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Welcome to ChannelWaves, the podcast where channel

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leaders share success strategies, best practices, and emerging

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trends brought to you by StructuredWeb.

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Here's your host, Steven Kellam.

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Welcome, everyone, to ChannelWaves, StructuredWeb's

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view into everything channel.

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And I'm your host, Steven Kellam.

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Thanks, everybody, for joining us today.

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Very excited to have Gina

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Batali-Brooks joining us today.

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Hi, Gina. Hey, it's Steven. How are you?

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Well, so those of you who don't know Gina, and

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you should know Gina if you're in the channel.

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Gina is the founder and president at it Is Inspired.

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We're going to talk about

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integrations today, by the way.

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That's where we're going to head in fairly quickly.

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And I think I live integrations

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on a pretty regular basis.

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Gina lives them on a daily basis.

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And it's become such a staple of everything that

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I'm talking about or we're talking about in every

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conversation with all of our clients or our prospects.

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And I don't know if I want to say it's getting worse.

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It's just getting deeper.

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And just the expectations from my perspective is the

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bar has been raised so high on integrations that

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you just got to have it down today.

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And what we're going to talk a little bit today

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is why that is what's happening in the world today,

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some of the challenges, and we're going to leave you

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with some best practices on things you can do.

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And maybe we don't even have all the answers,

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but hopefully we could have the questions that you

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can ask to get those answers right.

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But anyways, from my perspective, Gina, and I'll let you

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take it from here or start it from here.

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The expectations on how fast and what the results

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of integrations are, are just through the roof today.

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When we get on calls with the IT team, like, if

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you're not on all cylinders on how to get that done,

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they don't want to have anything to do with you. Okay.

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Their patience becomes very slight.

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So maybe you could start today with, from your

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perspective, maybe tell folks a little bit about what

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you do and why you're so involved this.

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And maybe we can talk a little bit

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about why integrations is so important today. Yeah.

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So Is Inspired is a

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channel infrastructure consulting company.

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So we focus on all things

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partnership in the tech stack.

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So that's data systems, processes, and the people that

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make that all tick so that you can be

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successful with your programs and your channel strategy.

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And so it's really about, we always say we speak

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geek and we speak channel, and we like to combine

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those together so that it makes the channel program sing.

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And so, obviously, a big piece of any tech stack

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is the integrations and how to make those work.

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And actually, the core to me is the data. Right.

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And so anybody who's worked with me knows that

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for years and years since I started, data has

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been kind of the foundation to us of what

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data needs to be, where to drive what.

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And so to me, that's the core of the

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integrations and why they need to be there.

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And I think one of the things that we're seeing

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so much is with whatever you want to call it,

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ecosystems, federated partnerships, whatever term you want to call.

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But what we're seeing is this ability to meet

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the partners and the aspects of the ecosystem where

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they're at, and to provide the data that's needed

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in a very real time and meaningful way.

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And so we're starting to see, not

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just within an organization, the integrations being

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important, but outside the organizations to make

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the full partnerships actually work.

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And I think that's kind of an

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interesting dynamic that's making the integrations much

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more relevant and much more challenging.

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Much more challenging.

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I personally, since I was a partner,

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that's been a long time, I'll always

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look at it from a partner perspective.

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And I remember when I was running an

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MDF company, Gina, this goes back so far.

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This is probably before you and I met.

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There was a report that the partners wanted

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from a very large vendor, and they wanted

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to see their MDF, their rebates, their incentive.

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They want to see all of these.

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And you could probably pull leads into that as well, too, but

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they wanted to see all of it in a single place.

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And this was back when you had incentives were in

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one place, and MDF was one place, and rebates were

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in one place, and leads were in one place.

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And as a partner, they used to drive me crazy.

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And I remember the first time I saw

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a partner benefit summary page at this vendor,

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and it had all been pulled together.

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And to get that data now, it seems pretty easy, right?

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Okay, we'll talk about that.

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But to get all that data in one place, I remember we

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showed it to a partner, and they were like, oh, my word.

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And then the vendor was like, can you imagine,

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sorry, total aside, can you imagine being a partner

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manager, a CAM, and trying to show the benefits

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of all the benefits that you're giving to a

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partner and trying to pull them together in four

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different places and four different slides?

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It's just a nightmare for everybody. Yeah.

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Obviously, with things like AI

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being in the forefront everywhere.

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Being able to have real time access to

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the data that you need super important, and

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quality data is super important to do anything

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to realize some of the benefits of AI.

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And so, again, the integrations and some of the

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things we're starting to see around, and not that

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these are new terms, but I'm actually starting to

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see them being implemented, and implemented well, in some

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cases around things like data mesh and data fabric,

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and looking for ways to unify, to come and

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look at data, regardless of which systems they're in.

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And that enables you to be able to get

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rid of some of the point-to-point integrations

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that have been going on, which are fragile, especially

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when you get outside of an organization.

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One side changes something, and all

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of a sudden it breaks everything.

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And so we were working with a customer who

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had done that and done a great job of

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integrating with some of their partners, some of their

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big partners, and they said just the maintenance of

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trying to keep the integrations up was so hard.

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And so I think some of the new structures coming

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out and seeing people, I talked to somebody the other

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day who's got a data fabric implemented, and they said,

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literally, they're getting ready to change out their CRM, and

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it's no problem because the data fabric is there.

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And it's not a point-

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to-point integration with anything.

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It's one integration they have to

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write into the data fabric.

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And so, to me, that was just, like, kind

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of mind blowing, because you hear, I'm not to

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cut you off, but I haven't heard that yet. I have yet.

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To be in a situation where someone

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has said that, that's actually pretty cool.

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And I would think that most of our

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listeners and viewers have not experienced, you know,

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like I said, data fabric is a term.

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NetApp has been talking about it for years.

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I mean, it's a term that's been around there.

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And in concept, it's always interesting.

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And I know Forrester's got a lot of stuff

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around it, but to hear a customer talk about

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it actually being implemented and the fact that they

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can switch things in and out is just.

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I mean, it was pretty cool.

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I think the opposite side, I was on a call

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the other day, and it was an hour long call.

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Someone's replacing their PRM and their TCMA, and the

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nightmare in dealing with the CRM and the nightmare

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of that call, you could see the trepidation.

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It was interesting.

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And you might relate to this because you're in

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the middle of this, more than I am.

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I was sitting back and listening to it.

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And normally I think about, okay, what's the effort

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level on my side at a TCMA, or my

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partner at the PRM or the MDF?

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I literally was thinking, Gina, what's the effort level of

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the client that they're having to go through this?

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Because it's very opposite of what you're talking

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about with all the point-to-point integrations.

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That's right.

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And I think the other thing I was reading that

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was kind of interesting is Accenture said that 90% of

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the data has been produced in the last ten years.

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And then Forrester came out with a report saying

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that 32% of the people they interviewed are not

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getting any value out of the data.

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It's 90%.

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But how much is relevant? Yeah.

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And I think it was 27 or

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28% are saying that there's no actionable.

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Only 27 or 28% say they can

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actually take action on the data.

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And so if you think about that and think

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about what we're trying to do in the partnership

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world where you're using, ideally you can be able

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to say, hey, based on a transaction that's happening,

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what's the right contact content and the immediate recommended

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next action for somebody to take in order to

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have the best chance of closing that deal?

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That data is coming from multiple places.

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Some of that might be in your data warehouse,

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some of that might be in your content library,

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some of that might be in your CRM.

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And so how do you get all of

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that together to start really making that happen?

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It's exciting, and I think there's a lot of

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movement in this space, but people need to really

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start thinking about what that data architecture looks like

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and how they want to have these integrations that

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can be maintainable over time. Right.

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Because the other thing that's happening, as you know

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all too well, is the amount of the functionality

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that's coming out in systems and the system availability

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in the partnership space, and how new things are

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coming out all the time.

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And you want to be able to take advantage of

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those little point things that make your life easier.

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And how do you then integrate that all in together?

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I mean, this is exactly what you had me thinking about.

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And if one lags behind the other, you just

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minimizing the effectiveness, for instance, as well as I

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do that some of the functionality is, well, what

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if we could, in a deal registration, have that

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content lined up from an AI perspective to automatically,

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as you say, go to that, right, partner? Based on what?

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But it's the base, on what side?

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So the functionality is there in the

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tech stack to get that there.

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But then you have to figure out who is

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that right partner, where in that buyer's journey.

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And I feel like we're a smidgen away from that.

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I think the tech stack is actually

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caught up in some of that functionality.

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And we just need to get that

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data to be able to get that. Right, partner.

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That's right.

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And not rely on the partner to tell you that.

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I had to laugh because I was the partner. Yeah.

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And they don't have time.

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The whole point I was like, hey, we got

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this really cool thing for you, and it's really

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automated and AI is going to make this beautiful.

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Oh, but wait, here's the missing part.

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You now have to tell us stuff versus just going in and.

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Yeah.

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Being able to learn it from what's

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in your environment and the deal past

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experiences and all those kinds of things.

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So, yeah, the vision that I've had for years

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about where this could be going, it's so exciting

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because you can start to see it happening.

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We've got a ways to go, but it's pretty cool, right?

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It's pretty cool. Okay.

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We could talk about AI.

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We could talk about this forever, but we're going

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to wrap this up and let you reach out

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to Gina or you can reach out to me.

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If you want to get deeper on this, you can go online.

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But I thought I would wrap it up

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with what's the biggest challenge that you see

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out there and what's the biggest opportunity?

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Yeah.

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So I think the biggest challenge comes to really

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having a strategy about how you want to do

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your integrations moving forward and having that be making

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decisions on, are you going to have centralized processes

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for it, decentralized processes for it, how are you

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going to govern it and make sure there's security

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around all of it right.

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As you're reaching outside of walls.

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And so to me, that aspect of figuring out the

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approach that you want to take for that, what's the

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biggest opportunity that you see out of this, right.

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And who's going to win by taking advantage of this.

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So who are going to be the

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winners and what's the biggest opportunity?

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Yeah, so I think the biggest opportunity is to

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harness the value of the data, to drive processes,

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actionable insight, AI, and to be able then to

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use that across all of your systems. Right.

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And so I think that's the biggest opportunity.

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I think, as it relates to who's going to win,

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it's the people that figure that out and really understand

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now that they have to get the strategy in place

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for that so that as things mature around AI and

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the integrations and systems and all of that, as that

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all starts to mature more and more and take advantage,

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they'll be able to take advantage of that functionality.

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Okay, I know I said that was a wrap up, but I've got

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one more question for you on this, and I can't help it.

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This promise, the last thing, because we were

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trying to keep these things short and sweet.

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Who's owning this?

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And the reason I bring this up

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is because my stakeholder has changed.

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We're in the through channel marketing automation, but

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we tie into everyone else there, right.

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Integrations are 100% key for us.

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But I'm looking at who owns the big project

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and it used to be point based, right.

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The marketing individuals or owners would do one.

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You had the MDF and you have PRM.

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I'm personally seeing people in the IT department

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owning the whole project and the whole landscape.

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I'm seeing a shift towards the

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person who owns those integrations.

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And it's interesting, they're having to take this all up

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a level and pull in all of these business owners.

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It's been fascinating to me to watch how that goes.

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I'm curious what you're seeing is what I'm seeing just

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kind of a one off on some of my opportunities,

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or is it moving more towards this direction in general?

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Yeah.

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So I think it all depends on the strategy.

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So obviously the data and IT organizations are

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from a data strategy and integration strategy are

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going to drive a lot of this. Right.

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The question comes down to of

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which type of strategy you choose.

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Do you choose more of a decentralized, like a

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data mesh type of an approach where you have

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products from a data perspective and you have organizations

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that are the data owners and they're publishing products

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that other people can use?

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Or do you have more like a data

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fabric perspective where it's more centralized and governed?

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More centralized.

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The systems still are in their relative areas,

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but how the data is looked at is

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more central still allowing you more flexibility than

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all the data being in one place.

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I think it's going to really depend on, and there's

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pros and cons to both of them as start talking

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to people and I was talking to somebody else who's

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done, who's implementing data mesh right now, and to take

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advantage of some of the AI and they feel like

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they can move faster because they can provide that to

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different departments but still have an overall.

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It just, I think it really depends from an

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ownership perspective how it lays out down the road.

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All right, Gina, thank you for joining us today.

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It's been a pleasure. Steven.

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Always a pleasure.

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It's great.

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And what's the best way for people to

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reach out to, to talk to you offline?

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Yeah.

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So you can always reach out to me via LinkedIn.

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Gina@isinspired.com is my email.

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Love to talk to.

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I love this stuff is so interesting to me.

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If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

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Fascinating.

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So here's my last plug for Gina.

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This was several years ago, before we met, and I

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was asking someone in my space of friends who's the

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most unbiased technology person I could talk to.

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That's no BS, is just going to tell me

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exactly what they see and exactly what they work,

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what works, and treat me like an adult.

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Not to the left, not to the right.

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Just give me the facts.

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And they recommended that I reach out to you.

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So that was a pretty big

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compliment for someone to say that.

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And I have to say, I believe they were correct.

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It's what we believe in, right?

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There's different answers for different problems.

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And the most important thing is to understand the

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problem first and then figure out the solution.

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So that's what we're all about. Okay. All right.

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Once again, Gina, thanks for joining us. Listeners.

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Thanks for joining us.

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Have a great day. Bye.