Missed our Q1 partner webcast? Let’s get you caught up now. Our latest session covered our FY22 plans, the state of the business, our recent acquisition of erwin® and our Quest® Partner Portal refresh. Read on for a recap or check out the full webcast on demand.
Where is Quest seeing growth?
The Quest fiscal year ended in January. Throughout the pandemic, we focused on remote workforce solutions, and we encourage you to continue to use the content on the partner portal to find areas of opportunity with these solutions. Remote workforce solutions, specifically around Active Directory migrations, information management tools, security, provisioning for users working remotely – all of these solution offerings have had dramatic growth over the last year and will continue to be important areas of focus.
What’s the latest on pipeline creation?
While we did see a dip in Q2, we saw impressive growth in Q3 and Q4. And as we come into this fiscal year, the momentum from your efforts is building. We see how hard you’ve been working to help end users settle into the new normal and build a better remote workforce. As for FY21 pipeline creation, we’re looking at +54 percent YoY, which is just amazing. Going forward, don’t forget to go into the partner portal to accept the terms and conditions to receive your incentives.
What are the big bets for FY22?
We just completed our sales kickoff, and you’ll be able to check out all the videos to get updates from Quest executives and product experts. The overarching theme we heard from all the leadership teams was the role of partners in driving significant growth. Continuing to invest in the channel and improving our partner programs is extremely important to us.
What’s important to you?
Based on feedback from our partner survey, it’s clear that recognition is important to our partners. So as our partner program evolves, partner status recognition will be an even bigger focus for us. We’ll also continue working hard to provide you with up-to-date marketing assets, new opportunities, customer success stories, information on growth markets and easy ways for you to do business with us. Be sure to access our accreditation and certification programs online, which we’re continuing to enhance for you, making it simpler to achieve competencies. We recognize partners all learn in different ways, so we’re providing a variety of opportunities for you to familiarize yourself with our solutions and increase your confidence.
Let’s talk about managed service providers.
Managed services and managed service providers (MSPs) are a big growth area. IDC recommends looking at how we build our products and the importance of allowing them to be consumed as microservices. Our recent acquisition of Quadrotech will help us deliver more granular services, specifically through Nova. We’re also prioritizing cloud marketplaces and building our presence in that space. Quest is seeing significant MSP growth, which we’re working to expand even further with a central program to support our business units, a new MSP sales team, a focus on building our presence in cloud service provider marketplaces and enhancing our programs.
What’s the latest on Quest acquisitions?
We recently acquired Binary Tree, Quadrotech and erwin. Our Binary Tree integration into the Partner Circle Program is now complete. Our go-live goal for integrating Quadrotech partners into the Quest Partner Circle is March 1. We’re just starting the erwin integration into the Partner Circle.
Wait, tell me more about erwin.
For more than 30 years, erwin has provided the gold standard for data modeling. This software provider is the only one that unifies all the critical pieces of the data management and governance lifecycle. What does that mean? They help organizations understand what data they have, where it resides, which people and systems are using that data, which processes for data governance should be used as well as determining how data is relevant and accessible and balancing business and IT needs. With 3,500 customers, 50,000 users and more than 500 valued partners, erwin is incredibly successful and we’re excited to welcome them to Quest.
How will this acquisition affect erwin partners?
Now through July, erwin partners will remain in erwin’s partner program. Effective H2 FY21, erwin partners will be welcomed into the Quest Partner Circle Program and will need to log in there. Of course, we’ll provide you with plenty of updates before then.
Speaking of updates, have you seen the refreshed Quest partner portal?
We’ve made it faster and easier to find what’s important to you. Now you can quickly register a deal, view your opportunities and get training – all from our partner homepage, right after you log in. You can also scroll down the homepage for news and alerts as well as sign up for new webinars, access new campaigns and more. Be sure to sign up for our partner blog to receive important notifications, such as when our sales kickoff videos are posted for you.
Now for the partner Q&A…
When does Q2 begin for Quest?
It starts in May. (Q1 starts February 1.)
When will the price list for Q1 be available?
We’re a bit delayed, due to our acquisitions. For now, you can continue using our latest price list until the end of February when the new one should be available.
Is there a new certification requirement for erwin partners?
We’re in the process of working on our erwin integration, but as we have more information on this and other erwin-related updates, we’ll keep you in the loop. But for now, we’re not introducing new requirements and you’ll retain your status. If and when that’s added, we’ll provide at least a quarter of lead time to ensure a smooth process for you.
When will the new partner levels go live?
These are in process and should be available the first half of this year.
Are there any plans for the expert conference in Europe?
We’re still not planning any large in-person events, so this will likely be virtual.
How will Toad® Data Modeler be differentiated from erwin data modeling tools?
You can learn more about how these products are different by watching the sales kickoff videos. You’ll get plenty of Quest-wide updates by watching those, so be sure to check them out as soon as they’re posted in the next week or two.
What makes your current focus on MSPs different from in the past?
MSPs were a huge topic in sales kickoff. Each of the business units is allocating dedicated resources to MSPs and from an operational standpoint, we’re placing a lot of emphasis here. There will be significant growth in this area later this year. We are all in now from a philosophical and investment standpoint.
Final thoughts
Last year brought a lot of adversity, but looking forward, we’re optimistic about our growth together, and we recognize all the work you’re doing. We’re here to support you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us to get any help you need.
Want more partner updates?
You can view the entire webcast recording and important information for partners by visiting our partner portal today.
