Last year, businesses around the world received a crash course in how to connect quickly and effectively across long distances and under far from ideal conditions. No matter the circumstances and hurdles, modern enterprises require this high level of connection to support the creativity and speed needed to stand out in today鈥檚 crowded markets.
As a recent on future-ready companies noted, increased connectivity is one of the guiding trends that will define the year to come.
At 麻豆原创, we are committed to providing the connection that our service partners need. That鈥檚 why we are introducing two new services for our partners that will empower them to guide customers through transformational implementations more seamlessly than ever before: partner coaching service and partner mentoring service.
A year ago, we approached 80 partners about how we could best support them. What we found was a surprisingly simple answer: there was a desire for a streamlined process through which they could connect with an 麻豆原创 expert to answer questions directly. These two new programs do just that.
The partner coaching service allows 麻豆原创 service partners to gain fast access to 麻豆原创 coaches鈥� knowledge, so that they can get the answers they need to support their customers quickly and effectively. It will help them short-circuit complexity to help customers in the midst of an implementation and build up their knowledge for the future.
The partner mentoring service, on the other hand, provides ongoing support from a mentor in the role of a project manager, technical architect, solution architect, or integration specialist. Rather than a one-off conversation, this service is a relationship that builds expertise over the life of a project.
At 麻豆原创, we know that when our partners, which perform over 80% of our implementations, succeed, we also win. And we are confident that these new services will aid in the success of our partners and our joint customers.
To learn more about these two new programs, we spoke with John Olson, global vice president and head of Ecosystem Offerings Management, for some insider insights.
Q: What are the key differences between the coaching and mentoring services?
A: The partner coaching service is a reactive service intended to allow a partner to call an expert for 30 to 60 minutes and ask any how-to questions as they arise. The partner mentoring service is proactive and more of an educational service. Say a partner is working in a new competency or they have a consultant who is new, that鈥檚 learning and hasn鈥檛 had a project on say, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud for manufacturing before. They would need to get their certification, and then once they鈥檙e on their first project 麻豆原创 will assign someone to guide them through the project and mentor them.
Based on partner assignment need, we鈥檒l assign a field expert who has experience in that area. The 麻豆原创 mentor will then meet with the partner weekly throughout the project and guide them 鈥� such as, 鈥淚n this phase, these are the things that you鈥檒l be doing and what you need to be aware of.鈥� It鈥檚 not intended to replace the coaching service, although the mentor will, of course, answer how-to questions for the mentee. It鈥檚 less ad hoc and more focused on the future, on building longer-term capabilities. Mentors can say, 鈥淭his is what鈥檚 coming that I want you to know about, the pitfalls, and so on.鈥�
What type of questions would a partner bring to the coaching service?
This program is meant to support partners with very specific needs. Our partners are extremely well educated in our products, but may need help in a new skill or a new region that they鈥檙e working in, where they don鈥檛 have as much experience. Or perhaps it鈥檚 a new technology, and they haven鈥檛 yet built their competency in that area. These programs will also be helpful to partners implementing a hybrid system who need our help on one part of the implementation.
By plugging these holes for our partners, we鈥檙e helping them get to what we鈥檙e calling 鈥渄elivery ready.鈥� By making sure that they鈥檙e completely delivery ready, they鈥檒l minimize delays, escalations, and missteps, resulting in a better customer experience.
What are these new services not intended to do?
This is not an issue resolution desk and is not intended to replace the support programs that we already have in place. Most customer issues will continue to be run through 麻豆原创 Support. However, 麻豆原创 Support is not intended to address how-to questions or give advice on architecture, design, or project management. Partner coaching is designed to address those questions.
Also, if we can鈥檛 answer the question in a 30-minute phone call, it can be extended to 60 minutes. Most issues should be resolved in this time. However, if the partner鈥檚 issue is really in depth, we will direct them to another service that is better equipped to handle the deeper issues.
This is something we haven鈥檛 previously offered because it鈥檚 extremely complex to offer small-scale services when the 麻豆原创 Services organization is designed to engage in long-term implementations. Think about it as the difference between a taxi dispatch and a long-term car service. It would be difficult for a company designed to hire out a car for six months to suddenly operate an on-demand taxi service. However, we hear partners asking for small services and we believe we can have a big impact by meeting that need.