’t already, please consider joining our Ultimate Partner Community, where the most compelling leaders in the technology partnership world come to experience, share, learn, and grow. Thanks for being on this journey with us. — Vince Key Takeaways Carahsoft has grown by roughly $3 billion annually for the last three years, reaching over $22 billion in bookings. The company’s strategy involves centralizing vendor ecosystems to help partners and government customers find, acquire, and deploy technology successfully. Carahsoft established early success by partnering with emerging tech companies like Salesforce and VMware before they became major franchises. A key element of their philosophy is operational excellence, taking the same care of the smallest customers as the biggest ones. The company is focused on expanding into a $10 billion hardware market and growing its services/MSP capability, which currently processes $1.5 billion in implementation services. Craig Abod believes AI will lead to an “aha moment” in the next few years where the value of self-driving cars and automated systems will become undeniable. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Carahsoft, Craig Abod, public sector, government IT, channel ecosystem, technology distribution, VMware franchise, Salesforce, Splunk, emerging tech, hyper-growth, AI adoption, self-driving cars, Max CPV, MSP, implementation services, deal registration, long tail work, verticalization, enterprise healthcare, education market, Google Ads, Ultimate Partnering, Menzione. https://youtu.be/5uhSY9BydrM Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Transcript [00:00:00] Craig Abod: We’re all gonna wake up and go, yeah, why are we driving our own cars? Why isn’t, you know, why isn’t there a self-driving car in every city, in every, in every parking lot? And we’re gonna have a, an aha moment in, um, 24 months, or 36 months, or 48 months, where we’re all like, why, why do I own this car that, that I have to drive, I have to drive myself. [00:00:18] Craig Abod: And you can apply that to, um, payroll systems and collection systems and bidding systems. There’s an odd moment where, Hey, do I deploy some of this AI today or do I wait just two months and see what’s out there? [00:00:35] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner, live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gather top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. I, I am, uh, incredibly privileged. Uh, in many respects I feel like. Like, I had to keep benching myself for just life in general and just, uh, the amazing opportunities that just happenstance come our way in, in so many forms and functions. [00:01:20] Vince Menzione: I, I’m, I wanna save the time with Craig when he comes up here, but, ’cause I, I don’t want to steal the thunder of the conversation, but what an incredible organization he’s built. I want to, I wanna just wanna say thank you. I said this a little bit earlier. The team of people that have just surrounded my team and supported us doing our event here has been incredible. [00:01:39] Vince Menzione: Like they don’t need to do this. They don’t need to make their facilities available to organizations like ours. They make them available to some of their top partners, some of which are in the room here today, are gonna be up on stage over the next two days. And, um, I talk about mindset and I will say without, I haven’t even talked to ’em about this, but I think that mindset really drives how organizations thrive. [00:02:02] Vince Menzione: And so hopefully you’ll see this demonstrated like all these principles that I talked about briefly. You’ll see this print, this, uh, demonstrated in different ways over the next couple of days just by some of the conversations that we’ll have in the room. So, uh, without further. I do, uh, Craig Abbo, I’d love to invite you to the stage here. [00:02:21] Vince Menzione: Uh, thank you sir. Thank you for having us. So Craig, just, uh, ’cause I mean there might be people in the room who don’t know you, but I know there are some people in the room that do maybe just a little bit your title and role at, at Caresoft And is it on [00:02:39] Craig Abod: guys? Thanks everybody for coming out. Um, uh. Vince mentioned the building. [00:02:46] Craig Abod: Um, uh, four years ago, uh, we said, Hey, we ought to, um, use this building for more than just, um, what it was being used for. And we started offering it to our vendors, uh, and reseller partners, uh, for big events and little events. And, um, so far this year we’ve had 40,000. Um, visitors in the building. Wow. For events like this, there’s a Coast Guard event going on downstairs. [00:03:15] Craig Abod: Um, two Saturdays ago we had a charity event. Uh, uh, in the building. Um, and it’s been, it’s been, it’s been really a good, um, privilege to be able to, to do this. We’re a little bit uniquely positioned to, um, uh, to loan the, to loan the space out to people. And, um, it’s been, it’s been fun. So, uh, where did we, where did we come from? [00:03:36] Craig Abod: Uh, we’re, we’re 21 years, uh, in business. Um, we should end this year. A little over 22, uh, billion dollars in, in bookings. Um, we’ve grown, uh, about $3 billion a year for the last three. The last three years. Um, we’re up, we’re up more this year than we were last year. Uh, a little bit. Uh, somebody said, in spite of all the turmoil that’s going on in the, in the public sector market, and maybe it’s a little bit because of all the turmoil, um, we’ve sort of centralized a lot of stuff and a lot of the vendor ecosystem, um, supports us. [00:04:15] Craig Abod: So 20 years ago, 21 years ago, we had a unique opportunity to start a business and, um, have developed it into, it’s funny, we run. We’re gonna switch to mic four. Okay. That’s good. That’s good. Um, and we’ve de developed it into a business that, um, helps our vendors and the, the channel routes to market ecosystem. [00:04:43] Craig Abod: Um, and our government customers, um, find. Technology, acquire technology and then successfully, um, deploy technology. And if you take those three things 20 years ago, what we found was there was a lot of activity from the manufacturers, um, helping TriNet find government customers that need needed their product. [00:05:10] Craig Abod: And there was a lot of work by the reseller community at the procurement office door. Um. Just trying to close a deal. But those two were really, really disconnected and, and we got in the market, um, with a sales and marketing kind of, uh, mindset into the market and found, yeah, if you do a lot of selling and marketing at the front end, you might not get the order at the back end. [00:05:33] Craig Abod: Yeah. And helped the vendor community sort of figure out that, um, deal reg was important and demand creation was important, but you gotta reward the right, um, the, the right partners. Um, and five or six or seven years ago. Um, an interesting phenomenon where a lot of partners were still in a direct mindset. [00:05:54] Craig Abod: Um, we started taking on a lot of small companies and a lot of emerging tech companies, and what we found was the VCs were telling them, Hey, if you don’t start to build out a channel today, you’re gonna be a, a really, really tough business. Um, a year or two from now whe

AI is changing everything: Are you ready?  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. What a thrilling week hosting partner leaders at Ultimate Partner LIVE in Reston, VA at the Carahsoft Training Center. Even if you couldn’t be with us in person at the groundbreaking event, you can listen to the most profound sessions. In this exclusive interview, Erwin Visser, a key leader at Microsoft, discusses the company’s major organizational restructuring into Enterprise and SMEC (Small, Medium, and Corporate) divisions, and their massive, channel-led $600 billion bet on partner-led growth, with a core focus on AI and security. Visser outlines the “Frontier Firm” mindset—a commitment to being AI-first across customer experience, employee productivity (with Copilot saving users an estimated 34% of their time on boring tasks), business processes, and product innovation. He details Microsoft’s enormous investment in partner enablement, a new dedicated partner sales organization, and the urgent challenges of data compliance and software sprawl in the new age of AI agents. He concludes by sharing the three non-negotiable traits of a great partner, providing crucial guidance for anyone looking to navigate the tectonic shifts of the current business world. Through our events and community, you have access to exclusive content, workshops, and strategies that help you achieve more and stay ahead of what’s next. If you haven’t already, please consider joining our Ultimate Partner Community, where the most compelling leaders in the technology partnership. Thanks for being on this journey with us. Key Takeaways The three non-negotiable traits of a great partner are integrity in business, leveraging Microsoft’s investments, and possessing proven technical/sales ability to deliver solutions for customers.. Microsoft has restructured into two core divisions: Enterprise and SMEC (Small, Medium, and Corporate), with SMEC representing an estimated $600 billion market opportunity. The company has made its largest ever investment in partner training, financial incentives, and programs for the SMEC segment, viewing it as a major channel-led bet. A “Frontier Firm” must adopt an AI-first mindset, focusing on transforming customer experience, employee experience, business processes, and innovation. Early adoption of Copilot for employee experience is the fastest win, with one belief suggesting it saves employees 34% of their time on boring tasks. Microsoft has created a new Partner Sales Organization and an “outbound share” metric to ensure its sellers actively share opportunities and co-sell with partners in the SMEC space. https://youtu.be/xmUFSbk_IyQ I Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Key Tags: Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Transcript:: Transcript [00:00:00] Erwin Visser: I, I believe that when, uh, people start adopting copilot, they save 34% of their time. Yeah. Have, uh, and it’s, it’s the, and it’s the 34% that you don’t wanna do often. [00:00:15] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. [00:00:25] Vince Menzione: We just came off Ultimate partner live at Carahsoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. Uh, I also wanna, I wanna invite another friend up on stage here. [00:00:49] Vince Menzione: Uh, he’s been at many of our events. He’s been incredibly supportive of our ultimate partner. And, uh, as many of you know, uh, Microsoft has been a sponsor, has been, uh, may have been the title sponsor for this event and for many of our other events, uh, over the last few years. Uh, incredible support from that organization as well and what we do. [00:01:09] Vince Menzione: And, uh, when I picked up the phone and I said, Irwin, I know you got a really busy calendar this fall, but we really need to hear from you. And one of the things I love about doing these is that we’re gonna have a very intimate conversation. Around what’s going on at Microsoft. And I hear this, by the way, I hear this from a lot of you, like, eh, we’re figuring out our strategy. [00:01:29] Vince Menzione: We got it with company B, but we don’t have it with company A or A and B. And so, uh, we’re gonna have a really great conversation today about Microsoft, about the tectonic shifts that have been impacting. The, the world and how Microsoft sees the world. So with further ado, Erwin Ser, my incredible friend, also from Florida, by the way, [00:01:53] Erwin Visser: first of all, Vince, uh, uh, it’s great to have you, uh, on stage after you. [00:01:58] Erwin Visser: Thank you, uh, after your recovery, I think, uh, thank you. A lot of people were shocked seeing what happened to you, and it’s awesome to be here. And the pictures of your daughter. Uh, sweating. So, um, no, very happy that, uh, we have, uh, this event with, uh, with all our friends here. And, uh, thank you. I’ve had a [00:02:15] Vince Menzione: lot of reasons to continue going on. [00:02:17] Vince Menzione: Yes. Uh, including, uh, I’ll just share this for a second. ’cause I, I haven’t shared this on stage with many people, but um, as they were driving me in the ambulance, I yelled out to the guy, I, I don’t remember very much, but I remember yelling out, said, I’ll be okay, honey. I’ll be all right. And then when they got me to the hospital, my wife called my daughter who was getting married in eight weeks from that day. [00:02:37] Vince Menzione: And I, I’m yelling out in the background, Hey honey, I’m gonna be able to walk you down the aisle now, meanwhile, my foot was, was, was broken in two places and I was in a cast and I went from a wheelchair to Walker to crutches. Uh, but I got, I was able to get up and I was able to get through physical therapy and, and do that within a fairly short period of time. [00:02:58] Vince Menzione: So, yeah. Yeah. Amazing grit. [00:02:59] Erwin Visser: Thank [00:02:59] Vince Menzione: you. Amazing grit. Thank you. Thank you. And, uh, you’ve had some things as well, so we, we share ailments kind of getting all Yeah. Yeah. This is [00:03:07] Erwin Visser: probably the real reason we we’re doing this shit thing. Correct. You’ve had multiple hip [00:03:10] Vince Menzione: replacements as well. Exactly. And now he’s climbing mountains again. [00:03:13] Vince Menzione: It’s crazy. Oh, yeah. I, uh, I wanna stay [00:03:16] Erwin Visser: busy as long as I can. Yes. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: And for those who don’t know, uh, Irwin is. Has one of the distinctions that very few people in our world have been. You climbed a very important mountain at one point, not a couple years ago. Yeah. Maybe just share that for a second. We started, [00:03:31] Erwin Visser: yeah, I was, uh, yeah, I was able to, uh, climb Everest, uh, two, uh, two years ago. [00:03:34] Erwin Visser: Yeah. Uh, some of it, yeah. It’s, uh, incredible. It’s, uh, uh. It’s hard always to describe Everest because it’s, it’s almost every superlative you can use. It’s like amazing. It’s traumatic. Uh, it’s hard. Uh, the hardest thing I ever did. And so any, any excess, it’s kind of what, uh, what Everest was. Well, you talk about it like it’s these Oh yeah. [00:03:56] Erwin Visser: I was over, over at Everest. [00:03:57] Vince Menzione: Last week. [00:03:59] Erwin Visser: Yeah. No, this, uh, it takes some preparation and, uh, yeah. You, you do learn, uh, to know your own boundaries and your thresholds when you do something like that. Yeah. And, and, uh, yeah. I know we, we have so many topics to, uh, to go through, but one of the reasons for me. To try to climb Everest. [00:04:18] Erwin Visser: Was, was also kind of curiosity, you know, it’s the, had the, I was always intrigued by seeing the, as a, as a young kid by seeing the movies, read the books. And as I always ask myself the question like, would I be able to do something like that? You know? And so the curiosity of finding out where your, where your own like, uh, boundaries are, uh, yeah. [00:04:40] Vince Menzione: And I don’t wanna go down a path here ’cause we have a lot to talk about today. Yes. But I just will ask you one question. Do you think going through the, that whole process, did that, has that prepared you for the business world? ’cause it’s changing rapidly. Today we talk about tectonic shifts. Uh, there’s even changes within your organization. [00:04:57] Vince Menzione: Do you think having like that fortitude and that strength that you develop around that helps you? [00:05:03] Erwin Visser: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think so. It’s, um, like, it’s, it’s hard sometimes to describe, but it’s, I, I think professionally I. But also in my personal life, you, you learn really not to sweat the little things anymore. [00:05:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:05:17] Erwin Visser: Super. And you, you kind of cave up like a lot of things that maybe would be frustrated in the past or irritated. I, I became much more patient, but also like an an a no ca like attitude, like really focused on. Things that are important. Yeah. And be able to really put aside the, the minded details. I [00:05:35] Vince Menzione: love that. [00:05:36] Vinc

Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape!  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. In this episode, Vince Menzione and Reis Barrie, CEO of Carve Partners, dive deep into the 12 most common pitfalls that can derail a successful Microsoft partnership. They discuss the misconception that Microsoft will simply send leads, the critical need for a dedicated partnership owner, and why a misalignment in sales compensation can be a recipe for disaster. The conversation also covers the importance of speaking Microsoft’s language, the proper way to leverage certifications and incentives, and the necessity of having a one-page plan. This is a must-listen for any organization looking to maximize its partnership with Microsoft by avoiding the mistakes that lead to stagnant growth and missed opportunities. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. https://youtu.be/p0mkz5C0JvU?si=RASwYNmZxHT0L_OH Key Takeaways: Microsoft acts as an amplifier for your efforts; you must be proactive and put in the work to see results. A Microsoft partnership requires a dedicated, full-time owner or team to manage its complexity. Misaligned sales compensation models can doom a partnership before it even begins by creating internal conflict. Partners must translate their value proposition into Microsoft’s language, focusing on shared priorities and seller incentives. Certifications and badges are a start, but their true value lies in leveraging the benefits and programs they unlock. A one-page plan is a critical tool for aligning internal teams and providing a simple, consumable reference for Microsoft sellers. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Join Us In Reston, Virginia, October 27-29th. As we enter the last four months of the calendar year, you are probably asking yourself, “What events should I attend this fall and why?” Many Partners and Leaders are trying to determine if the big events make the most sense and what they will learn. Many of these events are big and unyieldy, and while you may bump into some friends, you need to really ask yourself if they will help you achieve your greatest results – as a leader, as an organization, or as a partner. Our attendees tell us they get more accomplished in two full days than in most of the year at our events – they learn from Hyperscaler Leaders, Top Award Winning Partners, and the Masters. Learn from the best, meet the best, grow your business faster and further. Why Ultimate Partner is Unique An Ultimate Partner LIVE is like YOUR Masterclass. We begin with a view of “Where We Are Today” as the tectonic shifts are happening faster than ever before. Our first day sessions explore the advances in AI, Hyperscaler Growth, Marketplaces, Co-Selling, Ecosystem Led Growth, and more. These sessions are led from the leaders driving the discussions at Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, AvePoint Veeam Software, Carahsoft, Elastic and more. Bringing it All Together On Day Two, an Industry Analyst will bring it all together as our industry experts help you plot the future course – applying the learnings to maximize results. And, you’ll learn more from the Partner Technology firms, Partner Consultants, and others helping partners like you achieve more and walk away with over a million dollars worth of insights, learnings, and practical advice to apply to your business. In fact, we will have over 10 unique workshops at the fall event alone. The Executive Experience You will be in the room with other executives like you, or partner leaders looking to get to that level. Join us for a unique welcome reception and – if you’re fortunate – you’ll be joining our Executive Dinner. This event will feel more intimate than past Ultimate Partner LIVE settings. You’ll love the experience. Book your tickets today and get ready to join this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I look forward to hosting YOU this fall! Click HERE while time still lasts. Key Tags: Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Transcript:: REIS BARRIE AUDIO PODCAST [00:00:00] Reis Barrie: I’ve seen this really interesting trend, frankly, of lately, of people not only just not, not only going net neutral, but going. Uh, incentivizing it. Yeah. And so, absolutely. I think, you know, we’ve all been surrounded by a lot of these stats and, and facts about what partnerships drive, whether it’s, uh, access to more budget, access to more customers, uh, faster sales cycles, bigger deal sizes, all of these things. [00:00:23] Reis Barrie: Like, you hear these, you hear these outputs, and you start to think like, well, why wouldn’t I incentivize something that gives me that? [00:00:32] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, your host, and I’m thrilled to welcome a great friend and an expert in the world of partnering to this podcast. Reese Barry is the CEO of Carve Partners. He’s been on stage here in in Boca Raton at our events, and he’s gonna be joining us soon at the next Ultimate Partner Alive Reese. [00:00:55] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the podcast. [00:00:56] Reis Barrie: Yeah, it’s always great to be here. It’s so good to have you back. Super excited to, to, frankly, you mentioned the event. I’m, I’m stoked to be there. Uh, I can’t wait. [00:01:03] Vince Menzione: Yeah, so, and you’ve been supporting us since day one? Yeah. In fact, from the very, I think this is number seven. On the events that we’re doing now. [00:01:10] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So incredible time. Yeah. Great to have you back. Yeah, great to have you back here in the studio. You’ve been here a few times. This is not, you’re a familiar face here to our, i, i viewers, listeners. [00:01:19] Reis Barrie: I am. Yeah. It’s great to be here, frankly. Yeah. It’s, it’s, yeah. Awesome studio. I always, I always love coming down here. [00:01:25] Reis Barrie: It’s, uh. Pretty quick drive for me too, so, well, [00:01:27] Vince Menzione: we’re gonna have some more going on. We’ll talk about that at the end. We’ve got some more things coming up in January here in the studio. We’re gonna share with you all soon. But today we’ve got a really incredible topic. You’ve been doing quite a bit of posting lately, by the way, on your own. [00:01:41] Vince Menzione: I [00:01:41] Reis Barrie: have been, yeah. Some really great content. I made some commitments to myself and so we’re, uh, we’re, we’re full steam ahead. I love it. Uh, sharing as many insights as we can, getting as much knowledge of the ecosystem as we can. Yeah. So it’s, uh, yeah, I’m super excited [00:01:53] Vince Menzione: and you’ve got a tremendous amount of insight. [00:01:55] Vince Menzione: You work with some of the top bias vs some of the top SDCs, as we call them now, software development corporations. And today we’re gonna spend some time talking about, we, we’ve always talked about like what it takes to be the most successful. Mm-hmm. But today we’re gonna roll over on that and say. About pitfalls. [00:02:12] Vince Menzione: We’re gonna talk about you, you call it the 12 pitfalls to successfully partnering with Microsoft. [00:02:18] Reis Barrie: Yeah. [00:02:19] Vince Menzione: And so I thought we’d start here, right? This is a, a set of 12. We’ll take, we’ll take our listeners through this massive opportunity for them to drive the greatest results. So the first one you have is Microsoft sending us leads. [00:02:32] Vince Menzione: And this is something I’ve heard many times mm-hmm. From organizations, they kind of expect it. But why don’t you take us through why, why that’s a pitfall and why organizations misunderstand working with Microsoft. [00:02:44] Reis Barrie: Yeah, a hundred percent. So, and, and even just to back, back up a like a moment from there is I would say, people always ask me what to do and. [00:02:55] Reis Barrie: It’s just as easy if not easier to say like, oh, just don’t do these things. Yeah. And you’ll naturally gravitate towards the things you should be doing. I love it. I love it. And so I, the concept of, of what not to do is frankly, something that I, I resonates with me. I’m probably learning more, more what not to do than what to do. [00:03:11] Reis Barrie: Um, and so, yeah, starting with number, like starting with the first one you mentioned, just like that, that leads conversation. And so, oh man, this is. By far the most common conversation I have when I’m first yes. Jumping in or starting with a, starting with a particular someone on the, like who has dealt with Microsoft less or they’re earlier in kind of their partnership journey. [00:03:31] Reis Barrie: And it’s often this, this, uh, resetting of the frame of like, well, what’s the value of a Microsoft partnership? And they went into it for whatever reason, with the assumption of, Hey, I’m gonna, I’m gonna list on marketplace. And all of a sudden, you know, this windfall of, of deals is gonna, is gonna, is gonna come towards me. [00:03:50] Reis Barrie: Um, and most of these times these people I’m talking to are like maybe recently or part of I v’s. Success, uh, leveraging some of the great value, they can’t get there. And they got published, they got transactable and they kind of just like. I’d sit around and like, wait. Um, s

Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape!  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. In this powerful discussion, Vince Menzione shares his personal journey and the mission behind the Ultimate Partner movement. After a near-fatal accident, he gained a new perspective on the importance of community and the power of partnerships. Vince dives deep into the “tectonic shifts” reshaping our industry—from the rise of AI and cloud marketplaces to new buyer expectations. He introduces the seven Operating Principles of successful partnering, a framework designed to provide leaders with the clarity and conviction needed to thrive in a world of constant change. This is more than a podcast; it’s a movement built on the belief that success is never achieved alone and that together, leaders can achieve extraordinary outcomes. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k64CcIbLZNc Join Us In Reston, Virginia, October 27-29th. As we enter the last four months of the calendar year, you are probably asking yourself, “What events should I attend this fall and why?” Many Partners and Leaders are trying to determine if the big events make the most sense and what they will learn. Many of these events are big and unyieldy, and while you may bump into some friends, you need to really ask yourself if they will help you achieve your greatest results – as a leader, as an organization, or as a partner. Our attendees tell us they get more accomplished in two full days than in most of the year at our events – they learn from Hyperscaler Leaders, Top Award Winning Partners, and the Masters. Learn from the best, meet the best, grow your business faster and further. Why Ultimate Partner is Unique An Ultimate Partner LIVE is like YOUR Masterclass. We begin with a view of “Where We Are Today” as the tectonic shifts are happening faster than ever before. Our first day sessions explore the advances in AI, Hyperscaler Growth, Marketplaces, Co-Selling, Ecosystem Led Growth, and more. These sessions are led from the leaders driving the discussions at Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, AvePoint Veeam Software, Carahsoft, Elastic and more. Bringing it All Together On Day Two, an Industry Analyst will bring it all together as our industry experts help you plot the future course – applying the learnings to maximize results. And, you’ll learn more from the Partner Technology firms, Partner Consultants, and others helping partners like you achieve more and walk away with over a million dollars worth of insights, learnings, and practical advice to apply to your business. In fact, we will have over 10 unique workshops at the fall event alone. The Executive Experience You will be in the room with other executives like you, or partner leaders looking to get to that level. Join us for a unique welcome reception and – if you’re fortunate – you’ll be joining our Executive Dinner. This event will feel more intimate than past Ultimate Partner LIVE settings. You’ll love the experience. Don’t Miss this Early BIRD Opportunity – Ends in a Week This is your last chance to take advantage of a unique opportunity to sign up early and SAVE.> Next weekend, Early Bird Pricing Ends – and will NOT be available again. Also, our special Hyatt Regency Reston will only last for a short time. Book your tickets today and get ready to join this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I look forward to hosting YOU this fall! Click HERE while time still lasts. Vince Menzione, Microsoft, Ultimate Partner, The Ultimate Guide to Partnering, business strategy, cloud marketplaces, AI transformation, partnership principles, technology leadership, organizational alignment, growth mindset, executive commitment, visionary leadership, scalable startups, resilient leadership, tectonic shifts, ecosystem growth, tech industry, B2B sales. Transcript: Ultimate Partner Promo 2025 [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: Welcome. I’m Vince Menon, and if you followed me, you know me as the host of The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. Some of you have attended our events or maybe you’re part of our Growing Ultimate Partner community. But today I want to go deeper. I wanna share my journey, what’s happened earlier this year, and how my friends and team have rallied behind me and why I believe this movement we’re building together. [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: Is about to become bigger than ever because in this moment of massive change, these tectonic shifts, we talk about reshaping our industry and our lives. We need clarity, we need frameworks, and we need community more than ever, my journey began way before ultimate partner. I grew up in a family that taught me the power of resilience and trust. [00:00:50] Vince Menzione: I ran a small business while in college. Scaled startups from a few million dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars and later led a multi-billion dollar partner business at Microsoft. Through it all, I learned one powerful truth. Success is never built alone. It happens through partnerships. When I started Ultimate Guide to Partnering nearly a decade ago, it was my way of amplifying those lessons. [00:01:19] Vince Menzione: To bring you the voices, insights, and stories of the leaders shaping our industry. Over 270 episodes later, it’s grown into a trusted platform, but more importantly, it’s grown into a movement. A community of leaders committed to helping each other achieve their greatest results, and then this year changed everything for me. [00:01:44] Vince Menzione: You see, a near fatal accident brought my life to a halt. Overnight. I went from building businesses and hosting events to fighting for recovery. In those difficult months, I was carried by my family, my team, and by so many of you friends and colleagues reaching out with encouragement, support, and belief. [00:02:07] Vince Menzione: It reminded me of something powerful. You see, this mission is bigger than me. Ultimate partner is about all of us. A collective of leaders, builders, and innovators navigating change together. That clarity gave me even more conviction to double down now on this work, because let’s face it, the world isn’t slowing down. [00:02:35] Vince Menzione: AI is transforming every business and redefining what’s possible. Cloud marketplaces are reshaping how customers buy and how we go to market. New buyer personas and new expectations are changing. The way we sell the ecosystem is no longer a nice to have. It’s the multiplier for growth. These are the tectonic shifts we talk about at Ultimate Partner and in times like this, leaders need frameworks, clarity, and a community they can trust. [00:03:09] Vince Menzione: That’s why I developed what I call the seven Operating principles of successful Partnering. These principles come from decades of experience, hundreds of conversations with leaders and the lived lessons of this community. Here’s what they are and how they guide everything we do at Ultimate Partner. You see, the first is a growth mindset. [00:03:32] Vince Menzione: In a world of change, curiosity and learning are the superpower. Winners embrace possibility. The second is executive commitment. Success requires leadership buy-in and organizational alignment. It doesn’t happen at the edges. The third is vision and value alignment. Great partnerships are built when leaders align on purpose, outcomes, and value creation, and once you’ve got that, you need the fourth maniacal focus. [00:04:04] Vince Menzione: The best results come when we prioritize, simplify, and concentrate energy on what matters most. Once you get to there, you need the fifth element, Brandon’s story. You see, your story is your magnet partners and customers rally around belief, credibility, and trust. And it’s the easiest way and the best way to sell with the hyperscalers. [00:04:29] Vince Menzione: And once you start to build that flywheel, you get to getting results. Number six, where outcomes are the currency of trust winning partners obsess over execution and measurable impact. And once you’ve gotten those first six, all right. And you’ve reached the pinnacle of success. What happens? Things change. [00:04:51] Vince Menzione: The world changes. We have tectonic shifts. We have organizations like Hyperscalers, like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon changing programs, changing priorities. And you need to change because change is your constant. Leaders must anticipate pivot and leverage change before it overwhelms them. These aren’t just abstract ideas. [00:05:14] Vince Menzione: This is the heartbeat of Ultimate Guide to Partnering our live Ultimate Partner events, our community, and this movement. So what do we stand for? We stand for helping technology leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We do it through our podcast, bringing you the most relevant voices in technology. [00:05:36] Vince Menzione: We do it through our ultimate partner live events and events that we host here in our studio in Boca Raton, where leaders gather to align, learn, and connect, and we do it through our community where frameworks, best practices and experience sharing, create clarity and confidence. And we do it together because no single leader, no single company, can thrive in isolation any longer. [00:06:05] Vince Menzione: This is why I say ultimate partner is more than a podcast, more than an event. It’s a movement and it’s about to become bigger than ever because as these tectonic shifts accelerate, leaders who embrace growth, align on

Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape!  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. Join Peter Graber from Ingram Micro and Christine Mulcahy from ContentGen as they unveil a powerful synergy transforming the MSP and SMB landscape. Peter details Ingram Micro’s evolution from a traditional distributor to a “platform first, experience-driven company” with their Al-powered Xvantage platform, seamlessly integrating commerce, insights, automation, and enablement for multi-vendor, multi-solution environments. Christine then introduces ContentGen, an automated content development platform leveraging Al to drastically reduce the cost and complexity of content marketing for partners, enabling them to tell compelling “better together” stories and accelerate their go-to-market. This session highlights how these innovations are providing MSPs with simplified management and strategic growth, crucial for navigating the complex world of Al, hardware, and software solutions. https://youtu.be/MR2mGDnEbik Traditional distribution is evolving beyond logistics to focus on intelligence, integration, and enablement, driven by the increasing complexity of hybrid cloud, multi-vendor, and AI environments. Ingram Micro is transforming into a “platform first, experience-driven company” with its AI-powered Xvantage platform, designed to be a growth engine for partners by simplifying operations and accelerating market access. Xvantage unifies commerce, insights, automation, and enablement, allowing MSPs to manage subscriptions, hardware, SaaS, and services seamlessly in one intuitive interface, even integrating with their existing ERP/CRM systems. ContentGen provides an automated, AI-powered content development platform specifically for the partner channel, drastically reducing the cost and complexity of creating diverse marketing materials. Partners, particularly MSPs, need to tell differentiated stories for various audiences (customers, platform partners, resellers) requiring tailored content, which ContentGen helps to scale efficiently. The combined offering of Ingram’s Xvantage platform and ContentGen empowers MSPs with simplified management and strategic growth, enabling them to effectively deliver complex AI and multi-vendor solutions to the SMB market. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. As we enter the last four months of the calendar year, you are probably asking yourself, “What events should I attend this fall and why?” Many Partners and Leaders are trying to determine if the big events make the most sense and what they will learn. Many of these events are big and unyieldy, and while you may bump into some friends, you need to really ask yourself if they will help you achieve your greatest results – as a leader, as an organization, or as a partner. Our attendees tell us they get more accomplished in two full days than in most of the year at our events – they learn from Hyperscaler Leaders, Top Award Winning Partners, and the Masters. Learn from the best, meet the best, grow your business faster and further. Why Ultimate Partner is Unique An Ultimate Partner LIVE is like YOUR Masterclass. We begin with a view of “Where We Are Today” as the tectonic shifts are happening faster than ever before. Our first day sessions explore the advances in AI, Hyperscaler Growth, Marketplaces, Co-Selling, Ecosystem Led Growth, and more. These sessions are led from the leaders driving the discussions at Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, AvePoint Veeam Software, Carahsoft, Elastic and more. Bringing it All Together On Day Two, an Industry Analyst will bring it all together as our industry experts help you plot the future course – applying the learnings to maximize results. And, you’ll learn more from the Partner Technology firms, Partner Consultants, and others helping partners like you achieve more and walk away with over a million dollars worth of insights, learnings, and practical advice to apply to your business. In fact, we will have over 10 unique workshops at the fall event alone. The Executive Experience You will be in the room with other executives like you, or partner leaders looking to get to that level. Join us for a unique welcome reception and – if you’re fortunate – you’ll be joining our Executive Dinner. This event will feel more intimate than past Ultimate Partner LIVE settings. You’ll love the experience. Don’t Miss this Early BIRD Opportunity – Ends in a Week This is your last chance to take advantage of a unique opportunity to sign up early and SAVE.> Next weekend, Early Bird Pricing Ends – and will NOT be available again. Also, our special Hyatt Regency Reston will only last for a short time. Book your tickets today and get ready to join this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I look forward to hosting YOU this fall! Click HERE while time still lasts. . Key Tags: Ingram Micro, Content Gen, distribution evolution, MSPs, SMB market, AI platform, Advantage platform, ecosystem enablement, automated content, channel marketing, go-to-market strategy, strategic growth, digital transformation, cloud solutions, hardware-software integration, recurring revenue, partner profitability, AI agents, cybersecurity, hybrid cloud. Transcription: [00:00:00] Christine Mulcahy: Well, I’d say, you know, if you’re any type of partner in the ecosystem, buy into these platforms because they, there’s a lot of smart people building them and doing all the work for you so that you don’t have to figure that out as part of the rest of your biz dev strategy, and you can just focus on what you do. Well, [00:00:17] Vince Menzione: we believe this time is like no other. We, we refer to these as the tectonic shifts, [00:00:23] Intro: all the hyperscalers in the world, if you add them all together. Managed services will be one and a half times larger because it is the customer buying behavior that has created the need for all of us to rethink our models. Until we have data quality, the effectiveness of AI cannot be realized and effectiveness of the partnerships cannot be realized. Can you figure out, first, what your purpose is and how Microsoft can support your purpose and how you can support Microsoft purpose? Now we have a partnership. It’s the ultimate partnership. [00:00:55] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner Live at Microsoft Redmond Campus. Our most powerful event yet. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode and interview features Peter Grabber from Ingram Micro and Christine Mulcahy from Content Gen for a lively discussion on the future of distribution. We take it right to the edge of what’s next. So let’s dive in now, and we’ve talked about this SMB moment. And the MSPs and this incredible opportunity area. This is where the fire hydrant is gonna come at us and the, and the power is coming at us really strict right now in terms of how we drive more success in our marketplaces. I am thrilled to invite on stage for the first time. Ingram Micro as both a speaker and a sponsor or event, and Peter Grabber is joining me for an in-depth conversation on what’s been going on in Ingram. We talked, we heard PAX eight yesterday, but Ingram has an incredible approach, has an incredible pedigree as a distributor and is really evolving their business as well. So I wanna welcome to the stage Peter Grabber. Thank you. Thank you for joining us, Peter. Thanks Vince. So good to have you join us. Thank you, sir. So, so great to have you on stage. Absolutely. Thank you. And supporting our event. Awesome. Awesome. Peter’s from Buffalo, New York. For those of you go Bills who might be part of the Bills mafia. Yes. Uh, they are my second favorite team after the Philadelphia Eagles. So, so great to have you. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. So, so great to have you join us. Um, some really exciting things happening in your organization. Uh, for, I, I want you to. Tell us about your role and maybe a little bit about Ingram. I don’t want to pre assume some things, even though I know about Martha and Bronson back in the day. Sure, sure, [00:02:57] Peter Graber: sure. Go ahead. Um, so Peter Grabber, I actually run our, uh, Cisco and our Microsoft practice at Ingram Micro. Plus a couple other hats that I wear as well. Um, but Ingram Micro is a global distributor. Obviously. We have a, a huge scale from a distribution standpoint, multi-vendor, multi solution service generated organization. And, um, we’re, we’re taking the leap into a platform company, which is something that I’ll, I’ll dig into a little bit. [00:03:21] Vince Menzione: Fantastic. Yeah, and I think the really important to note, because back in the day, distribution was a very different thing than it’s today, right? We used to think about credit. Availability of product. Right. And shipping and all those things. Sure. That were so important to be a distributor and why people use distributors back in the day. [00:03:38] Peter Graber: Absolutely. And now all that still is valid, but it’s being rolled up into a platform now. Yeah. That will be pretty seamless. [00:03:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. I want, we wanna hear about that, right? Yeah, we want to talk about that. So let’s talk about this, we’ll call the future of distribution. Right. As we, we, we go back to the old days and

Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape!  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. Join Vince and Hayley McSpirit from PAX8 as they explore the immense opportunities within the Small and Medium Business (SMB) space, particularly through the lens of cloud marketplaces. This session delves into how PAX8 is disrupting the traditional channel by being a cloud-first organization , empowering MSPs and SMBs to rapidly adopt and leverage AI, often quicker than larger enterprises. Discover the evolving role of MSPs , the power of community-first approaches , and how marketplaces are becoming the critical platform for delivering comprehensive, integrated solutions to this underserved yet highly lucrative market. https://youtu.be/4lcMHcoiejE Key Takeaways The SMB market represents a significant and often underserved opportunity for cloud and AI adoption. PAX8 differentiates itself as a cloud-first marketplace, focusing on providing best-of-breed technology and a complete customer lifecycle for MSPs and SMBs. SMBs and MSPs are at the forefront of AI transformation, capable of adopting and transforming with AI much faster than larger enterprises. The traditional channel is evolving, with MSPs increasingly becoming software development companies (ISVs) and system integrators, driven by new tech opportunities. Community-first approaches and strong partner engagement are crucial for supporting MSPs in their growth and adoption of new technologies like AI agents. Marketplaces are becoming the primary vehicle for delivering integrated solutions and enabling new business models, including the reselling of AI agents by MSPs. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. . Key Tags: SMB market , MSPs , PAX8 , cloud marketplace , AI transformation , channel disruption , cloud-first , digital natives , software development companies , ISVs , community-first , customer lifecycle , agentic AI , business growth , technology adoption , partner ecosystem , Microsoft , innovation , procurement, cybersecurity, data security , unified solutions Transcription: [00:00:00] Hayley McSpirit: And as the new wave of AI as well has come in and, and we see MSPs and SMBs at the forefront of that, to be able to transform far quicker honestly than enterprises. And so we think that we are best placed to, to be doing that. [00:00:18] Vince Menzione: We believe this time is like no other. We believe we refer to these as the tectonic shifts, [00:00:24] Intro: all the hyperscalers in the world, if you add them all together. Managed services will be one and a half times larger because it is the customer buying behavior that has created a need for all of us to rethink our models. Until we have data quality, the effectiveness of AI cannot be realized and effectiveness of the partnerships cannot be realized. Can you figure out, first, what your purpose is and how Microsoft can support your purpose and how you can support Microsoft purpose? Now we have a partnership. It’s the ultimate partnership. [00:00:56] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner Live at Microsoft Redmond Campus, our most powerful event. Yet, over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room. This episode featuring Haley McSpirit, the SVP of Pax eight, brings us right to the edge of what’s next in the SMB segment. Let’s dive in. So this is gonna be an incredible session. We have, uh, the next half hour or so, you’ve heard me talk about this moment right now in the SMB space in a big way. We’ve talked about marketplaces, the marketplace moment. It’s continuing to evolve. You heard about, about the incredible investments you see. You know, it’s kind of the tip of the spear with Cy talking about it, but you also heard Sandy talk about this as well, just this incredible investment opportunity around marketplaces. There’s another area where marketplaces are having another significant impact, and this is in the SMB business, right? We thought about the s and i, I’ll just share, as a Microsoft executive, we didn’t quite know how to manage this SMB business when I was a, a partner leader GM at Microsoft, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s handled very well. But there are organizations that do an even more incredible job and there’s a huge opportunity in this MSP space. In fact, there’s gonna be a workshop on MSPs. Hopefully you’ll be able to attend that session. Uh, but we wanted to get the market leaders in the room and we were very fortunate to have PAX eight in the room. And Haley McSpirit is gonna join me up on stage really talking about the future. Of SMBs and this marketplace opportunity ahead of us. And for those of you who don’t know PAX eight, I’ll have Haley take us through it. But I’m, I’m delighted to invite ha Mc spirit to the stage. Great to have her here. She didn’t have to travel as far as some of us. Great to see you, my friend. Good to see you. Uh, you’re gonna be here and I’m gonna be on this side of you. Thank you. Uh, we got to work together at Microsoft, so it’s great to have you here. [00:03:04] Hayley McSpirit: Thank you for having me. [00:03:04] Vince Menzione: Um, you were in an incredibly innovative portion of Microsoft. I’ll tell you. You tell your story. Yeah. But, uh, we got to interact when I was, uh, after I left Microsoft, in fact, and was leading a large ISVs organization. So, so great to have you in the room. [00:03:19] Hayley McSpirit: Yeah. Thank you for having me, uh, [00:03:19] Vince Menzione: up on the live stream as well. Yeah. Uh, great opportunity for discussion today, so I’m so glad you could join us. [00:03:25] Hayley McSpirit: Thank you. Thank you for having me. So where would you like to start? [00:03:29] Vince Menzione: Um, you know, I’ve been talking about PAX eight. Mm-hmm. I, I do think that PAX eight leaned in, in a very significant way on the SMB market. Uh, how are you different than the rest of the channel, though? And it seems like the evolution of PAX eight is important here and how the company evolved and where, where it’s going. But, uh, you’re making waves in the market as well recently, and I think there’s some conversation we’ll have. Uh, we won’t trip any wires in this conversation, but, uh, let’s know that you’ve made a big noise in the market, which I think has been heard. Right. And, um, how does PAX eight see itself differently and what is the industry getting wrong about PAX eight? [00:04:08] Hayley McSpirit: Yeah, well, so yeah, let’s, let’s say we like to make some waves and, uh, we’ve recently launched. Some brand campaigns Yes. Out there. Um, to disrupt the market. We are really going back to our roots in terms of how we like to be a disruptor, how we like to have a big place. And um, actually I think also. Put focus on the SMB. Yes. So the SMB market is, um, an area which we thrive in, and which we see a huge opportunity. And so where we see a differentiator for us is we truly are a marketplace and we truly bring together what our partners, um, are looking for in terms of that best of breed technology and that complete customer lifecycle, which is the piece that I heard Nicole talk about earlier around how we really need to continue Dr. Driving that. Um, and I think, you know, PAX Eight’s different because we are a cloud first organization as well, so we’re very much focused on that. And as the new wave of AI as well has come in and, and we see MSPs and SMBs at the forefront of that to be able to transform far quicker honestly than enterprises. And so we think that we are best placed to, to be doing that as well. [00:05:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. You mentioned first of all the cloud. Approach is incredibly significant. And we’ve had this conversation backstage. Uh, I’ve been to some of the events where some of the SMB market comes, uh, some of the MSP market comes to, and it really isn’t cloud first. It isn’t cloud significant. Mm-hmm. And I’ve been in the room speaking at some of these groups and some of these meetings where a lot of these organizations are kind of playing in the past. Right. And, um. It’s really great to see the embrace that Pax has had. And I’ve, I haven’t been to, I’m, I’m hoping to come to your event this June. Oh, I hope to see, yeah. I’m gonna be there. This, it’s a great event this June, but I’ve heard they’re really happening, so I thought maybe you could talk about that a little bit. It’s almost like a, I don’t wanna use the word cult ’cause that’s always misinterpreted. Yeah. But there is a very strong, uh, engagement with the, with the partners in, at your events. [00:06:06] Hayley McSpirit: Absolutely. So, um. I mean, it is a great event. I think that’s an opportunity to come together. And Community First has been such a driver for PAX eight around the MSPs out there and being able to support them in the enablement of their journey. Uh, and so we’ve, we’ve. Put a lot into that as a way of bringing partners together, help them understand where the market’s going. Um, we’ve talked, uh, you, I’ve heard our CEO Scott Chaison talk about the AgTech AI and the future and had some very bold statements last year on stage around ai, which actually has sort of moved forward very quickly and, and so interesting. A little bit more of a visionary in terms of seeing where it’s going. And I think that event is a way of us really. Starting of

Our First LiveStream From the Boca Studio Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape!  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. Join industry leaders Vince Menzione, Scott Sacket, Per Werngren, and Nabil Aitonumeziane as they discuss the evolution of MSPs, the critical role of AI readiness, the power of strategic partnerships within the Microsoft ecosystem, and the growing importance of co-selling and digital marketplaces. Learn actionable strategies for profitability, navigating new buying behaviors, and becoming an “ultimate MSP” by focusing on outcomes, building trust, and embracing community. https://youtu.be/Z9towXE6hfk?si=Gjy11ItjqSN8yxf_ Key Takeaways The MSP landscape is undergoing “tectonic shifts” driven by cloud adoption, AI integration, and evolving customer buying behaviors through marketplaces. Successful MSPs must evolve beyond the “break-fix” model to become strategic partners, focusing on business outcomes rather than just technology. AI presents significant opportunities for MSPs, but requires immediate adoption and internal training to avoid being left behind. Strategic partnerships, particularly within the Microsoft ecosystem, are crucial for MSP growth, emphasizing mutual value and trust. Standardizing offerings and specializing in specific technologies or solutions can significantly improve MSP profitability and success. Engaging with communities and peer groups like Ultimate Partner provides invaluable networking, learning, and collaboration opportunities for MSPs. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: MSP,Managed Services,AI,Artificial Intelligence,Microsoft ecosystem,cloud transformation,hyperscalers,marketplace,co-selling,partner strategy,Nabil Aitonumeziane,Scott Sacket,Per Werngren,Vince Menzione,AppPoint,FSI strategy,Ultimate Partner,channel growth,digital buying,data security,governance,copilot,agentic AI,recurring revenue,business model,profitability,trusted advisors,community building,IT business,technology evolution,strategic partnerships Transcript: [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: We believe this time is like no other. We, we refer to these as the tectonic shifts, [00:00:08] Intro: all the hyperscalers in the world, if you add them all together. Managed services will be one and a half times larger because it is the customer buying behavior that has created the need for all of us to rethink our models. Until we have data quality, the effectiveness of AI cannot be realized and effectiveness of the partnerships cannot be realized. Can you figure out, first, what your purpose is and how Microsoft can support your purpose and how you can support Microsoft purpose? Now we have a partnership. It’s the ultimate partnership. [00:00:42] Vince Menzione: Good morning. I’m Vince Manzione, the CEO of Ultimate partner, and the host of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering Podcast. And I’m thrilled to be back in the studio here in Boca Raton. We have a lot of stories about Boca Raton. It is really the seminal point in the start of this ecosystem we all care about. It’s also where we host the Ultimate Eye to Partnering podcast where we host our events, and we’re gonna do our very first live stream here today. Uh, it’s designed for you to achieve incredible success as a partner. We’re working with hyperscalers like Microsoft. Our topic today is becoming the ultimate MSP. This is a topic that we care deeply about as, as our guests do as well. And each of my guests that are here today, I am so privileged to have members of our community, friends, uh, people that I truly appreciate and admire who are here now, who feel the same and are so passionate on this subject. I wanna invite them each to say, introduce themselves and say a couple words about why they believe this MSP moment is so unique and why it’s so relevant to all of us today. So s Scott, good to see you. [00:01:49] Scott Sacket: Great to see you. So exciting to be here alive, right? Gotta be careful. So for those who have, I’ve not met yet. My name is Scott Sackett and I’m the senior Vice President of Partner Strategy at AAV Point. And, um, I’ve been in the channel ecosystem now for over 25 years. I was a partner, of course, I’ve been at AAV point, leading channel now for many years, um, almost 20 years. And, um, this moment’s incredible, right? Um, you know, cloud really democratized what, what partners could do. And how to build up, um, and, and support many customers, small and large. And, and today, MSPs really are, um, the linchpin to how we build and, and, uh, manage it. So it’s an incredible moment for them and, and it’s only getting, uh, more important as things change and grow and evolve. So exciting times. [00:02:36] Vince Menzione: I love the linchpin comment ’cause it really holds it all together. I love that. And p Wgre, another great friend of ours, p uh, please take a moment and introduce yourself to our audience or all of our friends that are watching [00:02:47] Per Werngren: us today on the line. Yes, thank you, Ian. It is a privilege to be here. So I’m the CEO of Idex. We do AI and Azure operations. And why do I love MSPs? Well, I’ve been doing subscriptions all my life, and recurring revenue is such a beautiful thing because you start small, you sell a little bit. You sell more and you don’t lose what you have sold. You just keep on building and it all piles up. Beautiful business model. [00:03:16] Vince Menzione: I love it. I love it. [00:03:19] Nabil Aitonumeziane: Right. Hi, great to see [00:03:20] Vince Menzione: you, my friend. [00:03:21] Nabil Aitonumeziane: Thanks for having me. I mean, it’s been, uh, amazing coming to Florida. To the Hot Florida. But, uh, I’m Nabil Ian. I’m the president of FSI strategy. We’re an MSP. Uh, we specialize in Microsoft. We’re a, uh, managed service provider, but, uh, we specialize a hundred percent in Microsoft, uh, technologies. So thanks for having Well, [00:03:41] Vince Menzione: and you are an MSP, right? Yes. We talk about this all the time and how you’ve evolved your company. You a case study. We are, but [00:03:48] Nabil Aitonumeziane: we are not Your traditional MSP, which is. Managed service provider. We are more of the modernization solution partner ’cause we are trying to, uh, live in the AI era. Yeah. World. So we had to change our name as well. How to help our customers, uh, move forward with this technology is moving very fast. So [00:04:10] Vince Menzione: I’m gonna frame that and we’ll go right into, I’m gonna, I have, I’m gonna hit you with the first question, but you know, we talk about this tectonic shifts. That we’ve seen in our world, in our lives, and we’ve been talking about transformation and ultimate partner for many years. It started back in my Microsoft days, 10 years leading the partner business for public sector and growing that organization during the clouds transformation. But we’ve been talking about a, a, the hyperscalers really at the center and really the, we talk about Boca, the fact that Bill Gates came down here in 1981 and signed an agreement with IBM really sparked this ecosystem. There’s over a half a million just in the Microsoft ecosystem of partners. Probably well over a million if you put Google Cloud and AWS and, and you look at that center of the universe and we’ll talk about that center and how there are now seven seats at the table. But then, you know, we talked about the last couple years, AI really became a thing. Chat, GBT started it all back in November, 2022. And now, you know, we’ve had this incredible transformation that we’re gonna talk about, why it’s so fundamental today. And why it’s even more important, and then also how marketplaces are so fundamental to success today that the buying behaviors have changed. The millennials, the new buying persona, and they buy from, they’re very comfortable in marketplaces. We’re all more comfortable now hitting our phone three times and having a box show up at the end of the day, right? We’re all used to digital buying and it’s becoming the buy. The buying process has changed dramatically. And the hyperscalers have all embraced this marketplace. But then what do you need? Fundamentally, in order to have success, you need to have engagements with those sellers. And that’s why co-selling is so critical and important. We’re gonna talk about that as also an important component. And then the hype. We talk about this ecosystem and why you can’t go alone. And then we, we’ve been around ultimate partner. We created ultimate partner. ’cause we recognize that success is all about coming together. And I talk about the seven seats at the table because the buying persona is May now making a decision about driving a solution. They’re not buying a one-off vendor solution. They’re creating a solution set, and they need multiple vendors to come together. And this conversation today is how MSPs need to embrace these tectonic shift. Nabeel, you’ve owned this successful MSP for many years. You said 25 years you’ve been in this business, which is incredible. Long [00:06:29] Nabil Aitonumeziane: time [00:06:29] Vince Menzione: you don’t even look old enough to have been No. Been doing this for 25 years. Tell us what successes look like for you and your organization and what has the change been like? Can you speak to the change that we’ve been seeing? [00:06:40] Nabil Aitonumeziane: So we have seen the big changes in the past 10 years when it comes to the MSP world. Uh, we went, I think all of us in the MSP world, we came all from the break and fix model. To all

Microsoft’s America’s Partner Leader joins Ultimate Partner Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape!  Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. Nina Harding, Microsoft’s partner leader for the Americas, joins host Vince Menzione to discuss the seismic shifts happening at the start of Microsoft’s fiscal year 2026. This isn’t just another discussion; it’s a deep dive into Microsoft’s renewed partner-centric strategy, the transformative power of AI, and the tactical steps partners need to take now to thrive. Nina reveals how partners are now “front and center” in Microsoft’s priorities, how a new industry-based structure is changing everything, and the crucial role of AI in boosting sales and innovation. She shares actionable insights on co-selling, the new “Frontier” mindset, and why being a “customer zero” for AI is no longer optional. This conversation provides a strategic roadmap for every partner looking to align with Microsoft’s vision for the future. Key Takeaways Partners are now one of Microsoft’s top three priorities, with a major focus on tighter integration with sales teams and a “partner-first” tone from leadership. Microsoft is moving to a 100% industry-based structure in the US, with new industries like oil and gas and gaming, to focus on solving customer problems with industry experts and partners. The new “SDC” (Software Development Company) term is more comprehensive and inclusive than the traditional ISV (Independent Software Vendor) term. AI is delivering a 10% increase in pipeline, a 23% higher close rate, and a 9% larger book of business in revenues for sales reps who use it consistently. The “Frontier” mindset is Microsoft’s new theme for FY26, emphasizing the exploration of possibilities with AI, moving beyond out-of-the-box functionality. The most critical advice for partners is to become “customer zero” for AI, differentiating themselves by articulating their value proposition and depth of expertise by industry. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags: Microsoft, Nina Harding, Vince Menzi, Ultimate Partner, partner strategy, fiscal year 26, FY26, AI, artificial intelligence, Copilot, Microsoft partners, co-sell motion, customer engagement methodology, CEM, industry-based, operating units, OUs, Total Addressable Markets, TAM, small medium enterprise, SMC, software development companies, SDCs, ISV, channel partners, account executive, AE, solution areas, Biz Apps, security, Azure, Microsoft field, America’s Partner Brief, APB, agentic AI, marketplace, digital transformation, Frontier, enablement, technical roles. Transcript: [00:00:00] Nina Harding: We’re finding such intense productivity. Um, for example, with our sales reps, the ones that are using AI consistently, we’re seeing, um, about a 10% increase in their pipeline. We’re seeing a 23% higher close rate and 9%, uh, larger book of business in actual revenues. [00:00:25] Vince Menzione: Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, the CEO of Ultimate partner and your host, and I am thrilled today to welcome Nina Harding, Microsoft’s partner leader for the America’s business. Nina, welcome to the studio here. [00:00:41] Nina Harding: Oh, thanks so much for having me. [00:00:42] Vince Menzione: So excited to have you. Was great. Many of you don’t know this, but Nina actually lives here in Florida. Yeah. We both live in Florida only. Yeah. We live [00:00:50] Nina Harding: pretty close to each other everywhere. Pretty close together. Yeah. What, three and a half miles, maybe? [00:00:54] Vince Menzione: Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. And this is our Boca studio. For those of you who haven’t been here yet, Nina’s gonna be here this, this winter. We’ll have you, we’ll have you on stage. [00:01:03] Nina Harding: Great. [00:01:03] Vince Menzione: In front of our partners, all of our partners that watch and listen to the ultimate guide to partnering, but so, so thrilled to have you join us today. We have such an amazing conversation to have today because. This is an important inflection point in Microsoft’s year, right? The beginning of fiscal year 2026. Yeah. For those of you looking at your calendars and watches. Uh, it’s 2025, but for Microsoft we’ve started fiscal year 26 and so, so many changes that are happening. So much excitement and enthusiasm around the new year. [00:01:33] Nina Harding: Absolutely. We have a lot [00:01:34] Vince Menzione: to cover today. [00:01:35] Nina Harding: Yeah, we do. Yeah, [00:01:35] Vince Menzione: we do. So I thought maybe we’d spend a minute on that, if you don’t mind. Sure. Maybe we’ll start there because there were a lot of announcements made. Sure. And, uh, Judson and Nicole and some others were on the on stage just about a week and a half ago talking him through the changes. Yeah. I thought maybe you could help lead us through some of the conversation Yeah. On what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. [00:01:56] Nina Harding: Right. Um, well, I think the. Biggest change I’ve seen is partner is front and center as one of the top three priorities at the company. [00:02:06] Vince Menzione: I’m so happy to see that. So [00:02:07] Nina Harding: that is really exciting. Yeah. So, uh, we had to start, as you mentioned, a couple weeks ago, and every single. Presentation every, some single executive was talking about our partners. Uh, when Judson normally has like a panel of customers up there. This time he had two partners in one customer. So I love that the tone is really, uh, forward on partners. The major changes that you’re seeing, uh, first is that we’re trying to bring the partners more into the core business. Uh, align them with the sales teams. So what that means is our channel partners are now sitting toe to toe, shoulder to shoulder with the um, sm. C and e folks, right? Yeah. Yep. So, um, what we hope with that is there’s even tighter integration. We get rid of some of that friction that might have been there, and we operate as one. I love that our partners really become that extension of our Salesforce, um, out, out there on the front lines, um, on the, on the other side. We have an opportunity in the enterprise to go even tighter and deeper with our services and what we’re now referring to as our SDC software development. SII [00:03:24] Vince Menzione: know, it’s I know, I know, I know. Good [00:03:26] Nina Harding: old, good old Sandy [00:03:27] Vince Menzione: Gupta and I had a conversation about this at our last event and, uh, it’s so hard it doesn’t roll off the tongue very easily. [00:03:33] Nina Harding: No, it doesn’t, but it’s actually much more inclusive. Yes. So, um, it’s funny, I had a conversation with an Nvidia and. They were the ones that kind of prompted even that opening with me of saying, Hey, we don’t see ourselves as an ISV. And they’re not, they’re not, right? They’re, and so SDC is much more comprehensive, but kind of going back to some of those changes, that’s, uh, that’s where we’re seeing even tighter integration and how that shows up. That shows up in the way. Um, we look at pipeline, how we do reporting, um, in each of the ou, um. Do you want me to talk about the OU as well? I do. Let’s [00:04:11] Vince Menzione: talk about, so just for people that don’t under, don’t understand our acronyms. Yeah. But, uh, so Small Medium Enterprise and corporate is Ssec. [00:04:18] Nina Harding: Yes. Is smec and [00:04:19] Vince Menzione: a lot of partners we’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about where, what partners sit where. Sure. And then the OU are the operating units. Correct. Uh, they are. And what people don’t always realize about the way how Microsoft is structured, because you sit on a leadership team and you’ve got representatives that are very industry focused, right? Correct. Across various aspects of the business. They have their own vp, they have their own marketing organization, they have their own selling organization, and so on and so on. [00:04:43] Nina Harding: Yeah. [00:04:44] Vince Menzione: So talk to us about that. That’s the operating units, [00:04:46] Nina Harding: right? So, um, we affectionately call them operating units, but they’re really, as Judson affectionately calls them tam capture units. Right. So, um, a country, uh, you could have a country, yep. Or, um, an aggregate of countries or you could have division of countries. They’re really based on the TAM capture opportunity. So in the United States and TAM being total [00:05:12] Vince Menzione: addressable market, correct? Most correct. Sorry. No, that’s right. Yes. [00:05:14] Nina Harding: Um, but for example, in the US. We have gone 100% industry based this year. I love it. It’s really, really exciting. Yeah. So we no longer have territories anywhere, and we’ve actually been able to introduce some new industries like oil and gas, right? So I’ve [00:05:31] Vince Menzione: seen that [00:05:31] Nina Harding: gaming, those are real industries that make a difference, uh, to everyone. And so what’s exciting about that? As the conversation is changing, we’re going further and further away around how do we position product to how are we really solving customer problems? And the conversation is all at that industry level, in that language with the experts from the industry helping to solve problems with the customer. And that’s where our partners come in too. [00:06:01] Vince Menzione: It makes such a big difference. And then the partners that are surrounding that, or that sales organization are ones that are laser focused