How a distributor builds a partner community
This is a text from the category of "success stories." It is about how the RRC distributor develops the partner community through the social portal Jive. The text is published in our blog, because we are involved in this project. About problems, process and results - read on.
RR is an international IT distributor with offices in 15 cities of Russia, the CIS countries and Eastern Europe. Today, RRC has a fairly extensive structure and operates in four directions, providing products for collecting, transmitting, storing and protecting data. RRC partners - and there are more than 4,000 of them - are system integrators, resellers, sub-distributors, telecom operators, online stores.
Andrei Skvortsov, CEO of RRC Russia, sees the basis for business success in developing partnerships: “We are confident that distribution should strengthen its relationship with the channel by offering additional services along the entire path of the product from manufacturer to end user. Naturally, all these tasks require intensive communications in order to promptly convey information to the partner and collect information from him about expectations and the services he needs. ”
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In a dynamic IT industry, there are two main characteristics of a company's success: competence and speed. In connection with the branched structure in the company, there was a need for employees to actively exchange ideas, competencies, partnership base, share ways to attract partners.
Yulia Sudienkova, HR Director, RRC Group: “We believe that every employee has the potential, and that this potential is realized, we must train any person we bring to the company, regardless of their competence and experience. Unfortunately, we do not have enough time to allow all the new people we attract to train with sufficient intensity and quality. ”
Similarly, there is a need for interaction between departments and offices, so that employees who are engaged in business support understand and be understood by their colleagues from the front office. Many employees are in constant movement and business trips, and internal and external negotiations should be carried out constantly. A tool was needed that would complement the format of meetings and allow for quick decisions.
Elena Stepkina, community management manager: “I work in a branch in St. Petersburg, and we work well together within our team. But at some point we discovered: the company has grown to such proportions that people in different regions have become difficult to identify each other. Information began to reach us with delays and distortions; it became difficult for us to make decisions about how to act in a given situation. ”
But competence and speed are needed not only within the team, but also in working with partners. The supply chain includes four components: manufacturer - distributor - partner - customer. And when a question is being resolved, a quick response from the client is needed, for example, questions of assigning responsibilities and informing the partner.
Andrei Skvortsov: “The success of a transaction and the quality of preparation depend on the speed of decision making, because if we provide information 3 days earlier than our competitor, this is very significant. There are situations that are connected not only with tenders, there are sharp fluctuations in the rate or other banking situations. Given the economic conditions, in the absence of a quick response, we can suffer heavy losses. ”
Understanding that competence and speed are needed within the company and in a partner environment, the Russian division of RRC decided to unite its employees and partners into a single “RRC Partnership” community. The objective of the Partnership is to unite employees and partners to achieve high business results, engage staff, form common values, accumulate knowledge, exchange experience and reduce the boundaries between departments, cities and countries.
Andrei Skvortsov: “Our first task is to involve our own team as much as possible so that the community includes as many areas of our internal interaction as possible. We want employees to exchange ideas, competencies, partner base among themselves, share ways to attract partners. The second is the creation of a partnership community so that our partners can interact with us and with each other on a single platform and that we collectively provide competence to the market. To summarize, we are building an open communications partnership community. To introduce an open communication system between partners, we need to build it inside. ”
At the selection stage, RRC employees tested several platforms.
RRC operates in a dynamic industry where information ownership is a competitive advantage. And we must simultaneously unite the team, attract partners and at the same time preserve the identity of all four business departments. People had to combine not only according to their interests, but also to reproduce the structure of the organization on the online site. Therefore, the first key requirement was to have the maximum number of opportunities for configuring the space for collaboration - open groups, isolated closed societies, external users.
The second point is that company employees must manage to work with a large amount of information, participate in a variety of negotiations and meetings. Therefore, it is difficult for them to pay attention to numerous IT systems; they need one entry point into the corporate space. Currently, the company has two main information windows - Outlook and accounting system. The package from Jive Software turned out to be attractive, because it not only closes a wide variety of communications, but also can be integrated through the Jive for Outlook application, and therefore there is no need to retrain people.
Yaroslav Uvenkov, RRC IT Director: “We had an installation that the platform we choose should be international, respond to our requests and at the same time observe a balance between openness and confidentiality. I'm not sure that there is a platform at all similar to Jive, which would give the same functionality. I can not say that Jive covers all expectations, but it most fully covers the needs of communications and really helps to realize many tasks. I really liked that colleagues from “Supereon” gave us the opportunity to test several social platforms. Thus, we made sure that Jive-n is useful and convenient for us. ”
Since the company operates in the field of information technology, initially there was an expectation that Jive would be perceived as easily as modern public social networks. However, in the first steps, the preferences in the team were divided, a number of employees were not ready to change the system of existing social relations and their habits in using software.
Andrei Skvortsov: “Of course, a significant step for success was the involvement of the company“ Supereon ”as a team, which explained to us that the introduction of social networks and communities does not occur by itself, that this is a serious and complex integration into the life of the company. Jive is not a boxed product, you cannot take it and sell it to some company so that it turns around and starts up. This product should be accompanied by a team that will implement the implementation, only in this case the product will take root. In opposition to natural resistance within the team, initiative leaders are needed who have the ability and desire to constantly participate in the community. We find them, attract and encourage them, and by their personal example they demonstrate to their colleagues the benefits of participation in the community. ”
The change in the way of communication turned out to be connected with the inevitable cultural changes in the organization. We had to look at aspects of the security policy in a new way, it was necessary to build new standards. The initiative team has found its own ways of motivation and involvement.
Yulia Sudienkova: “Even with obvious opportunities to optimize work, people don’t want to move away from their usual ways of working easily and simply, the system needs to be studied, people need to be trained to work in the system and new ways of working. To begin with, we began to use Jive for corporate-wide communications - now the team responds well to information from the HR department, learns about corporate news and events, new colleagues, changes in the company. We see peaks of attendance of people in the network related to the activities that we hold. ”
Within the framework of the social intranet deployment project, the “Supereon” was responsible for the entire implementation cycle: setting the mission and business tasks for the community, installing the platform, setting up and creating content, training regular users, training opinion leaders in the basics of community management, and engaging users in the community.
Vladimir Ivanitsa, founder of Supereon: “Our company specializes in the development of productive communities, and the installation of the Jive social platform is only part of the task. The basis of the success of the community we see in bringing people around a common goal. Therefore, we focus on working with people and managing organizational change. ”
In the course of the project, users noted the prompt response to requests and the suggestion of ideas for expanding the functionality used. The information in the answers was complex with specific proposals for the implementation of certain tasks.
Yulia Sudienkova: “The guys from Supereon gave us a lot of ideas, quickly and comprehensively solved each issue, demonstrated the use of Jive in their own work. But the matter is not only in competence, even more our employees value interest. Everyone said that the participation of Supereon in the project was not a formality for them, they themselves were passionate about our common task. ”
A survey of employees showed that Jive had established corporate-wide communications, after which a longer stage of transition from quantity to quality, i.e. increase the business value of the community.
Using Jive, it became easier and faster to solve typical problems and questions, it is now easy to find up-to-date reference information and document templates, you can see new vacancies, online booking of meeting rooms, planning of events, holding meetings, applications with step-by-step coordination and a number of other possibilities. And this, first of all, unloaded the internal divisions that created their own internal information storefronts of services, and now they don’t have to waste their time answering the same questions.
It became easier to adapt new employees, for them a special group was created, where all the resources that they can use are collected. Looking through corporate news, profiles, dealer boards, and the executive's blog, new employees quickly understand corporate culture, staff expectations, and standards of behavior.
As for the sales units, in addition to the existing CRM system, partner profiles were created. Each profile includes reference and analytical information about the partner, a history of working with him, and related discussions. Moreover, to enter data and use information can people from various sales and internal departments. Due to this, managers and employees working with this partner got a clear picture and an opportunity to make better decisions, expand the range of products and services offered, involve other departments in their work when working with a large customer.
Elena Stepkina: “I believe that something can always be done better. Jive added transparency to us and revealed a number of difficult topics. I'm sure: this is for the good of the company, because if you think that everything is fine with you, this is the way to nowhere. It is better to know that you are ill, then you can cope with it. It helps us to develop further. ”
Around the products, manufacturers, partners, spaces were created and, when an important question arises, employees quickly find the necessary material or ask a question to the community, receiving a competent response from an employee versed in the subject.
Andrei Skvortsov: “I had a case where our regional team worked on a transaction of 500 thousand dollars, offering test equipment and training to the client. On the phone I received information that the customer can choose another supplier. I did not know the parameters of the transaction and I did not have an instant argument in our favor. But I understood which group in Jive I could ask a question, and all the necessary people - Moscow and regional - would definitely catch up. And an hour later I received a letter from the client, in which he confirmed the deal with us and thanked us for the services already rendered to him. ”
***
The next stage of development is the creation of a partnership community so that partners can interact with RRC through Jive and see the benefits of this interaction.
Andrey Skvortsov: “Partnership is a vital necessity, it is a value for the sake of which we are really building our company. We see that the Partnership will allow us to benefit not only from the fact that we consolidate various services in ourselves, but also from the fact that there will be system integrators who will receive support for the development of their business and, accordingly, will be able to release creative initiative and increase their support. the quantity and quality of the projects they do. "
RR is an international IT distributor with offices in 15 cities of Russia, the CIS countries and Eastern Europe. Today, RRC has a fairly extensive structure and operates in four directions, providing products for collecting, transmitting, storing and protecting data. RRC partners - and there are more than 4,000 of them - are system integrators, resellers, sub-distributors, telecom operators, online stores.
Andrei Skvortsov, CEO of RRC Russia, sees the basis for business success in developing partnerships: “We are confident that distribution should strengthen its relationship with the channel by offering additional services along the entire path of the product from manufacturer to end user. Naturally, all these tasks require intensive communications in order to promptly convey information to the partner and collect information from him about expectations and the services he needs. ”
')
Situation
In a dynamic IT industry, there are two main characteristics of a company's success: competence and speed. In connection with the branched structure in the company, there was a need for employees to actively exchange ideas, competencies, partnership base, share ways to attract partners.
Yulia Sudienkova, HR Director, RRC Group: “We believe that every employee has the potential, and that this potential is realized, we must train any person we bring to the company, regardless of their competence and experience. Unfortunately, we do not have enough time to allow all the new people we attract to train with sufficient intensity and quality. ”
Similarly, there is a need for interaction between departments and offices, so that employees who are engaged in business support understand and be understood by their colleagues from the front office. Many employees are in constant movement and business trips, and internal and external negotiations should be carried out constantly. A tool was needed that would complement the format of meetings and allow for quick decisions.
Elena Stepkina, community management manager: “I work in a branch in St. Petersburg, and we work well together within our team. But at some point we discovered: the company has grown to such proportions that people in different regions have become difficult to identify each other. Information began to reach us with delays and distortions; it became difficult for us to make decisions about how to act in a given situation. ”
But competence and speed are needed not only within the team, but also in working with partners. The supply chain includes four components: manufacturer - distributor - partner - customer. And when a question is being resolved, a quick response from the client is needed, for example, questions of assigning responsibilities and informing the partner.
Andrei Skvortsov: “The success of a transaction and the quality of preparation depend on the speed of decision making, because if we provide information 3 days earlier than our competitor, this is very significant. There are situations that are connected not only with tenders, there are sharp fluctuations in the rate or other banking situations. Given the economic conditions, in the absence of a quick response, we can suffer heavy losses. ”
Decision
Understanding that competence and speed are needed within the company and in a partner environment, the Russian division of RRC decided to unite its employees and partners into a single “RRC Partnership” community. The objective of the Partnership is to unite employees and partners to achieve high business results, engage staff, form common values, accumulate knowledge, exchange experience and reduce the boundaries between departments, cities and countries.
Andrei Skvortsov: “Our first task is to involve our own team as much as possible so that the community includes as many areas of our internal interaction as possible. We want employees to exchange ideas, competencies, partner base among themselves, share ways to attract partners. The second is the creation of a partnership community so that our partners can interact with us and with each other on a single platform and that we collectively provide competence to the market. To summarize, we are building an open communications partnership community. To introduce an open communication system between partners, we need to build it inside. ”
Platform Selection
At the selection stage, RRC employees tested several platforms.
RRC operates in a dynamic industry where information ownership is a competitive advantage. And we must simultaneously unite the team, attract partners and at the same time preserve the identity of all four business departments. People had to combine not only according to their interests, but also to reproduce the structure of the organization on the online site. Therefore, the first key requirement was to have the maximum number of opportunities for configuring the space for collaboration - open groups, isolated closed societies, external users.
The second point is that company employees must manage to work with a large amount of information, participate in a variety of negotiations and meetings. Therefore, it is difficult for them to pay attention to numerous IT systems; they need one entry point into the corporate space. Currently, the company has two main information windows - Outlook and accounting system. The package from Jive Software turned out to be attractive, because it not only closes a wide variety of communications, but also can be integrated through the Jive for Outlook application, and therefore there is no need to retrain people.
Yaroslav Uvenkov, RRC IT Director: “We had an installation that the platform we choose should be international, respond to our requests and at the same time observe a balance between openness and confidentiality. I'm not sure that there is a platform at all similar to Jive, which would give the same functionality. I can not say that Jive covers all expectations, but it most fully covers the needs of communications and really helps to realize many tasks. I really liked that colleagues from “Supereon” gave us the opportunity to test several social platforms. Thus, we made sure that Jive-n is useful and convenient for us. ”
Implementation
Since the company operates in the field of information technology, initially there was an expectation that Jive would be perceived as easily as modern public social networks. However, in the first steps, the preferences in the team were divided, a number of employees were not ready to change the system of existing social relations and their habits in using software.
Andrei Skvortsov: “Of course, a significant step for success was the involvement of the company“ Supereon ”as a team, which explained to us that the introduction of social networks and communities does not occur by itself, that this is a serious and complex integration into the life of the company. Jive is not a boxed product, you cannot take it and sell it to some company so that it turns around and starts up. This product should be accompanied by a team that will implement the implementation, only in this case the product will take root. In opposition to natural resistance within the team, initiative leaders are needed who have the ability and desire to constantly participate in the community. We find them, attract and encourage them, and by their personal example they demonstrate to their colleagues the benefits of participation in the community. ”
The change in the way of communication turned out to be connected with the inevitable cultural changes in the organization. We had to look at aspects of the security policy in a new way, it was necessary to build new standards. The initiative team has found its own ways of motivation and involvement.
Yulia Sudienkova: “Even with obvious opportunities to optimize work, people don’t want to move away from their usual ways of working easily and simply, the system needs to be studied, people need to be trained to work in the system and new ways of working. To begin with, we began to use Jive for corporate-wide communications - now the team responds well to information from the HR department, learns about corporate news and events, new colleagues, changes in the company. We see peaks of attendance of people in the network related to the activities that we hold. ”
Within the framework of the social intranet deployment project, the “Supereon” was responsible for the entire implementation cycle: setting the mission and business tasks for the community, installing the platform, setting up and creating content, training regular users, training opinion leaders in the basics of community management, and engaging users in the community.
Vladimir Ivanitsa, founder of Supereon: “Our company specializes in the development of productive communities, and the installation of the Jive social platform is only part of the task. The basis of the success of the community we see in bringing people around a common goal. Therefore, we focus on working with people and managing organizational change. ”
In the course of the project, users noted the prompt response to requests and the suggestion of ideas for expanding the functionality used. The information in the answers was complex with specific proposals for the implementation of certain tasks.
Yulia Sudienkova: “The guys from Supereon gave us a lot of ideas, quickly and comprehensively solved each issue, demonstrated the use of Jive in their own work. But the matter is not only in competence, even more our employees value interest. Everyone said that the participation of Supereon in the project was not a formality for them, they themselves were passionate about our common task. ”
Result
A survey of employees showed that Jive had established corporate-wide communications, after which a longer stage of transition from quantity to quality, i.e. increase the business value of the community.
Using Jive, it became easier and faster to solve typical problems and questions, it is now easy to find up-to-date reference information and document templates, you can see new vacancies, online booking of meeting rooms, planning of events, holding meetings, applications with step-by-step coordination and a number of other possibilities. And this, first of all, unloaded the internal divisions that created their own internal information storefronts of services, and now they don’t have to waste their time answering the same questions.
It became easier to adapt new employees, for them a special group was created, where all the resources that they can use are collected. Looking through corporate news, profiles, dealer boards, and the executive's blog, new employees quickly understand corporate culture, staff expectations, and standards of behavior.
As for the sales units, in addition to the existing CRM system, partner profiles were created. Each profile includes reference and analytical information about the partner, a history of working with him, and related discussions. Moreover, to enter data and use information can people from various sales and internal departments. Due to this, managers and employees working with this partner got a clear picture and an opportunity to make better decisions, expand the range of products and services offered, involve other departments in their work when working with a large customer.
Elena Stepkina: “I believe that something can always be done better. Jive added transparency to us and revealed a number of difficult topics. I'm sure: this is for the good of the company, because if you think that everything is fine with you, this is the way to nowhere. It is better to know that you are ill, then you can cope with it. It helps us to develop further. ”
Around the products, manufacturers, partners, spaces were created and, when an important question arises, employees quickly find the necessary material or ask a question to the community, receiving a competent response from an employee versed in the subject.
Andrei Skvortsov: “I had a case where our regional team worked on a transaction of 500 thousand dollars, offering test equipment and training to the client. On the phone I received information that the customer can choose another supplier. I did not know the parameters of the transaction and I did not have an instant argument in our favor. But I understood which group in Jive I could ask a question, and all the necessary people - Moscow and regional - would definitely catch up. And an hour later I received a letter from the client, in which he confirmed the deal with us and thanked us for the services already rendered to him. ”
***
The next stage of development is the creation of a partnership community so that partners can interact with RRC through Jive and see the benefits of this interaction.
Andrey Skvortsov: “Partnership is a vital necessity, it is a value for the sake of which we are really building our company. We see that the Partnership will allow us to benefit not only from the fact that we consolidate various services in ourselves, but also from the fact that there will be system integrators who will receive support for the development of their business and, accordingly, will be able to release creative initiative and increase their support. the quantity and quality of the projects they do. "
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/297084/
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