Marc Harpster: Building the Future of Channel Partnerships at Google

Chip Rodgers   0:01  
Hey everyone. Chip Rodgers, Chief partner officer at work, span, and we are here in Seattle, and today has been just a fantastic day,

Marc Harpster  0:08  
wonderful. We've had a great time today.

Chip Rodgers   0:10  
We're here at the Google marketplace exchange event, and it's been just a just a great day. I think. Two, 250, 300 ISVs and partner folks here in the event and

Marc Harpster  0:25  
there we you know, what's great is our buildings have these spaces that we can hold events like this, and makes it really easy to bring our both our ISVs and our channel partners together to network and learn about everything that we're cooking up and partner with you guys to basically make co sell through the cloud easier. That's,

Chip Rodgers   0:46  
that's what it's all about. Yes, exactly. So I'm so excited to be joined by Mark Harpster. Mark is, is channel initiatives, channel strategic channel Strategic Initiatives lead Yes, heading up a lot of a lot of things at Google and and you have a big job. So why don't we start there? Mark, just tell us a little bit about what that means and what you and your team are up to these days. Perfect.

Marc Harpster  1:11  
Sounds good. So I started at Google close to a year ago, and really my role here is to build out our channel programs in terms of helping channel partners. So think of software resellers. Think of system integrators. Think of distributors, anyone who is in the traditional software channel ecosystem. How do you resell through a marketplace, right? And so over the course of the last year, we've released a lot of features that allow the channel partner to deliver offers from an ISV to a customer and basically enhance the entire software buying experience, right? Because the software channel has, you know, for decades, not just resold software, but really added their own capabilities to it, right in terms of service, exactly the services they provide support for it, analytics, like you name it, they make the whole process better. ISVs are thrilled to work with channel partners who add that value. And now we have a feature. You know, in July, we launched a feature that allows an ISV to create an offer plan for a reseller who can then deliver that to the customer. So the goal of today was really to talk a lot about how to grow this business if you're not, if you're an ISV and you're not yet working with a channel partner, who can you work with? Are there cases where there's limitations and there are, and I'm happy to talk about that. How do you deal with that, and how do we work around that? But you know, I also help build go to market programs, both for channel partners and for our ISVs, right? And so in this way, I still work with you guys. I work with folks like tackle and and it's all about finding ways to help our ISVs go to market in the best way possible, right, to grow that CO sell business. And as you know, you know, you guys are one at the forefront of, how does co sell in the cloud work? And so it's been a thrill for the last, you know, 12 months to to just build this business out at Google. Yeah,

Chip Rodgers   3:36  
yeah. It's, it is, it is amazing. And I think, you know, today there were folks, I mean, you know, CDW, TD, cynics, or a number of do it, and another of, you know, resellers or distributors and services folks that are here. So must be awesome, just to see so many people coming together and and wanting to learn about that and figure out how to do it with. Yeah,

Marc Harpster  4:02  
that's exactly right, you know. So resellers at Google have you know, they were pretty big role, right? We've let work with them to basically manage the entire cloud experience for many of our customers, and that includes reselling software out of the marketplace, right? But it's one thing to resell Google Cloud services. It's another to now effectively resell hundreds to 1000s of ISV solutions out of the marketplace, right? And so we've had a steep learning curve, and so we spent a lot of time today talking to both the resellers and the ISVs about, hey, how do you have these conversations in advance? How do you get on the same page, right? If you're selling to a customer who buys through that reseller, and maybe you don't work with that reseller, how can we foster that conversation earlier in the process? You know, it's been a fun journey. For all of us to figure out how to have those conversations.

Chip Rodgers   5:02  
Yeah. Well, and you, today, you had a session on mcpo. You mentioned you. It was launched in in July. How's that? How's that going? How was the session today?

Marc Harpster  5:13  
The session was fantastic. It was a breakout. So we had about 30 people in the room, really diving deep into both what's working well, right? And I'd say, you know resellers who, for years and years have have been selling successfully to these customers. They know their ISVs, they know their customers. And it's really about bringing those, those folks together. They already know how cloud marketplaces work. They are thrilled to be able to do the same thing through Google Cloud. But you know, the resellers who have managed a lot of Google Cloud business over the years, they're still coming up to speed on how all this works. It was very educational for them to learn how, you know, some of the details of how to go and approach those ISVs, right? And earn that business from the ISVs and ISVs saying, Okay, you're the reseller who manages the account for the customer that we're trying to sell to. Who are you? How do we get to know you? There's a lot of networking to happen today. Like you said, it's been a great day. Yeah,

Chip Rodgers   6:20  
it's fantastic. Well, CDW was on state, was in a panel, you know, today, and they some by popping numbers. I think, you know, he mentioned that CDW was two 50 million, I think last year, 400 million this year. And they're really doing a lot with marketplace. And there are a lot of reasons for for ISVs to really connect in with the resellers, because they've got these. They just, like cloud providers, have pre commits. They've got sort of pre commit concept as well, and and now they want to run it through the cloud looks.

Marc Harpster  6:56  
CDW is a great example of a channel partner that's been in the space for a long time, and they're thrilled with with mcpo marketplace channel private offers, because it really allows them to, you know, deliver their own agreement, right, within the guidelines that their ISVs stipulate, but if they're selling to their own customers, right? We've, unlocked the ability to just do the basics of these cloud transactions, and I'm thrilled to see them, you know, not just them, but you know, everyone in this space, a lot of the big, traditional resellers who have been working with, you know, these cloud customers for years and years, just adopt this feature and really, you know, surpass our expectations on how much business they would do as quickly as they have incredible.

Chip Rodgers   7:49  
So you also had another session that was kind of a fun, fun, fun session. I think, you know, it was, it was interesting. I think everyone was like, Okay, how is this going to turn out. So we had, or you, you had you hosted Amit Sina, our president and and, and co founder and as well as John Yankee and and John you, John Yankee from tackle and John you from from sugar. So tell us about that session.

Marc Harpster  8:17  
I mean, I believe it was the first time that all three of you, your companies, the heads of your companies, have been on stage at the same time, and it was fun, right? I mean, we cracked some jokes about, hey, is this Thunderdome? You know, there was a little bit, but at the same time, your your missions are aligned, right? Like each, each of your companies, has done a fantastic job of adding value to the CO sell experience with a cloud provider. And my mission with this panel was a for it not to turn into Thunderdome, but B, to really like highlight, you know, what does work span do? Well, what does tackle do? Well, what does sugar do? Well, and, and just what, what is the opportunity for our ISVs, who work with each of you going forward, right? And I feel like we accomplished that. It was, it was a wonderful session. We've got great input, not only from Amit, but from, you know, both John and John as well. And I feel like the audience was, you know, really plugged in, really excited to hear what each of each of these guys had to say. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.

Chip Rodgers   9:35  
And it came off really well. It was, it was, it was very congenial. We're friends, you know, we see each other regularly, all the time. And, you know, it's, it's and you know, what's interesting is, you know, we were founded in 2015 and we had this idea that, hey, there's this, there's a better way to do partnering. And we think there's a whole category. It's not a category until there are a number of, you know, players. There you get until you get competitors. And so now it's, you know, we're there 100%

Marc Harpster  10:06  
I mean, you guys have, really, all of you combined, have built a whole new market, right? And it shows the power of of the cloud marketplaces. I mean, obviously Google's, but all of the cloud marketplaces that now there's this ecosystem of partners who deeply understand how to go to market in these spaces, right from either helping you list to helping you, you know, integrate into your you know, your CRM as an ISV, how to plug that into the cloud. CRM, the work you guys do is tremendous. All of you, and I am happy to support it. I'm happy to be working with all of you. It's an exciting time, right for not just for ISVs, but increasingly, the channel partners, right, as we start plugging them into these workflows, increasingly start plugging in multi party deals, right? The future is very exciting, and I'm glad we got to talk about that a little bit today. And I'm just, I'm excited for the future, for where we go. Yeah,

Chip Rodgers   11:10  
it's fantastic. So, Mark, did you order up the sun for Seattle? The last two or three days? It was beautiful weather. It's just gorgeous. It

Marc Harpster  11:18  
really is gorgeous. So, September, you know, I'll let the secret out for the world. September in Seattle is perfect. When you get into October, it gets a little dicey, but early October is usually good, and we've had a great couple days here. That's fantastic,

Chip Rodgers   11:33  
Mark. Thank you. Thanks for taking, taking the time and sharing, sharing your thoughts and insights and great day. And Congrats. Congrats congrats on a great event. Thank you all as well, and thanks for joining, and we'll see you next time. Thanks everybody. Bye.

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