Staffbase VP APJ: Partners have a rare opportunity to “reinvent and add value”

Ramak Salamat at Staffbase says the era of AI has given partners a moment to shine.

The Australian channel has a “huge opportunity” to reinvent and to add value, according to Staffbase APJ VP, Ramak Salamat.

Speaking to CRN Australia exclusively, Salamat explained that channel partners have a “rare opportunity” to be the experts because customers are so confused.

“[Customers] go on to five different vendor websites, they all say the same thing. From a strategic perspective, they know what they need to be doing, but they don't know how to do it. No one's got the experience,” she said.

“There's this real opportunity to step up for these partners and to lead this space in not just AI, but the adoption of AI, the change management that comes with it.”

Another opportunity has emerged for those who understand the important of AI and transformation.

“It's not the technology, it's how do we help them come along the journey, this transformation,” Salamat noted.

“CIOs are struggling right now, they're absolutely struggling, they're going to their partners, going, how do I do this?

“They want to sell more product, so the partners have this rare opportunity to have strategy, value and offer a different perspective to these to these end users that are going to help them because they need help.”

Plans in APAC

Salamat leads the Staffbase operations of APJ and is based out of Sydney. For the past four years, she has been tasked with bringing the platform to the region through a dual direct and channel partner strategy.

There are 20 people working in Sydney, and nine in Tokyo.

For the communications platform, it uses Australia as its APAC hub, and also services partners in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan. The next move for the platform will be expanding in Singapore.

Salamat explained why Australia is the APAC hub for Staffbase.

“Australia is where our big customers are. It's where we're leading a lot of tech innovations, AI adoption for communications where we play, Australia is leading that,” she said.

The Staffbase platform connects a business's strategy communications from C-level all the way through to employees and also contractors. They work with large enterprises like BHP, Rio Tinto, Aldi and Coles.

In Australia, Staffbase is 30 percent channel, but Salamat is aiming for 50 percent channel and 50 percent direct. In Asia it is a 70-30 split, and the same in Japan.

They work with large SIs such as KPMG and technology partners including AWS and ServiceNow.

Salamat explained Staffbase has six partners and isn’t looking to build out partners that will compete with each other.

“In Australia, it's finding the right partners for us and making sure that we have the right ecosystem set up to support them,” she said.

“We're looking at essentially building high value end partners that we co-market together. Part of our strategy is holding their hand, walking them through the sales, helping them with marketing, co-marketing, and then having them as the services arm, the support, the strategy arm for our customers.

“We're not a services business, we want them to be able to do that, it's also finding the partners that have the experience in what we do.”