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Approaching the enterprise as a viable customer is unthinkable for my small businesses. They don't know where to start, they don't know who to contact, and they are unfamiliar with navigating the often maze-line enterprise landscape. Consequently.

We assembled a great panel that included three of our partners that have realized success in the enterprise market with Asigra Cloud Backup. The panelists included:

• Simon Chappell, Chief Executive Officer, Backup Technology Ltd
• Gayle Rose, Chief Executive Officer, Electronic Vaulting Services
• Yasser Wassef, Executive Vice President, The Harding Group

While the risks of doing business in the enterprise are greater, so are the rewards. Once a relationship has been established with an Enterprise customer, more doors open for future enterprise relationships. 

Below are two of the key messages that stood out:

The Consultative Sell

Sell the benefits instead of features – the biggest budgets are controlled from the executive offices, not the data center. And CIOs are interested in saving time and money, reducing risk, and gaining competitive advantage - not speeds and feeds. Companies view business units and their information needs as more critical than general IT, especially when they're tied to revenue generation.

Managed Service Providers must focus on creating a vision of the end result of employing the service will look like – improved productivity, cost avoidance, reduced risk of data lost and better decision making. There are just some of the reasons why IT organizations will be interested in choosing your cloud backup offering.

Gayle Rose mentioned that it is important to have a visionary at the organization you're selling into that can assist you with moving forward in the sale cycle.

Get Ahead of the Buying Decision

By becoming a part of the planning and design phase, savvy cloud backup service providers can get ahead of the buying decision – this is where provider and customer work as partners. Service provider can help to not only influence the decisions about what type of service to deploy, but also provide project management and consulting services, which in turn gives them greater influence over the decision making process.

It is important to create a value proposition on your ability to architect, implement and support what has historically been a complex process – at least one that's more complex than the user wants (or is able) to deal with.

Many enterprises are not only large, but complex, with disparate locations around the world. Starting at a lower level as a means of proving competence and confidence will help to gain further buy-in, allowing you to further sell into the organization – there is never an opportunity to small in the enterprise.

The Asigra Partner Summit is a part of the Asigra Hybrid Partner Program, just one of the opportunities throughout the year for partners to access the educations sessions and networking opportunities to help them grow their cloud backup businesses.

To learn more about the benefits of partnering with Asigra, please access the "Get Powered by Asigra" brochure.

By Rebel Brown

Are you struggling to stand out above all the digital noise?
Doing more than ever before and still not growing your business?
Wondering why the way you've always done it isn't working anymore?

And if you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, "You're probably stuck in Gravity!"

Gravity is the #1 Enemy of Business Growth. What's Gravity? That's applying yesterday's news to tomorrow's markets.  We all have it. Market Leaders defy it!

In her keynote presentation this morning, Rebel Brown challenged the audience to shift our thinking – from Gravity to Growth.     Especially when it comes to how we think about and interact with our buyers.

"Today's buyers can research select and purchase their products without getting you involved in the decision. Unless they invite you to their party, won't even know they were buying. Everything shifted. Your choices: shift, too—or get left in the past," Brown says. That's one of the most significant changes ever in our business markets.

Welcome to the Age of the Digitally Empowered Buyer

Today's buyers spend 79% of the buying cycle without a vendor involved.  Read that again. The impacts of that change on our product focus, sales and marketing processes and more are astronomical.  Gone are the days when vendors controlled the information, when buyers needed us to help them define, research and procure technology solutions. 

Today's buyers have more information than we ever offered them.  From more sources – who they trust.  Buyers simply don't need us anymore.  They get to choose who they interact with, and who they ignore.

Brown says the implications on business are significant.  She recommends three Gravity Defyin' shifts that businesses must make to capture buyers' interest.

1. It's all about them.  Forget what you want to say, that cool feature or whizbang technology. They don't care. If you want to capture buyers' attention – you must be relevant.  From product value to information you share -  make it about the So What fore your buyer – not you.  So what does this give my buyer they didn't have before, what business value am I providing.  So what expertise can I share with my buyer that will help them solve their problem, even if they don't buy from me. That's how you garner trust.
2. Conversation is the new Campaign.  All those marketing and sales campaigns are a waste of time and money.  Pushing information to our buyers is the kiss of death in today's world.  You'll simply send them running.  Your buyers want conversations that are relevant, engaging and real-time. Not some blog you defined 3 months ago.  It's time to transform your approaches to communicating with your audiences. You must be dynamic, relevant, and engaging about them if you want to capture attention.  That's the same for sales, marketing, service and more.
3. Think Internet Dating.   You are no longer in control of your buyer.  That means your biggest challenge is to get their attention in the online world.  You have 5 seconds or they are gone, off to another website or resource. You won't grab them with Me Me Me chest thumping claims.  Think internet dating – from your website to your social media, digital communications and more.  Woo them, don't promote yourself.

Everything changed in our digital economy. The last few years have created more challenges than ever before. They've also created strong opportunities for those who accept the challenge to shift – from Gravity to Growth.

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Rebel Brown is a recognized expert in business strategy, corporate and product market positioning and high momentum market launches. Her best selling market strategy book - Defy Gravity – is every leaders guide to shifting processes and thinking to the new economy.   Rebel has been featured in media including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Business Insider, Startup Nation, First Business TV, ChangeThis.com, 800CEORead, Exceptional People and more.

Tiffani Bova is a Vice President with Gartner Research, where she covers IT sales and channel strategies. Her area of specialization includes the development of comprehensive indirect channel strategies, including program development and optimization, go-to-market sales coverage models, the impact of cloud on the traditional channel, and trends in wholesale IT distribution. In the last two years, she has conducted new research in the area of cloud services brokerage (CSB) as a new role for the indirect channel to play in its quest to stay relevant with cloud services.

In addition to her responsibilities at Gartner, Tiffani is a regular on the public speaking circuit at major channel events across the world and we’re honored to have her here in Toronto for the 2012 Asigra Cloud Backup™ Partner Summit.

In her keynote presentation this morning "Reading the Tea Leaves: Transforming for Growth," Tiffani discussed how managed service providers can work to use cloud services effectively on a strategic level to effectively compete in what is seemingly becoming a crowded marketplace.

She began with a look at some of the top channel trends for 2012, which served as an overview as to where the industry is going and how service providers should differentiate themselves in order to outmarket the competition.

The cloud opens up new business dynamics, as purchasers can go indirect and direct cloud. What really stood out is when she noted that cloud purchasers are looking for business outcomes – not technology. It is a completely different sell and as such, the channel needs to adapt to a new way of doing business and utilize services to differentiate in what is a highly competitive and fragmented market. Simply put, a service provider’s success relies entirely on how much the customer cares, and not how great the technology is!

Source: Gartner Press Release:
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1897514

Benoit Lheureux’s recent Talking Technology event, "Does a CSB Make Sense for Your Business?", explained how Cloud Service Brokerage is an emerging business model where a company acts as an intermediary that helps its customers through navigating their options, while removing complexity through aggregated and value added services.  The model can be a key differentiator for any Cloud Service Provider competing in today’s marketplace.

If Managed Service Providers want to really grow into the cloud, they will have to invest in marketing to create an integrated experience. The transactional model that exists today will change in Cloud Environments and the channel must evolve in order to service

Tiffani also spoke to the key technology trends as identified by Gartner and include mobile tablets, mobile apps, contextual and social experiences and the "Internet of things". She noted that the Cloud is very much part of these trends, which in turn is driving exponential growth in data centre infrastructure investment.

Her message around Gartner technology trends reinforced that Asigra Service Providers have a unique advantage over their competitors in the marketplace because their cloud backup platform covers the entire digital footprint including tablets and smart phones.

Tiffani’s keynote presentation was jammed packed with information and relevant research that was insightful. What are your thoughts on some of the aspects of Tiffani’s keynote presentation? I’ll continue to cover the day’s events on the blog, so check back soon!

The Asigra Cloud Backup Partner Summit is the largest cloud backup event of its kind and as part of the Asigra Hybrid Partner Program, just one of the opportunities throughout the year for partners to access the education sessions and networking opportunities to help them grow their cloud backup businesses.

To learn more about the benefits of partnering with Asigra, please access the "Get Powered by Asigra" brochure.

Eran Farajun, Asigra's executive vice president, responsible for the company's global expansion, overseeing sales, marketing, business development, and long-term strategic initiatives for Asigra's cloud backup and recovery software, took the stage this morning at the Asigra Cloud Backup Partner Summit. He has nearly 20 years industry experience and was recently named one of CRN's 2012 Channel Chiefs.

To kick off Day 2 of the annual partner summit, Eran's keynote entitled, "What is Relationship Rhythm?," addressed a new way of thinking about the core relationships between Asigra and Asigra Cloud Backup Partners, as well as the  relationship between Asigra partners and their customers, and the relationships that Asigra Partners have with one another within the Asigra ecosystem. The concept of "relationship rhythm" focuses on strengthening partnership chains and enhancing the overall customer experience to the next level – trusted, valuable and memorable.

Cloud backup software and managed services by themselves is likely not something special or memorable to an end-user. There are many different software choices and many different managed services provider choices. Being able to provide a valuable and memorable experience to your customers is at the heart of "relationship rhythm."

A harmonious "relationship rhythm" between Asigra and Asigra Cloud Backup Partners can be defined as "value beyond software."  It is about a business partnership that extends beyond technology to include the alignment of business models from a marketing, sales and technology perspective. Asigra is not just a technology provider, but rather a business partner focused on delivering value to our partners and creating value within our partner ecosystem. Extensive sales and marketing resources in the form of an automated marketing platform with turnkey cloud backup demand generation campaigns, best practices sales management skills training through Miller Heiman, technical certification programs are provided to all partners to help them scale their cloud backup managed services along with innovative, market leading enterprise cloud backup and recovery software.

When there are harmonious synergies within your partnerships, this can transfer into a valuable experience for your customers. Creating this top-of-the-line experience for a customer is not something they will easily forget, which translates into loyalty, repeat business and referred business. Having a strong "relationship rhythm" throughout the chain is the only way to OutMarket, OutSell and OutPerform.

Are you providing a memorable customer experience to your customers? Do you have "relationship rhythm" with your customers?

We're all having a good time at tonight’s annual Asigra Hybrid Partner Cloud Backup Awards gala and the winners have just been announced! During the awards reception, we recognized the successes of our global partners and highlighted some of the achievements by top performers.

The companies listed below have demonstrated a track record of success in providing private, public and hybrid cloud backup services, based on customer requirements. On behalf of all of us here at Asigra, we would like to give a BIG congratulations to all our partners.

The category winners for 2012 are listed below. A big congratulations to everyone from all of us here @ Asigra!

Asigra Hybrid Partner of the Year - SecurStore
Best Public Cloud Implementation – EVS Corporation
Best Private Cloud Implementation – Recovery Networks
Best Hybrid Cloud Backup Implementation – Backup Technology
Best Mobile Cloud Backup Implementation – DSA Technologies
Most Unique Cloud Backup Implementation – Live Backup Pty
Best Cloud Backup Vertical SMB Marketing Campaign – CoreVault
Best Cloud Backup Digital Marketing Campaign – OnDemand Recovery
Best Cloud Backup Competitive Takeout – CoreVault
Asigra New Hybrid Partner of the Year – CHR Solutions
Asigra Cloud Backup Market Maker – Xilocore and Treemind
Most Desirable Cloud Backup Expert – Datev
Asigra Cloud Backup Hero – eTegrity

On behalf of all of us here at Asigra, we would like to give a BIG congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

The Asigra Partner Summit is the largest cloud backup event of its kind and as part of the Asigra Hybrid Partner Program, just one of the opportunities throughout the year for partners to access the educations sessions and networking opportunities to help them grow their cloud backup businesses.

To learn more about the benefits of partnering with Asigra, please access the "Get Powered by Asigra" brochure.

Check out pictures of our keynote speakers including David Farajun, CEO, Asigra, and Heather Margolis moderating a panel session featuring Kendra Webb-Scott, Marketing Manger, BUMI, Jeff Cato, VP Marketing, CoreVault, Rob Hepburn, Content Management Consultant, Polar Imaging & via Skype Greg Tellone, CEO, Continuity Centers. There’s been lots of sales and marketing learnings this morning – breakout sessions are coming up with the opportunity to jump from track to track – learning different best practices from marketing, sales, technology, & operational best practices.

The Asigra Cloud Backup™ Partner Summit is an annual invitation-only gathering for the Asigra Hybrid Partner ecosystem to learn about Asigra, network and build connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills and techniques.

In its 5th year and consistently growing in attendance, the Asigra Cloud Backup Partner Summit provides a unique 3-day event for all of our partners from across the globe, at all levels of experience and size, to plan their cloud backup business strategies for the upcoming year.

The excitement for the Asigra team is slowly building as our partners from around the world arrive to Toronto for what should be a jam-packed and educational three days. Today our partners will settle in and get ready for tonight's cocktail reception on the 43rd floor of the Sheraton Center located downtown Toronto overseeing the city skyline where they'll be greeted by both new and familiar faces.

Being the industry's only event focused on cloud backup, the conference is anchored around keynote presentations from executives and industry experts, with business, technical and sales driven sessions, multiple networking and business opportunities to "can't miss" evening events.

This year's event is sponsored by NetApp, Artisan Infrastructure and 6Fusion. Our ever popular Hands-On Lab and Training are powered in the Cloud by Artisan.

Sneak peeks and test drives of the next - generation Asigra Cloud Backup software is available in the Hands-on Lab enabling Asigra partners to "touch the technology" and learn how to optimize backup from the core to the edge, efficiently and profitability. Exercises will include performing live backup, recovery and restoration procedures in private, public and hybrid cloud environments.

Also this year is the impressive lineup of expert guest and keynote speakers, who will share their insights on marketing and sales best practices and strategies to rise above the noise, deliver results and transform how Powered by Asigra Managed Service Providers OutMarket, OutSell and OutPerform.

This year we welcome a number of well respected keynote speakers including:

• Jeffery Gitomer, Best Selling Author of the "Little Red Book of Sales"
• Tiffani Bova, Vice President of Research, IT Sales and Channel Strategies
• Rebel Brown, Best Selling Author of market strategy book "Defy Gravity"
• Heather Margolis, Founder and President of Channel Maven Consulting

I will be covering the keynote sessions and the week’s other events on the blog, so check back soon! If you’re on Twitter, follow the #asigrapartnersummit hashtag for more event information from @Asigra and Powered by Asigra Managed Service Providers!

To learn more about the benefits of partnering with Asigra, please access the "Get Powered by Asigra" brochure.

The conversations have already begun at the 5th Annual Asigra Cloud Backup Partner Summit! Today, partners had the opportunity to meet One-on-One with Asigra's senior leadership team to discuss their business objectives, learn best practices and gain further insights into the relationship rhythm available at their disposal.

We also kicked off the Partner Summit with the opportunity to get further training on advanced components relating to Asigra Cloud Backup.

Rounding off the first day was the opportunity to OutPerform in the Clouds at the Asigra Welcome Reception. With amazing views on the 43rd floor overlooking the skyline of Toronto, partners enjoyed intimate conversations while networking with their peers.

There's more in store in the coming days. Get in on the conversations by tweeting @Asigra and including the Summit hashtag - #asigrapartnersummit. HINT - there's prizes in store for the most active.

Enjoy this slide show of a behind-the-scenes look at the building of the 2012 Asigra Cloud Backup Partner Summit. We’re looking forward to tomorrow's opening day and sharing this time with all our partners!

The annual costs of disaster recovery testing can reach or exceed $150,000 for many Gartner clients. There has never been a better time to ensure that your organization is utilizing best practices in their disaster recovery plan.

Download this complimentary Gartner report to discover best practices that help organizations significantly reduce the cost and complexity of disaster recovery testing. You'll also learn recommendations for recovery time objectives and processes for testing both mission-critical and less critical applications and data.

UPDATED: The Gartner report is no longer available for download through Asigra. If you'd like a copy of the report please visit the Gartner website.