Joel Kremke: Building Real Value with SAP’s Sales Teams

Chip Rodgers  0:01  
Yeah, okay, welcome. Welcome back again to another conversation here at SAFIRE. What an incredible event it's been, and I'm really excited to be joined by Joel kremke. Joel is Senior VP of channels and partners for open text, and here we are standing in front of the open text booth, which is jam packed with customers, just like you like to see, just

Joel Kremke  0:27  
like we like to see, is exactly right. We have a really look at the activity that's going on there, and it's been like that wall to wall the whole time we've been here. It's been a tremendous

Chip Rodgers  0:34  
event for us. That's amazing, and no wonder, because SAP is such a phenomenal partner for open

Joel Kremke  0:40  
text. Oh, yeah, absolutely, yeah. We, we have a long standing, 20 year relationship with SAP, our biggest partner relationship that we have, and something that we model all our future partnerships on the success that we've had together, and honestly, the real family relationship that we have with SAP. That's, that's how we view it, and that's how they view it too. It's what makes it so powerful. Yeah, that's, that's tremendous. And so many things happening here at Sapphire, you guys won the Pinnacle Award this year. That's fantastic. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you very much. We're really, we're really, really proud about that. So we're, we're the number one of the Pinnacle Award winners were the number one, really solution provider ISV vendor to to sa peace customers. And it's not just revenue, although that's, that's a piece of it. We're the largest for them, but it's also related to customer satisfaction and ability to innovate it together. So we're really, really proud about this, this award, and we're very honored to receive it. We've received at 14 the last 15 years.

Chip Rodgers  1:42  
Wow, that's, that's tremendous. Yeah, fantastic. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, we're, we're all you know, talking to partner leaders and and you know, you're essentially Chief Mark, Chief partnering, partner officer for open text. What are some of the things that are on your mind when you're, you know, coming to an event like this, but more generally, you know, working with partners, and some of the challenges and ways that you think about it?

Joel Kremke  2:11  
That's a great question. I and something we talk about a lot in our group, too. I think guys who are in my position, ladies who are in my position, the world over, have got to be thinking about how they're morphing and changing with how the world is morphing and changing. And one of the things that we are laser focused on at open text is this idea of CO innovation, and CO innovation can be product oriented. How are we doing something together that isn't just my stuff combined with your stuff, but it's really unique in creating something that's really unique, and that could be product oriented, could be go to market oriented as well, or both. Yeah. So the beauty of that, then, is that if you're approaching things from that perspective, you have to have a denominator that you judge it by, yeah. And so we at open text, our denominator is, what can we do, from a co innovation standpoint, that's exciting to the field sales of whoever the partner is? So in this particular case, at SAP, what are the CO innovations that we're coming up with that are exciting to their sales? Yeah? Because then we have to look at it from that perspective that's so smart, yeah, not just something that's good for us, like, of course, of course. We're selfish. We want it to be good for us, but, but it needs to be good, and not just for SAP, for their sales people, yeah, that's what we really focus help them retire. Quota, absolutely, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And something that's truly unique and easy to consume, yeah, for them and our denominator is exactly that. It's so there's a lot of ways you could measure that. You know, are we doing something interesting together? Are we growing revenues? Those things are intriguing. But what's really intriguing is, what are we doing for the field Salesforce that gets them excited? Yeah,

Chip Rodgers  3:50  
yeah. That's, that's, that's just a great way to think about it, because then they're, then they're then they're leaning in right there. They want to work with open text and bring them in, bring you guys into into opportunities where there's a good fit, no,

Joel Kremke  4:05  
it's exactly right. We have an example that we're that we're launching with, with SAP, in the area of we do a lot of archiving tools and data management, data lifecycle management tools for SAP. We have a myriad of solutions that we work with them on, but one in particular that we're adding to our list is a very specific kind of archiving, something that allows data or applications to be decommissioned, yeah, in a very specific way. And this is something, if you think about the rise opportunity, right? This is something that is very needed in nearly every rise opportunity, so potentially a couple 1000 a year that would, that would need this. And instead of making it this big, complex thing, we're trying to say, here's exactly why a customer would want to do this. Yeah, here's why it's not competitive with any SAP solutions. You. And this is why it's also, to our my point earlier about the denominator, why it's also not just an intriguing add to a bill of materials or to, you know, to a solution, but why it's separate from it's not going to cannibalize some other part of your sale. Yeah, right, truly additive, because the competitor is something that's going to be outside of, of SAP or another SAP partner, right? So that's the sort of thing that we're very focused on, yeah. So, so it's, again, not just that it would be good for us and ultimately good for the customer, but it's, it's new incremental value that can be provided in an easy way, easy to understand, way by the field sales representative. So that's, and we're excited. We're launching that now.

Chip Rodgers  5:41  
That's, that's phenomenal. So how do you think, where do ideas like that come from? You know, for, for building, you know, joint solutions with SAP and other than other other partners. Are they? Is it something that where you sort of sit down and look at white space and think about it that way? Is a is it customer driven? Like, where does it, where do those things come for all the above. Yeah,

Joel Kremke  6:01  
in our, in our particular case, we have a co innovation process that we that we actually get people to sit down with and work with us on. And that's, that's how some of these ideas were born out, like the ones I just, I just talked about. And again, that's, that's one new thing that we're doing, amongst several dozen things that we do it with, with SAP, yeah, but, but we we apply that to other partners as well. That same process of sitting down, working through co innovation and again, product go to market or both. Yeah, with the ultimate denominator being, it has to be digestible and exciting to the field, Salesforce.

Chip Rodgers  6:32  
Yeah, phenomenal. So what's what's coming so, tremendous event here this week. And you know, a lot of you know, working with customers and CO selling together with SAP. How does that process work as well? So, you know, making sure that your the field teams are connected and and able to collaborate to co sell

Joel Kremke  6:58  
well. Well, as you know, part of, part of that has to do with what we do at the CRM level, yeah, and we have tremendous collaboration with the work span tool with SAP in and around work span, that's a big deal to us, by the way, that that's a we, that's an everyday, you know, knee deep in that application thing between us and an SAP and binds us together from an operational standpoint, and then it's also, we're extremely committed, from a head count and dedicated head count standpoint, to this partnership. But SAP is dedicated to us as well. They're, they're tremendous partners. And as I said at the beginning of this conversation, it's, it's family, really, at this stage of the game, we view each other, you know, that way and and that that creates a lot of opportunity for that kind of collaboration and

Chip Rodgers  7:47  
innovation. That's amazing. Yeah, it is. It's, it's so true that it's, you know, having a cultural fit and having open, you know, conversations and collaboration between sales teams is really, critical. Yeah, could

Joel Kremke  8:01  
not be more true. We have over 6000 customers together, and, and so if you have 6000 customers, there's the occasional problem, yeah, and being able to have the same sort of level of honesty, authenticity, commitment, you know, to each other and, and we certainly project that, and bring that to SAP, but it's reciprocated. I mean, they're they do a tremendous job from that standpoint, too. It's

Chip Rodgers  8:26  
been fantastic. Joel, thank you so much for for for joining me here and taking some time and love the insights that you've shared and and have a great rest of the rest of the week. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks. Joel, thank you. Yep. You

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