OpenText Cybersecurity Takes a Stab at Closing the AI Alignment Problem
As in the lack of alignment between what partner programs offer in the age of AI and what members want. For OpenText, a new alliance with Hatz AI is an attempt to begin closing that gap.
In a recent post, I shared data from GTIA indicating a modest but still worrying erosion of member satisfaction with vendor partner programs, as well as GTIA analyst Carolyn April’s hypothesis that misalignment between what partners want from channel programs in the age of AI and what those programs provide is probably to blame.
Mike DePalma, VP of business development at OpenText Cybersecurity and a member of GTIA’s channel executive council, saw that data too, and wasn’t surprised by it.
“That’s one of the biggest conversations that we’re all as vendors trying to figure out,” he says. “We’re all seeing a drop in satisfaction, and we know that we need to change, and it’s hard.”
Like April, he suspects that meeting partners where they are in relation to vendors versus where they once were has a lot to do with the issue. “The MSPs are different than they were 15 years ago,” DePalma (pictured) says. “Partner programs have stayed the same.”
The alliance agreement OpenText announced with Hatz AI last week is DePalma’s first stab at a remedy. It’s also the first example I can think of since I attended that GTIA conference of a channel chief offering a new benefit to partners specifically in response to changing needs due to AI.
And to be clear, this is all about partner sat. There’s no back end integration happening here. The deal is a referral program pure and simple, and a one-way referral program at that, with leads flowing solely from OpenText to Hatz.
“There’s nothing coming back our way,” DePalma says. “We’re looking at it as what can we add to our partner program that they’re asking for that moves the needle.”
Introductions to Hatz was not a guess. OpenText asked partners what would move the needle in focus groups and got two answers. One was more enablement resources. The other was connections with other vendors. “They’re asking for vendors to work together, to form stronger alliances, whether they’re competitors or not,” DePalma says. The Hatz AI agreement satisfies both asks.
“We want people that are partners to feel that OpenText really cares about us. They don’t just care about what they’re spending with us, they care about helping us grow,” DePalma says.
DePalma and his colleagues at OpenText are exploring lots of ways to send that message at present as they race toward readying an all-new partner program for an official launch on July 1. What they come up with will be of intense interest to OpenText partners. It will also be of some interest to channel watchers like me and channel chiefs at other vendors curious to see what a blank slate partner program for the age of AI looks like.