Though Gwenn Lazar navigates the channel with ease now, she wasn’t always so knowledgeable, admitting she had a lot to learn when she first took the reins of Skillsoft’s partner program. By asking questions and seeking out people and places where she would likely be able to learn what she needed to know, she learned what she was looking for in a channel program.

She identified two distinct schools of thought in her year-long search for a solution to help manage her partner program. One school of thought focused on the more traditional partner relationship management side of partner marketing. The other trended toward channel marketing and management, preferring demand generation and pipeline.

Neither of these schools of thought is inherently more correct – Lazar favored using elements of both to create an ideal middle ground, but wasn’t sure that would be a possibility. Then two major companies in this sphere came together under one name, and Skillsoft easily chose Zift Solutions as the middle ground Lazar had been trying to find.

Zift was the standout option for its flexibility for Skillsoft’s future. The many configurable elements to Zift’s Channel as a Service platform made it an appealing option for Lazar to handpick what Skillsoft needed to start building a world-class partner program.

Visit ChannelVisions.tv to hear more from thought leaders in channel marketing and management (CMM) and partner relationship management (PRM).