Go to market strategies for vendors varies in approach whether it’s entirely direct, indirect or an amalgamation of both. WinMagic adheres to a hybrid approach that best matching the requirements of the customer or business practices within a given region.

I recently presented at an event our distribution partner, Interwork, was hosting for its sales teams and was reminded just how important working with our distribution and reseller partners is. The IT Channel isn’t anything new to me from a business model perspective and I’m a firm believer in the value partners can deliver.

The role they play is invaluable. As a software vendor, we can’t be everywhere at once and our partners become our extended sales team. So keeping our partners in the loop through regular communication, outreach and GTM initiatives is critical. We’re slowly and selectively growing our partner base globally, and doing our best to deliver what they need, but it’s a long road and the speed limit can be a little slow at times.

This is why I find it really encouraging when I’m talking to partners and there’s genuine enthusiasm in what we do and what we’re bringing to market. Then, when we have strong, productive conversations about how to best approach a market, engage other partners and mutually grow our businesses things seem even brighter.

As we enter our new fiscal year this month, we’re very cognizant of how and where we want to grow in 2013 and our partner community will play a large role in that. These partnerships with distributors and resellers in Canada, the United States, U.K., Germany and the rest of Europe, Japan, India and the Middle East help bolster our confidence in our ability to execute and deliver what customers need when and where they need it as we move forward.

SecureDoc 6.1 cometh and we’re sure that our partners will be happy with what we deliver later this month.