Cloud distributor Pax8 has promoted Craig Donovan to chief experience officer, a newly created position, to better align partners, vendors and end customers through experiences with its ever-evolving cloud marketplace.
“The channel itself is sort of splitting away from this legacy distribution model, which is very linear, into more of an ecosystem play where you’ve got three completely independent players and stakeholders,” Donovan told CRN. “Customers are adopting this new buying behavior where they’re increasingly going direct to vendors. They’re doing their research, a lot of times it’s six, seven months before the partner even knows about it. You’ve got this triangle structure, each of them has their own independent experience and their own independent needs. At Pax8, we want to sit in the middle of this and help connect those dots.”
He said the experience is both “deeply personal and relational,” and the newly created experience team will be advocates both inside and out for Denver-based Pax8, the vendors, MPS and end customers.
[Related: Here Are 16 Additional Vendors Coming To Pax8’s Marketplace This Year]
“One of the things we’ve done well at Pax8 is it’s not just about their experience and how they interact with Pax8, what actually matters the most is what’s your experience as a business, as a partner or as a vendor,” he said. “They have their own things that they’re looking for and when we understand that experience, we can go deliver services and solutions.”ADVERTISEMENT
https://8635c80231c40a1b6fd691ee090cdeb8.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
Donovan officially assumed the role on Aug. 1 and will lead the 25-person experience team and will continue to report to Nick Heddy, chief commerce officer.
“Delivering the best-in-class experience for our partners, vendors and customers is Pax8’s top priority,” Heddy said in a statement. “Craig has a proven track record of leading partner enablement and services, and I am excited to see how his innovative vision will ignite a stakeholder-centric culture across our entire organization.”
During his tenure at Pax8, Donovan has held multiple roles, most recently as senior vice president of services, and he designed the Professional Services Automation (PSA) integrations for Pax8’s cloud marketplace. He also developed the company’s professional services program and helped launch Pax8 Academy.
In his new role, he said there will be a lot of listening going on and a grassroots effort to focus on aligning the needs and the experiences for the vendors, MSPs and customers into one common marketplace. His biggest focus, though, will be supporting the overall marketplace development.
“MSPs have been the center of our go-to-market and in our ecosystem, that’s not changing,” he said. “The ecosystem itself is changing, buying patterns may be changing and we are now starting to pay attention to the vendors and those end customers. But it’s all designed to drive the traffic and the ecosystem with partners at the center. They will remain the hero of this ecosystem.”LEARN MORE: Distribution
CJ Fairfield is an associate editor at CRN covering solution providers, MSPs and distributors. Prior to joining CRN, she worked at daily newspapers, including The Press of Atlantic City in New Jersey and The Frederick News-Post in Maryland. She can be reached at [email protected].
RELATED CONTENT
5 Companies That Came To Win This WeekHere Are 16 Additional Vendors Coming To Pax8’s Marketplace This YearIngram Micro Lays Off Workers, Citing ‘Changing Global And Local Market Conditions’TD Synnex Offers Voluntary Severance Program For US Employees5 Companies That Came To Win This Week TO TOPADVERTISEMENT
TRENDING STORIES
- 20 Hottest New Cybersecurity Tools At Black Hat 2023 | CRN
- Dell Confirms Sales Layoffs As Part Of New Partner-Led Storage Strategy | CRN
- Dell Layoffs, Exec Changes, New AI And Go-To-Market: 5 Big Things To Know | CRN
- Dell Layoffs: LinkedIn Posts Show Job Axe Falls Hardest On Sales | CRN
- ‘We’re Taking The Gloves Off’: Dell Sales Boss Talks New Strategy To Take Share | CRN