Editor's note: Last year we introduced the Bamboo Year in Review feature, kicking off with a note from the desk of the CEO and including in-depth Q&As with each of the Bamboo department heads. In keeping with the Bamboo commitment to transparency, we're going to make the Year in Review feature an annual Bamboo Nation tradition. In this installment, we check in with Jill Kunkel, who heads up the Bamboo Partner Programs team.
Membership in Bamboo's Partner Advantage Program continued to increase dramatically in 2009. Will Bamboo continue to grow its network of partners as aggressively in 2010?
2009 was a year of tremendous growth in the Bamboo Partner Advantage Program. We have experienced revenue growth year over year of more than 150%. Globally, we enrolled more than 50 new SharePoint System Integrators and Consulting organizations into the Program. Our plan for 2010 is not to grow the Program at the same rate, but to focus on growing relationships with our current Partners. Given the endless possibilities of the platform, each of our Partners is so different in their approach to SharePoint. Our goal is to leverage the vast vertical expertise of our existing Partners so that we can continue to improve our product offering to support market demand.
How can Bamboo help its partners grow their business? What are the new opportunities for 2010?
The original value proposition to our partners was focused around build vs. buy. This is still the case, but is has expanded to include much more. In addition to our ability to reduce internal development costs and resources, we are now offering out-of-the-box applications which greatly accelerate our Partners' ability to take our joint solutions to the market. We have grown right alongside of our partners, and have been able to adapt to the current demands while continuing to provide value on top of the SharePoint platform. As we continue to evolve from a Web Part company to also provide a wide array of standalone applications and hosted solutions, the tools and technologies we have developed to enable this evolution will be brought to market. Applications such as Bamboo Conductor for workflows will further accelerate the ability of our Partners to bring high value business solutions to market. The Bamboo Partner offering continues to expands and very shortly our web-enabled capabilities will support customer demands should they prefer to deploy either in the cloud or on-premises.
With the Partner network and Bamboo both continuing to grow, do you have plans to hire additional staff in 2010?
At this time, we do not have plans to hire additional staff on the Program team, but we are aggressively increasing headcount on the Sales and Marketing side of the business to support our 2010 marketing initiatives around channel marketing and demand-generation activities with our Partners. We have built a network of highly skilled, experienced SharePoint Partners, each supporting their customer base locally and globally, which contributes to the expeditious growth of SharePoint technology as a platform -- but I feel we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. There are many organizations that still haven't been exposed to, or that don't yet understand the power of SharePoint due to the broad platform and unlimited capabilities. We still have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of people to talk to -- and we plan to accomplish that by working with our Partners to deliver the message around increased ROI and decreased TCO. We will continue to be a product company focusing on products that extend the SharePoint platform. Our Partners will continue to drive adoption through the powerful joint solutions they are bringing to the market with Bamboo.
You were a road warrior for Bamboo again this year, racking up the miles to attend a great many SharePoint shows between the U.S. and Europe. Would it be fair to say that your time spent at shows is filled from morning 'til night with Partner meetings, hosting Bamboo happy hours, and working the occasional shift in the Bamboo booth between meetings?
That is correct. Either I am getting old or the days are getting shorter, as I can't fit as much into one day as I used to! I enjoy the travel tremendously as it gives me the opportunity to personally visit with many of our Partners and to learn more about their individual businesses. The feedback I receive is priceless, as it provides the perspective from the field that our internal teams need in order to continue building relevant products utilizing our recursive development practices. The real world stories have led us to launch the first edition of SharePoint at Work. Look for many more stories from the field as we continue to grow this valuable Bamboo publication.
Speaking of travel, you've just returned from another trip across the pond with the express purpose of meeting with some of our European Partners. Which Partners did you meet with on this particular trip?
I'll have to reflect on this trip in a separate post. The information I have to share is far more than I can summarize within this interview. But in a nutshell - the trip was FABULOUS. We have made great progress this year, and are positioned for much growth in 2010.
What's the one question, concern, or request that you heard most often from our Partners over the course of this year?
The question would be, "How can you help us bring our powerful business solution built with SharePoint and Bamboo to market?" They want to spread the word, we want to spread the word! My answer typically centers on our community site, Bamboo Nation. Look for increased focus and information around the solutions our Partners are building. And let me clarify "building" - I do not mean building from scratch with a high price tag centered around custom development. I mean cost-effective solutions being built (i.e., configured/architected) with the out-of-the-box capabilities of SharePoint, coupled with Bamboo products and our Partners' industry/vertical/department expertise. Building in today's market is more configuring. Why reinvent the wheel when there are products like Bamboo's available to speed up the path to deployment?
Was there any one key takeaway from your trips to the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) and the SharePoint Conference (SPC), or from the Partners you met with while attending these major events this year?
I can answer that in one sentence: SharePoint is HOT and the possibilities are endless.
Not counting those two major Microsoft shows you attended, what was your favorite show of the year, and why?
Not a fair question, since the SPC was my absolute favorite. The dedicated focus on leveraging and extending SharePoint as a platform was a nice change from the past messaging around just portals and collaboration. The other smaller shows I attended were more of an opportunity to join our Partners in their own localities in support of our partnership and our joint solutions. Such events are just as valuable, as they give us a chance to get a sense of market demands at a local, and industry/vertical-specific level.
You began showcasing individual Partners in a series of Partner Profiles on the Bamboo Team Blog this year. Will we be seeing more of those Profiles over the coming year?
Another great value for our Partners is leveraging the amount of traffic that visits both of our websites - the storefront and Bamboo Nation. The Partner Profiles are a great way to personally get to know each of our partners. We will definitely continue to promote this information to our visitors in 2010.
At the SharePoint Conference, you spotlighted twelve of our Partners, providing each of them with a dedicated block of time as featured guests in the Bamboo booth over the course of the four-day Conference. How did that go?
I mentioned earlier that SPC was my favorite conference of the year. Not only for the focused content, but for the ability to work side by side with some of our Partners. Often it is difficult to explain the power of a product without a use case, so we developed and launched the first edition of our SharePoint at Work publication which includes fourteen Bamboo use cases submitted by our Partners. We then had the publication available at the Bamboo booth, along with the Partner that "built" and deployed the solution. It was a great opportunity for our booth visitors to speak in more detail around the real world use of our products. As I mentioned earlier, look for future editions of what is becoming a very valuable tool for an emerging and evolving SharePoint market.
Read the entire 2009 Bamboo Year in Review package:
Posted
Dec 18 2009, 10:30 AM
by
Jill Kunkel
As the Director of Global Partner Programs, Jill Kunkel has overall responsibility for partner and channel relationships, including driving incremental revenue and program management. Jill is a resourceful and team-oriented professional with over ten years of experience within the software industry, ranging from entrepreneurial start-ups to a major technology corporation. Her technology career began at Microsoft, where she contributed to the formation of the Customer and Partner Experience initiatives which are still in place today. Prior to joining Bamboo Solutions, Jill held positions with other Microsoft ISV Partners focused on SharePoint technology, where she was instrumental in building and launching their existing channel partner programs. Her ability to navigate within the Microsoft Partner ecosystem is reflected in her consistent record for creating and developing relationships to deliver value for all parties.