Blog of Roger Greene, CEO

I didn’t need to go surfing even once to know that without waves, there would be no ride. You could float, maybe drift, but you wouldn’t go where you wanted. That lesson isn’t so obvious for surfing the software channel, but it is just as true. In the early days, 19 years ago, our products were new, without awareness or pull – not the right fit for the channel. So we started by selling direct, and making it easy for customers to purchase through a reseller if that is what they preferred. We knew we couldn’t reach our entire target market (at that time) of small to medium organizations by ourselves, but we decided we would rather prove ourselves one customer at a time and learn from the experience. As a boot-strapped start up, if we made a big marketing push and missed the mark, we would be risking disaster and could be out of business. So even though the channel was our long term strategy, we did not seek it out. We needed to build a reputation and market demand. That approach kept us growing slowly with a small profit for a few years. Over time, we built up relationships with resellers and distributors and our business through them. We put a lot of thought into establishing and managing channel partnerships. If we pushed too hard for lower discounts, didn’t provide good service, or didn’t have strategic alignment, the channel wouldn’t be motivated. Conversely, if we offered too much, our profits would suffer. It is a delicate balancing act, just like on a surfboard.

Our goals in setting up a channel program were:

1. Make it easy for our customers to buy.  Give them the choice to buy from their partner of choice or buy from us direct at list price.
2. Be channel-friendly, with good margins. Provide more than discounts, with pre-sales technical assistance, product training, deal registration and a partner web portal.
3. Make our sales force appreciate the channel as an extension of themselves. This requires carefully thought-out compensation plans to make them equally happy regardless of where the customer purchases.
4. Clear rules of engagement to encourage the channel to invest and seek out customers, without reason to worry that we would take the business from them.
5. Through all of the above, gain market share and increase profit.

In addition, we strive to communicate and to be responsive and predictable. We try to be clear about our channel philosophy, strategy and tactics and avoid surprises. We expect the same of our partners.

Over the years we and our partners have put a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources into our relationships. As we, our channel partners and our markets evolve and grow, our channel program adapts to meet current needs and make sure our interests continue to align. We pride ourselves on understanding how important the channel is to us and providing a real commitment to our mutual success. We recognized early on that trust is the key to a successful channel program. We are proud that we have earned that trust over these many years.

Just like the ocean, the channel is vast, deep and powerful – a force with great potential that is important to understand and respect.

Please check out our partner pages for Network Management, Secure File Transfer and Messaging to give you a sense for our partner programs.

Last night I checked out a new restaurant called Life Alive in Central Square (Cambridge, Massachusetts). I think they got it right, which I find especially remarkable for their first week. I felt good walking into the place – the layout was nice, and the decor was warm and welcoming. The staff was cheerful, helpful and human. I ordered at the counter – and enjoyed the experience. Then I sat down at a counter at the window which had a row of interesting, thoughtfully selected books for diners to browse while eating. They even have a policy that if you get wrapped up in a book you can give them a $5 deposit and borrow the book. This is a place that wants to make you feel good about being there. I was won over before I had anything to eat. Then the food arrived, and – no surprise – I found it delicious. The whole experience was a welcome contrast  – doing it right takes vision, heart, commitment and operational expertise and I think most restaurants lack one or more.

So how does this apply to software? When thinking about the products we sell, we like to consider the entire customer experience, from talking to a salesperson, to visiting our website, to downloading an evaluation, to installing our software, to calling to ask sales or technical support a question, to making it easy to purchase the way that works best for you – from us, from a reseller, or via e-commerce on our web site, to managing or renewing your service. The software is at the core, but good software without the rest makes for an incomplete and unsatisfying experience. We strive to provide a superior customer experience. Many times we succeed, but we always see room for improvement. We appreciate your comments about how we are doing and suggestions about how we can make your experience better.

While I was waiting for my meal I started an interesting book about founding and managing a private company. I decided to leave it there and resume where I left off when I return for another meal. I’ll write more about the book another time.

Years ago I learned an important lesson from Bart Wendell, CEO coach. At the time, I tended to stay in the office and fill most of my day with ad-hoc meetings and a list of tasks that grew and shrank, but was never fully completed. I was busy and felt productive, but Bart helped me understand that I was missing something important – informal, external communication. No purpose, no agenda, just time spent doing something unstructured outside of the office. Bart said that by spending time on informal, external communication, good CEOs often get their best strategic insights.

For the past few years, the moderator of my CEO group (Melissa Raffoni) has incorporated more informal time into our annual retreat.  This year, we went surfing. I had a blast, because it was new to me, it was a challenge, and with good instruction it was easier than I had expected. I actually managed to stand up for a few seconds a couple of times.

The bottom line, though, is that I spent the afternoon with some smart executives out of our typical environment, which enhanced our subsequent conversations about business.

The summer before business school I worked in Brussels at the Belgian space institute, during which I learned about launching various objects into the upper atmosphere and beyond. The scientists traveled to South America to launch high altitude balloons to study the earth’s atmosphere; when the balloons eventually fell back to earth they would trek through the jungle to find them. It sounded like a fun adventure.

I was reminded of that summer when I learned that the European Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station will be using WS_FTP to securely transfer files between the space station and earth. Even though WS_FTP is used so many ways by so many people, I think it is particularly cool that it will be used for science in space.

Alain Maillet talks to the International Space Station

It is time to move. Our headquarters has been in the same building near Boston for close to ten years. We like the space – good natural light, convenient location, near a bicycle trail, and more. But we need more room, and were fortunate to find a nice building right around the corner. An added plus is that we get to design the space. We decided not to do a full Google with free gourmet food – we aren’t large enough. I also thought about SASS, which has an impressive campus with day care, medical care and more in North Carolina. I would like to move in that direction, but again, they are a big company.

We look for ways to build community, and designing our new office seemed like a wonderful opportunity to do that in a creative way. Since in homes people often feel most comfortable in the kitchen, I wondered if we could reproduce that at Ipswitch. (Check out this song – I love the pop music from the early 80’s.) The kitchen is the hearth, a warm and comfortable place to gather while food is prepared and eaten.

We would like to create that feeling at Ipswitch, so we are building a nice kitchen to encourage employees, customers, partners and guests to cook together in small groups. We think that gathering around preparing and eating food will make for better relationships and a stronger Ipswitch.