By Cheryl Strege, The Partner Marketing Group
In October I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Florida at Intacct Advantage, the annual conference for partners and their customers. I must say it’s pretty great to be in Orlando in the fall, even if it is for work (and very pleasant work at that!).
Here are my 3 top takeaways from Intacct Advantage 2016:
1. There’s no substitute for partners, ISVs and customers in the same room.
Whenever a publisher has the chance to get partners, customers and ISVs together, the “good stuff” happens. People suddenly start talking to each other, sharing their experiences, and making connections, even to and from the airport. I had such fun talking to a customer in the conference shuttle. I learned about their company (based in the US with offices in Norway and Australia), what software they had used previously (Peachtree, then Oracle), and why they purchased Intacct. The customer had specific requirements a cloud-based ERP could and did solve.
2. A thought provoking keynote by Tiffani Bova, Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist for Salesforce.com.
Not only is Tiffani a smart, confident speaker but she’s taken her wealth of knowledge from working at Gartner and other places to deliver a clear-cut address on the customer experience. One of the slides from her presentation (below) caught my attention. This statement made me think about our own customer experience and advocacy efforts. We can all think of examples of customer experiences we’ve had—bad and good—and how far-reaching the impact can be.
3. Intacct is not just a channel-centric company, but also a people-centric company.
After 28 years in this industry, I’ve had the chance to observe great leaders and not-so-great leaders. Great leaders lead by example and inspire others to do the same. The people at Intacct, from the top down, are committed to their partner channel for more than just the monetary benefits. Whether it was during/after the Q&A, in the hallway, at the receptions, or any point in between, Rob Reid (Intacct CEO), Taylor Macdonald (VP of Channels), and the other execs weren’t surrounded by a wall of “handlers” intent on keeping the masses at bay, and they didn’t hustle away right after their presentation(s). They, and the rest of the channel team, spent their time with partners and ISVs to ensure they not only had the info they needed to be successful, but “felt the love” as well.
Did you attend Advantage? What did you think? Share your takeaways in the comments and we hope to see you at Advantage 2017!
