by Adrian C. Ott
     

I recently moderated the 2009 Silicon Valley Chief Alliance Officer Roundtable that was hosted by Cisco.  This was my second year moderating this annual event that was organized by the ASAP Silicon Valley Chapter.   

Twenty-seven VP and C-level senior executives responsible for alliances and channels from firms such as Intuit, Adobe, HP, Microsoft, EBay/PayPal, IBM, SAP, Oracle, Cisco, Seagate, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, Capgemini and others attended this meeting. 

The executives represented an excellent view of trends and best practices shaping the technology and alliance landscape.  "The companies represented today, contribute $464 billion to the U.S. Economy. With a total combined market cap of $859 billion, these companies not only shape Silicon Valley's economy but also the world's high-technology landscape," welcomed Jim Chow, President of ASAP Silicon Valley.

According to Steve Steinhilber, VP of Strategic Alliances at Cisco, "As we have seen in the last few months, markets can change overnight.  Sharing ideas and best practices in meetings like this is vital to staying on top of today's fast-paced environment."

The topline findings are:

1. A majority of executives view strategic alliances as more important in a downturn, but several challenges to growth such as regaining momemtum after cost reduction, and overcoming business risk confidence issues impede forward progress.
2. Executives are continuing to invest in disruptive technologies (e.g. Cloud Computing/Software as a Service (SaaS)) and new market penetration opportunities.
3. New business models such as SaaS are changing the role of channel partners.  This will result in new compensation and services models for the channel in line with these new models.
4. Most companies are re-evaluating their alliance portfolios but also changing the measures by which they value and resource the relationships.  For example, evaluating the financial viability of even the largest partners and customers has become a necessity. 
5. The need for new partner evaluation criteria is surfacing as new partner models such as talent-swapping emerge.
6. Partner metrics beyond revenue are evolving that are increasingly tied to profitability and "Forensic Accounting."
7. Internally communicating the value the partner organization remains a key priority in light of downsizing and cost reduction.
8. Current macro-economic shifts in wealth distribution in the U.S. and abroad are expected to impact the partner portfolio mix.

As best summarized by Erna Arnesen, VP of Global Services Channels and Alliances at Cisco, "What we are seeing right now in this time of economic crisis is a more engaged and frank dialogue across the strategic alliances community....This will put all of us in a unique position to increase our focus on joint revenue, contribution, and investment returns."

To access our white paper with complete findings and our analysis of this event:

http://www.exponentialedge.com/sv_chief_alliance_summit.html