B2B e-commerce platform vendor k-ecommerce recently appointed channel veteran Rich Fowler to lead the next iteration of its partner programming. Channel Insider caught up with Fowler as he wrapped his first two weeks on the job to learn more about what he plans to bring to k-ecommerce resellers.
Fowler brings decades of experience to build channel approach
Fowler has worked on all sides of the channel, including at a solutions provider and within partner organizations at major vendors across the Microsoft ecosystem for decades. He was most recently at Stratos Cloud Alliance, a company he once thought he’d retire at, until the potential of k-ecommerce lured him away.
“I’ve spent my entire career basically either working with partners, for partner, and as a partner,” Fowler said. “I could see from the years I had spent watching them, and could see from what they were telling me, that k-ecommerce wants to build the channel the right way and do right by its partners, and that opportunity to come here and do that really excited me.”
Fowler says his channel philosophy is rooted in the belief that all roads lead back to the end customer, without whom neither the partner nor vendor would be successful. To Fowler, this commitment to the customer outcome is directly tied to building mutual success between reseller partners and vendors.
Fowler also knows that partners have options in the market, and they won’t feel compelled to work with a company unless the program provides them with the tools to succeed.
“A partner isn’t going to care about any program if it doesn’t work for them,” Fowler said. “We have a true partner-first strategy here in everything we do. Across the board, our partners and their customers are equally important to us.”
From totally hands-off to fully collaborative: approaching the customer with the partner at the center
At k-ecommerce, Fowler knows he is targeting a wide variety of expertise within the reseller base.
“Partners can do as much or as little as they want with us,” said Fowler. “We have some partners who will want to do it all and just take the tech and run. We have other partners who have, frankly, no experience at all with ERPs but know their customers need what we provide. And we’ll have plenty of partners in between the two ends of the spectrum. What we need to do is meet all partners where they are and deliver what they need to ultimately make the customer successful.”
The company describes k-ecommerce as a “B2B online commerce and payment solution that uses ERP data to support high volume operations and personalized, high-performing B2B web stores.” The product automates the buying journey through integrations with leading ERPs, including SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics, and others.
The solution addresses various business concerns that many partners’ customers face, meaning resellers and providers who can leverage k-ecommerce stand to directly improve their customers’ ordering, distribution, and payment workflows.
“We’re always asking, ‘how can we help the partner take care of the customer,’ and our technology really helps businesses meet the demands of buyers today,” Fowler said. “If a business’s customers don’t have the ability to place an order online at any time from anywhere and have the online site accurately show inventory, time to delivery, and such, then you are probably losing that sale and maybe even that customer.”
“A lot of the platforms in market were really built for the B2C model and are now trying to adapt to fit into B2B motions. We’re B2B from the start, and we live in the manufacturing and distribution spaces. We build solutions to help organizations in the space.”
Why verticals are the right focus for partners and vendors alike
Fowler advises any partner, particularly those in the k-ecommerce ecosystem, to specialize within one or a few key verticals.
“I’ve always been a big vertical-first person,” Fowler said. “I always tell partners that if they can go into a room with a potential customer as an expert in their industry, and explain not only what you can do for them with technology but how that will actually solve their business problems, and show real awareness of what those are, then it’ll be very hard for anyone to compete with you for that business.”
Fowler and the wider team are focused primarily on VAR partnerships across many verticals, including manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, and others.
The team has already rolled out changes to its partner portal experience and convened partners for roundtable discussions on how the company can best support mutual growth initiatives this year.
Channel programs continue to shift to better address the needs of providers and resellers. Learn more about how these changes affected vendors throughout last year.