John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

I think we have an exciting program tonight. I think it's timely and I think it's a very interesting look at the dynamics of small and large companies. We at ASAP are nothing but if not research oriented before we come to one of these. So, we have the authoritative book, Life: The Odds, and it's actually researched the odds of dating a Supermodel – male or female. They come out with 88,000 to 1 are your odds, but they tell you all the ways that you can improve your odds. 

So, when we're done with this panel I'm sure that we will know whether they're similar to the odds of getting a date with SAP, or Cisco or any one of their counterparts, and how to improve those odds. 

So, let me first start by introducing our panel. I'm actually going to let them talk for a couple of minutes about themselves and their roles in Alliance Management for their companies and what they're doing. So, let me start with that and then we'll dive in with some questions, then open it up to Q&A.

First, I'd like to introduce Rick Tywoniak from Cisco Systems. He's the Senior Marketing Manager for the IP Communications Business Unit. Rick, I wonder if you'd talk a little bit about your background and what you do at Cisco.

Rick Tywoniak (Cisco):

Sure. I've worked for Cisco now for five or six years, all of it being managing Partner Programs, first starting, always IP communications. So, Cisco is broken up into various business units. The IP Communications Business Unit has the largest Partner Program inside Cisco. So, we have about 500 total partners inside Cisco and I manage about 300 of them, so I have a small team that manages those partnerships. 

Like I said, I've been doing it for five or six years now, kind of a dual role here because I came into Cisco, through acquisition, as a partner. So, I came from a very small start-up company of 70 people. I was the Vice President of Business Development, and had to partner with Cisco and eventually got acquired by Cisco. So that's how I came in. So, I sort of know it from both sides coming from a small company as well as now managing the program that deals with partners. 

I look forward to talking with all of you and sharing my insights. 

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Just a quick comment. You've spurred a comment that the panel is nicely divided into two Supermodels, then two people who are have or are pursuing them and all of them have worked on the other side of the aisle. So, they've been pursued, they've been pursuers, so everybody can speak to all the issue. But, I think it's great that we have some people here representing roles right now that are on other sides of the aisle, and the next person is…

Rick Tywoniak (Cisco):

That's my date. (Laughter.)

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Your date, yes. Well, not only your date… No, I understand. You got married, didn't you?

Manoj Fernando (LiteScape):

You got me.

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms): 

But we didn't hear about the courtship; on how that worked. 

Manoj Fernando (LiteScape): 

That's right. (Laughter).

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Manoj Fernando is co-founder and EVP of Business Development at LiteScape Technologies, and a partner of Cisco. I'm going to let him talk a little bit about his background and company.

Manoj Fernando (LiteScape):

Thank you. It's an honor to be here and share my views on how we ended up dating Cisco. When the topic first came out, I said I thought I was the Supermodel. (Laughter.)

I understand it's either that or Rick, so okay. I can tell you some stories about him. I'll be happy to share some of those experiences.

I've been in the industry pretty much in Silicon Valley for about 20 years right now, working a variety of positions. Worked at several different companies, Mosaix, Lucent – have been acquired by Lucent. Then ventured out on my own, probably late during the dot-com days, in the early part of the days. Had an offshore development company of my own. Switched to, got greedy, pays a bit of money, did the dot-com thing, went bust, the usual story. About, I think, towards the early part of 2000 was when I found a start-up company called Circle24 and that's when I first got introduced to Rick and Cisco. Circle24 eventually became LiteScape. Today I kind of manage this development and continue to chase Cisco at every given opportunity, plus some of the other large companies around the world as well. 

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Okay. Next we have another Supermodel, Kevin Ichhpurani from SAP. He's the Global Vice President for Business Development. Kevin, if you would talk a little bit about what your role is and maybe highlight us a little bit on what the NetWeaver Equity Fund is and how that plays into your role.

Kevin Ichhpurani (SAP):

Sure. So, I head up the business development efforts for our software Partner Program globally. That includes all of the go-to-market relationships we have with ISVs. I have been at SAP about 3 ½ years. I lead a team in the US and as well as Asia Pacific. We also have the NetWeaver Fund, which is $125 million fund that we put together about a year ago where we're taking active equity investments in strategic software partners. We saw the need that particularly when we invest in small companies, our discussion topic of today, is that we needed to be able to help companies scale their operations, build out the appropriate sales and distribution channels, as well as show customers that SAP is truly behind the relationship. As such, that was the genesis of the NetWeaver Fund where we actively make equity investments in companies that we partner with to help build up the operation and show that credibility with customers.

Prior to SAP I've been in the technology sector for about 15 years in mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and business development. Also, in my venture capital days, I was responsible for forging relationships for my small portfolio companies with big companies like SAP, Microsoft and IBM, so I've been on the other side as well. It's definitely challenging on both sides of the house.

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Thank you. Finally, but not least, Gamiel Gran, who's the Vice President of Channel and Sales Operations at Cassatt Corporation. 

Gamiel Gran (Cassatt):

Thanks, John. I, like everyone else on the panel, have been at this for a number of years, almost 25 years it's looking like now. I feel very strongly about this space so it's an honor to be here to talk about this. 

I'm at Cassatt Corporation. We're the data center automation space, utility, computing and green data center effectiveness. We are a Supermodel wannabe. So, we'd love some of your funds and …. (Laughter.) 

But I also have a long history of actually being on the larger business side. I actually started with IBM for a number of years, was head of Business Development role there for various divisions. A number of years at Oracle, brand channels there for a number of years, then BEA and a couple of little start-ups in the middle of all of that as well.  So, I've seen both sides and many different sides, I think, of the effort of partnering. So, throw your challenging questions our way. 

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Oh, we will. Here they come. Thank you very much. What a great panel.

Okay. Let's all start with the date. So, my first question is: When you're trying to figure out who you want to date, just as any other situation, you've got to kind of source your dates. I think that from a small company perspective to a large company perspective, you have different processes and criteria that you use. Usually a small company has maybe a few focus people they want to go at, a large company has a huge array that most of whom they don't even know. So, in trying to source who your target is, what's the process that you go through? I'll ask, Rick, if you'll start. But please, anybody, just jump in at any point during this conversation, with your comments. 

Rick Tywoniak (Cisco):

Well, interesting, for sourcing, it's somewhat easier on a large side because being Cisco, most people come to us. So, it's somewhat a challenge just keeping up with all the companies that approach you. So, part of those dealings is dealing with that but when we are sourcing, and some various obvious ones, we look at our competitors, we look at who their partners are and try to see what technologies are there and see if there's anything interesting. Then there's the typical tradeshows, we spend a lot of time on floors just walking around visiting tradeshows. I would say the tradeshow, it's fairly important because we're also out there now trying to build out not only our partner network but our developer network, which is a little bit different. I'm involved in both those areas. 

So, we actually go after development communities that exist. We look at an SAP Partner Program or a Microsoft Visual Studio Developer Network (MSDN), kind of look at those communities and see how we can outreach to them, let them know what we're doing with our Partner Program to hopefully attract them to come into our program.

So, I guess it's a lot of different ways. Probably the newest way is not focusing on yourself, focusing on other communities that have built up big programs and seeing if we can get some of those companies to think about developing for Cisco also. 

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Okay. Manoj, do you want to say a few words about how you sourced Cisco.

Manoj Fernando (LiteScape):

That's a long story.

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Not what you did. Not how you got them to date you, but just why you picked them. I think in your case being that you're an IP company. 

Manoj Fernando (LiteScape):

Yes. One of the things I've mentioned is when the dot-com went bust, basically, one of the last projects that we took on was a development program for a company that was doing some work on Cisco when Cisco started introducing IP telephony into the market.

So, when I first looked at that Cisco phone there was something there saying, and Cisco was just entering the market at that point. When you started doing more research, you started seeing this phone giant going after the industry saying IP telephony is the wave of the future, that these are all the great things they can do with it.

So, when we looked at that device, which was the original IP phone that they had, there looked like there was an opportunity to provide a variety of applications to run on that device. So, as a result of doing that, that's when we went out and said, who is the market leader? Who is heading the industry? There were traditional PBX vendors where they saw Cisco pretty much making the charge and our bet at that point was, okay, let's take a look at this, let's see what Cisco is doing and then go from there because typically at that point was like you can't go wrong. Cisco is betting their future on this particular technology, then there might be an opportunity there. That's how we started the whole engagement process of going after Cisco, and I'm sure that's going to come in the next couple of questions.

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Yes.

Kevin Ichhpurani (SAP):

So, we go to market by industry at SAP. When we look at partner types, we take a very structured approach. Across all of our 28 different industries, we formed what we call an industry value network where we bring together our best customers and partners to collaboratively innovate. So, within each of our industries, what we've done is we've brought in our best customers to look at where is the industry spend taking place.

So, as an example, whether that may be compliance in banking or HIPAA and healthcare, we take a look at where is the industry spend taking place, then we compare that. So, we take an outside-in view of the world, we then look at what processes we support and where are there gaps or white spaces, if you will, within our solution stack.

Once we've identified those white spaces based on our customer feedback, we'd prioritize a market opportunity, where there's the biggest opportunity from our field sales perspective, as well we've done it with out product teams, our field teams, the customer, and bring together the appropriate partners to piece together and then solutions to solve these specific industry problems. 

So, in order to really do this you have to have transparencies. So, one of the things SAP has done is made a big shift from the monolithic we-do-it-all approach of taking the platform of underlying applications, extending it to partners so they can build on it and have their interoperability, but secondly we're sharing our roadmaps. So, we become very transparent, as I talked about earlier, these different industries. You go to our website today and partners can see where those white spaces within our solutions. They can actually apply to be one of the partners that fills into one of those white spaces. So, really that transparency of looking at from the roadmaps with the partners combined to looking at your own solution stack in the industry spend identifying those partners, we can proactively go out and find those partners. 

Secondly, we have a whole influx, much like at Cisco, of partners coming to us that we can prioritize based on those white spaces and the market opportunity in those white spaces. So, it's very much an industry driven approach, very much looking at the gaps within our portfolio.

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Thank you. Gamiel, do you want to add something to that?

Gamiel Gran (Cassatt):

As a small company, sourcing a partner is a lot of decisions about who not to have a partnership with versus who to have a partnership with. I tend to turn down partnerships more than I pursue with the idea that if you spread yourself too thin, you never really achieve the results you need with any one partner, and that's what you need.

But the sourcing strategy for me starts with a very selfish agenda. I take a very sales or revenue based objective from a metric standpoint, less to do with the marketing or perception of the partnership and more to do with the outcome and the results. With a very selfish, narrow point of view, we need to generate revenue. We need to generate revenue more rapidly than we could on our own. 

Then, to Kevin's point, kind of the market map or the spend strategy that plays into it. So, what are the key components, let's say, from a bill of materials kind of standpoint that the customer is actually looking for to complete the solution and where are the weak spots in what we deliver and how do we go about delivering that, they can be supported by some other play. To the other point that was made, which is then you go look at who are the largest players in that list who can actually play a biggest role for you. 

So, I take a very inward kind of what is our objective, very well defined, in the first 12 months, I want to generate a million dollars of revenue in the following segment; what are the key players that can help me get there and build the model from there. So, before getting to a joint value proposition or anything, you really know what your own core metric is.

Rick Tywoniak (Cisco): 

I want to do a quick add-on in what Kevin said; it reminded me that the industry vertical thing is extremely important. So, when you're looking to partner with Cisco, one of the ways we kind of stratify in tiers is, those partners in an industry vertical that's a critical focus vertical for us that fill a gap. Same thing, and provide value in that industry vertical, typically get to the higher tiers on our Partner Program. 

We just launched a whole industry vertical Partner Program, which is one of the reasons why Manoj and LiteScape have done so successfully, because they took a lot of their technologies and they focused it on particular verticals, filled some gaps and really helped increase our sales in those verticals. When you've got 300 companies that you're working with or 500 or whatever, that was one of the key ways they were able to separate themselves from other people, so we noticed them. Now, we have a focus on verticals very similar to SAP.

John Soper (Moderator, New Paradigms):

Thank you. Okay, so now you know who you want to source, who you want to date, and the next question that I have for you is – and this is more directed to the small companies, but I'll be interested in any of your comments. Gamiel and Manoj, how do you get that date? How do you make the kind of noise, how do you get the attention so that they will start to look at whether at least they want to take the next step with you?

Gamiel Gran (Cassatt):

I think Richard's comments speaks volumes to the key thing, which is what are the strategic initiatives going on in the large companies that they are paying attention to and how do you become an enabling function to that. So that's one strategy.

To me though, it always comes down to one key thing – are there deals? Is there a top-line revenue opportunity that creates new momentum for the larger companies to say, "Wow! This is a changer for us." Some sort of game changer strategy for our business that we couldn't otherwise get to, so can we accelerate revenue faster than, for instance, Cisco could on their own. If you can find it, the ones who punch if it's a strategic initiative, and you can generate faster than they can on their own, then you're likely to get pushed to the top of the list. 

But for me, it's always come down to one