Enterprise Accounts: Notable Successes
I have held leadership roles For around 20 years, During that time, I have. been privileged to be involved in a number of strategic endeavours.
Here are a few highlights.
Highly Strategic Customer Acquisition
mulIn 2021, Infosys competed with IBM for one of the largest outsourcing projects ever awarded in Europe. Mercedes Benz AG had decided to outsource their entire IT infrastructure to a single supplier, including a cloud environment spread across their sites in Germany, the UK, the USA, and China.
As IBM, the incumbent, proposed building the cloud using Red Hat Linux and OpenShift Cloud Infrastructure Software, we persuaded Infosys to bid with Canonical Ubuntu instead. The rationale was straightforward: IBM owned Red Hat, and bidding with Red Hat would put Infosys at a competitive disadvantage.
This strategic move paid off. Infosys won the project, resulting in a multi billion win for them and a very large sale for Canonical. Consequently, Infosys agreed to base all their private and hybrid clouds on Canonical technology, leading to additional business with LivePerson in the USA and Reckitt in the UK.
Creating a Product Bundle for Competitive Advantage
Canonical develops open-source software used in cloud computing. As with all open-source software, there is almost no product differentiation, as everybody has the potential to copy everyone else.
I uncovered that Canonical had developed a distribution of OpenStack which enabled the building of clouds rapidly and the amendment of those clouds without taking them offline. This provides a significant competitive advantage for any integration organization, as any ability to reduce the development time results in substantial savings.
By implementing this as a packaged solution across our partners, in particular, we were able to make significant inroads into the ever-growing market of hybrid clouds.
Global Strategy Redesign
SUSE’s channel strategy promoted their Linux operating system, but the company lacked a global Partner Program or Planning Methodology and was not fully leveraging its strong relationship with SAP.
Over the course of 18 months, I consulted and designed both, launching them simultaneously.
This led to a cohesive approach, enabling the effective launch of global initiatives and the accurate measurement of results. As a consequence, revenue increased by more than 100% fbetween 2015 and 2018.
Multi Million £ Map Sale
Ordnance Survey , the UK. National mapping agency was able to provide TomTom an up-to-date UK road map. The catch was it would cost several million Pounds – but to a still a lower cost than doing it themselves.
The existing TomTom satellite navigation devices relied on a ten-year-old Ordnance Survey map that urgently needed updating.
I constructed a Data as a Service agreement that provided near real-time, accurate data. This groundbreaking solution allowed us to overlay traffic information and other points of interest, significantly enhancing TomTom’s offering.
In recognition of Ordnance Survey’s invaluable contribution, TomTom agreed to publicly acknowledge our role and committed to a multi million payment spread over two years
Sales Team Performance Turnaround
North America is the largest market for Cloud Software. However, SUSE was significantly underperforming.
The strategy I inherited entirely focused on large resellers such as Zones and CDW. These organisations had little strategic added value. and were not building the market for us. Moreover, individual underperformance was going unchecked.
I took over leadership of the North American Sales Organisation for 12 months whilat I recruited a successor. I moved the focus. to one where we worked closely with SAP specialist integrators leveraging our market advantage.
As a result, by the time the new leader for this organisation was hired, he inherited a team that was fit for purpose and a strategy that was working.
Growth continued at an excess of 60% with partners in North America for the following two years.
Ordnance Survey is government-owned, and its profits are regulated by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology. I led a team that ensured we operated with a fair pricing strategy, maintaining compliance with government-mandated targets without exceeding or falling short.
This included managing and sublicensing upstream data from various suppliers, such as Royal Mail. I managed these financial relationships to ensure that profitability targets were achieved without being exceeded.
Volvo - Outsourced Operating System Management
After a long, competitive process, Volvo Trucks decided to use Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux and Kubernetes to power their internal infrastructure. Additionally, they chose to implement the Ubuntu Linux desktop and associated tools on their manufacturing track in Sweden.
In parallel, Volvo outsourced the management of their IT infrastructure to HCL, which initially posed a challenge as HCL had no expertise in Canonical software. Attempting to remedy their skill gap, HCL initially tried to persuade Volvo to switch to Red Hat.
However, we demonstrated the advantages of Canonical software to HCL and provided a managed service on their behalf. Over the following 12 months, we offered extensive training to HCL and set up our software in their labs. At the end of this period, we successfully transitioned the managed service to them. The resulting in a significant win for Canonical. This collaboration also paved the way for us to work with HCL on a number of large manufacturing and retail opportunities in the United States.
Telekom Malaysia - New 5G Service
Telekom Malaysia, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, needed to modernize their infrastructure to launch a 5G service utilizing OpenStack technology.
Initially, Canonical was not considered, as the chosen outsourcer, Accenture, opted to collaborate with Red Hat. However, by collaborating with our customer-facing account team, my team and I established a new partnership between Mesiniaga—a local integrator with strong relationships—and Netweb, a highly skilled and long-standing Canonical partner based in New Delhi.
This strategic collaboration proved to be a superior choice, culminating in us being awarded the contract even before Red Hat and Accenture had finished their proof of concept. The victory resulted in securing a $multi-million contract over five years.
MTS Large Russian Mobile Telco
MTS, headquartered in Moscow, is the largest mobile network operator in Russia. Canonical faced competition from Red Hat and Accenture to provide a new 5G service for this Russian telecom giant.
While Red Hat and Accenture are both billion-dollar organizations in Russia, Canonical operates on a global revenue scale of just under $200 million.
To strengthen our bid, we partnered with Factor Group, a well-connected local organization, and Netweb, a long-standing Canonical partner. Our collaborative effort highlighted not only our superior technology but also our unmatched attention to customer care, which the client considered unparalleled. The endeavor resulted in a $multi million deal.
Get In Touch
Ready to Chat?
+44 7990 007716
hello@markjamessalter.com