Inside Partnering

About Inside Partnering

Strategies behind today’s most successful partner ecosystems. Join host Chip Rodgers for candid conversations with the leaders shaping the future of ecosystems, co-selling, and go-to-market strategy. insidepartnering.substack.com (https://insidepartnering.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Chip Rodgers

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Jul 2025

Latest episode

24 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

61 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   24 Aug 2026

   Kenneth Fox: Finding Your Next Best Partners with AI

   For partner leaders, one of the hardest questions isn’t identifying your best-performing partners. Most organizations already know who they are. The harder question is: Who should you invest in next? That question sits at the center of my conversation with Kenneth Fox (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-fox-a87a0b59/), CTO and founder of ChannelScaler. Kenneth has spent his career in channels and partnerships, and his perspective combines the technology side of partner management with the practical realities of running partner programs. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. We talked about AI, co-selling, technology alliances, partner journeys, measurement, and why human relationships remain essential even as more of the partner experience becomes automated. One idea came through repeatedly: technology is most valuable when it helps partner teams focus their limited resources on the activities and relationships most likely to produce results. The Channel Has Become a Complex Ecosystem Traditional partner program fundamentals aren’t going away. Kenneth still sees incentives, marketing, tiering, rebates, deal registration, portals, and content management as table stakes. What has changed is the environment around them. Partner ecosystems now involve many different types of partners and increasingly complex sales motions. A single enterprise opportunity might involve a vendor, a reseller, a services partner, and potentially others. That makes co-selling much more than simply sharing an opportunity. “The channel has become a very complex ecosystem of partners.” Kenneth described the challenge of coordinating multi-partner deals where each participant may be operating from a different CRM and even using different names for the same end customer. The critical questions become remarkably operational: Who owns which part of the deal? What’s the next step? Who owns that step? When is it due? And what can the vendor do to move the opportunity forward? For partner leaders, that level of visibility becomes increasingly important as ecosystems expand. AI Should Make Partnering Easier Kenneth divides ChannelScaler’s application of AI into three broad areas: reducing friction and improving ease of doing business, removing operational obstacles through automation, and generating better insights. The first two can address some very practical problems. An AI agent can help determine whether a deal being registered may already exist. It can surface relevant content during deal registration. It can automate elements of MDF claims and flag transactions that require human review. The objective isn’t simply to add AI to a partner platform. It’s to remove work. Kenneth sees that eventually changing the partner experience itself. “It will become an agentic-led experience for partners and vendors.” Instead of requiring partners to navigate through a portal looking for what matters, an agent can potentially surface what needs attention: an open deal, an expiring fund request, a rebate claim, or a certification required to maintain status. That connects directly to one of Kenneth’s core principles: “Ease of doing business is the single biggest pain point in the channel.” And his conclusion is equally direct: “If you are the vendor that is easiest to work with, you will be the vendor that wins.” Build What Differentiates You - Partner for the Rest As CTO, Kenneth also has to make a decision familiar to many technology companies: What should we build ourselves, and where should we partner? His framework starts with knowing what the company is actually good at. “We know what we’re good at, and we stick to, you know, our lane.” ChannelScaler uses technology alliance partners where capabilities fall outside that lane. Kenneth cited XTRM for payments, Structured for TCMA, and PartnerTap for identifying ecosystem whitespace. The goal is to integrate complementary capabilities rather than recreate technology that another company already does well. In other cases, such as co-sell functionality, Kenneth believes the capability sits directly within ChannelScaler’s core area of expertise, making internal development the faster route. There isn’t one universal build-versus-partner rule. Each capability has to be evaluated on its own merits. Find the Next 10 Partners Perhaps the most interesting application of AI in our conversation was partner prioritization. Most channel leaders can identify the partners generating the majority of their revenue. Kenneth argues that AI can help answer a more valuable forward-looking question: Who are the next 10, 20, or 30 partners worth investing in? ChannelScaler looks across attributes including revenue, deal volume and value, certifications, participation in programs, end customers, geographies, training, and other signals. “I look at the attribution of my best partner or my best 100 partners, and now I can use AI to scrub that against the next thousand to figure out actually who’s the next best 10 I should focus on.” Once those partners are identified, Kenneth recommends putting them on a targeted partner journey. And importantly, a journey isn’t synonymous with onboarding. It might be designed for a brand-new partner, a mature strategic partner, or a group of high-potential partners. One example Kenneth described was a revenue journey where the vendor and partner establish specific growth objectives, net-new-logo targets, leads, marketing investments, and next steps. That’s a fundamentally different approach from giving every partner essentially the same program experience. Measure Engagement, Not Just Enrollment Kenneth also challenges one of the most common partner-program vanity metrics: total partner count. “You have 500 partners. Well, guess what? You don’t really have 500 partners.” If only 110 of those partners have actually engaged, the other 390 shouldn’t automatically be treated as productive members of the ecosystem. Measurement should instead reveal what partners are doing, how programs are performing, where processes are slowing down, and which behaviors correlate with success. Kenneth’s principle is simple: “You can only manage what you measure.” The bigger opportunity is to connect measurement to action. Identify the attributes of successful partners. Find other partners with similar potential. Put them on a deliberate journey. Track the commitments on both sides. Then continuously adjust. AI Doesn’t Replace the Relationship For all the discussion about AI and automation, Kenneth was unequivocal about what technology doesn’t replace. “It’s not a human relationship. And certainly when you move into the enterprise and you’re doing big deals... people buy off people.” That may be the most important distinction for partner leaders. The opportunity isn’t to automate partnering. It’s to automate enough of the administrative burden, analysis, and process friction that partner professionals can spend more of their time doing what technology still can’t do for them: building the relationships that move the business forward. 🎙️ Inside Partnering is a podcast for ecosystem builders, alliance leaders, and the people shaping the future of partnerships. Let’s build the future of partnering - together. 📌 If you found this post helpful, would you please consider restacking it and sharing it with your audience? This spreads the word and keeps me interviewing and sharing content that will help you grow your partnership business and career. Thanks for reading Inside Partnering! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🎧 Want more conversations like this? 💌 Subscribe to get new episodes and behind-the-scenes insights: insidepartnering.substack.com (http://insidepartnering.substack.com) Check out all 130+ episodes at InsidePartnering.com (http://InsidePartnering.com) 🔗 Follow Chip on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiprodgers) for daily partnership content and guest clips Know someone Chip should interview? Send a quick email (mailto:chip@insidepartnering.com). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidepartnering.substack.com/subscribe (https://insidepartnering.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

2. 

   26 May 2026

   Dan Miller: How Sage's EVP of Product thinks about partners to drive trust in AI solutions

   At Sage FUTURE in San Francisco, I sat down with Dan Miller (https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielgmiller/), EVP of Financials and ERP at Sage, to talk about how Sage is thinking about AI, ecosystem partnerships, and the future of ERP platforms. One of the clearest themes from the conversation was this: finance leaders are not resisting AI. They simply want transparency, accountability, and confidence in the outputs. For partner leaders, ISVs, and ecosystem builders, that creates a very different opportunity than the generic “AI transformation” messaging dominating the market right now. Dan framed it around trust. “What finance and operations professionals really want is confidence in the tools that they’re deploying are doing exactly what they are expected to do.” That requirement shapes how Sage is building both its AI capabilities and its broader partner ecosystem. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. AI Adoption in Finance Requires Transparency Dan pushed back on the idea that finance organizations are inherently resistant to innovation. Instead, he described a customer base that is willing to experiment with AI - as long as the systems remain explainable. “It’s not that they don’t want to experiment. It’s that they want to know when they experiment, there’s going to be a good result.” That distinction matters. Sage is positioning its AI capabilities around visibility into how outputs are generated, rather than treating AI as a black box. Dan described how Sage customers can inspect the reasoning behind cash flow predictions, financial close recommendations, and other AI-generated outputs. “It’s not a black box. It’s actually transparent. You can see into how the steps were determined.” That transparency extends into Sage’s Copilot capabilities, where users can interrogate how the system arrived at a recommendation or prediction. For CFOs and finance teams, that creates auditability and confidence. For partners, it creates an environment where AI adoption becomes easier to operationalize with customers. The Partner Opportunity Around AI Enablement One of the more interesting parts of the conversation was how Sage views AI through the lens of partner enablement, not just customer productivity. Dan talked about how Sage is helping partners accelerate implementations and reduce deployment friction. “One of the most important things for a partner is to have a pipeline of new business being delivered.” He connected that directly to Sage’s recent acquisition focused on accelerating Intacct migrations from systems like QuickBooks. The idea is straightforward: if Sage and its partners can reduce migration complexity and implementation timelines, partners can onboard more recurring revenue customers faster. That’s an important point for ecosystem leaders. AI is not only being positioned as a feature set for end customers. It is increasingly becoming an operational multiplier for partners themselves. Why Open Ecosystems Still Matter Dan was also very clear that Sage does not believe a single company can build every workflow or every vertical solution customers need. That philosophy continues to shape Sage’s ISV strategy. “We believe at our very core that we need to be open. We know there’s no possible way that we could invent every piece of technology that solves for every vertical, every micro vertical, every workflow.” Instead, Sage is leaning heavily into ecosystem extensibility. The company works with a broad range of ISVs integrating into Sage platforms, while also creating tighter strategic relationships in priority verticals like nonprofit, healthcare, manufacturing, distribution, and financial services. In some cases, that means co-development. In others, it means packaging and selling integrated solutions together. The more interesting extension of this strategy is how Sage is now applying the same thinking to AI agents. AI Agents Become the Next Ecosystem Layer Dan described Sage’s new AI developer program and marketplace as the next evolution of the platform ecosystem. The goal is to allow developers and partners to build highly specialized agent workflows directly into the Sage experience. That includes micro-vertical use cases where partners may have unique expertise, proprietary workflows, or integrations that only exist within a narrow industry segment. “Agents are going to be a new mode of delivery of capability.” Rather than treating AI agents as external tools, Sage is embedding them directly into the ERP workflow and user experience. Partners can build agents that appear inside the same Copilot interface Sage users already interact with. Just as importantly, those agents inherit Sage’s authentication and security framework. “Those agent capabilities are protected by the same kind of authentication capabilities and controls that we do for our users.” That creates a potentially important differentiator for enterprise AI adoption. Instead of customers stitching together disconnected AI tools with inconsistent governance, Sage is positioning AI agents inside an existing operational and security framework. The Bigger Ecosystem Signal One of the broader signals from this conversation is how platform companies are evolving their ecosystem strategies in the AI era. Historically, ERP ecosystems were largely built around integrations and workflow extensions. Now, they are increasingly becoming marketplaces for intelligent workflows, embedded agents, and verticalized AI expertise. That creates new opportunities for ISVs, SIs, and developers that deeply understand a particular industry process or operational workflow. The winners may not simply be the companies with the largest models or most generic AI capabilities. They may be the ecosystem partners that can combine trusted data access, workflow expertise, and operational context into highly specific business outcomes. And as Dan emphasized throughout the conversation, trust remains central to that equation. “We provide those controls, those guardrails, those are in place, which provides real value for customers because they know that they’re protected by that same set of standards that we hold ourselves accountable to.” 🎙️ Inside Partnering is a podcast for ecosystem builders, alliance leaders, and the people shaping the future of partnerships. Let’s build the future of partnering - together. 📌 If you found this post helpful, would you please consider restacking it and sharing it with your audience? This spreads the word and keeps me interviewing and sharing content that will help you grow your partnership business and career. Thanks for reading Inside Partnering! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🎧 Want more conversations like this? 💌 Subscribe to get new episodes and behind-the-scenes insights: insidepartnering.substack.com (http://insidepartnering.substack.com) Check out all 130+ episodes at InsidePartnering.com (http://InsidePartnering.com) 🔗 Follow Chip on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiprodgers) for daily partnership content and guest clips Know someone Chip should interview? Send a quick email (mailto:chip@insidepartnering.com). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidepartnering.substack.com/subscribe (https://insidepartnering.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

3. 

   14 May 2026

   Nancy Sperry: Scaling Through Co-Sell, AI, and Industry Expertise

   This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit insidepartnering.substack.com (https://insidepartnering.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7) At Sage FUTURE in San Francisco, Nancy Sperry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysperry/), Vice President of North American Partner Sales at Sage, shared a practical view into how Sage approaches partnerships, co-selling, and AI enablement. The conversation focused on operational execution - how to help partners scale faster, create industry-specific customer outcomes, and build durable businesses together. One theme came through consistently: Sage is designing its ecosystem strategy around partner growth, not just partner participation. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Building a Partner Business Sperry framed Sage’s approach around a simple idea: if partners grow, Sage grows alongside them. “How do we remove the barriers to growth for the partner? That’s an incredible kind of focus.” Rather than viewing partnerships strictly through pipeline contribution or resale metrics, Sage appears to be thinking more holistically about partner economics and operational scalability. Sperry described investments in tooling, acquisitions, AI capabilities, and co-sell motions as intentionally designed to help partners execute faster. “All of it is designed to be executed through the lens of partner.” That philosophy extends into how Sage structures its go-to-market organization. According to Sperry, Sage’s North American partner organization works closely alongside partner sales teams in the field, helping partners add sales capacity, industry expertise, and execution support. Co-Sell as Staff Augmentation One of the more interesting operational models discussed was Sage’s approach to co-selling. Sperry explained that Sage account executives can effectively operate as an extension of partner sales teams. “What that does is it actually gives partners some additional sales capacity.” For smaller or growing partners, this becomes a meaningful scaling mechanism. Instead of waiting until they can independently fund new headcount, partners can leverage Sage resources to accelerate pipeline development and industry expansion. Sperry described this as a practical way to help partners grow faster while reducing operational friction. “If they want to go into a particular industry, we can add a little bit of industry knowledge.” That support can include: * Additional sales coverage * Industry specialization * Mentorship for new partner reps * Joint customer engagement * Pipeline acceleration Importantly, she framed this as a shared investment model. “We’re investing together.” That alignment matters because many partners are balancing hiring decisions, utilization targets, and services capacity while simultaneously trying to grow recurring revenue practices. The Power of Micro-Vertical Expertise Another major theme was Sage’s focus on industry depth. Sperry explained that while Sage serves many broad industries, partners often go even deeper into highly specialized micro-verticals. “We have over 50 micro verticals that we can kind of talk about.” This is where the ecosystem becomes a force multiplier. Partners combine: * Sage technology * Industry expertise * Specialized services * ISV integrations * Workflow customization The result is highly tailored customer experiences that are difficult for generalized providers to replicate. Sperry also highlighted how partners frequently overlap across multiple ecosystem motions simultaneously. A reseller may also build proprietary technology. An outsourcing partner may also operate as an ISV. That flexibility creates broader customer coverage and more specialized outcomes. “One partner may not solve that challenge exactly the same way.” For partner leaders, that observation matters. Ecosystems increasingly win through combinations of expertise rather than through single-vendor standardization. Trusted AI Requires Trusted Partners AI was a central topic throughout Sage FUTURE, particularly around trusted AI for finance and accounting workflows. Sperry emphasized that Sage’s long history in accounting gives the company a strong foundation for responsible AI adoption. “We get to build on the foundation of not just strong strength in accounting, but also bringing forward that trusted AI.” She also made an important point about the role partners play in AI adoption. For many customers, the partner is the first trusted advisor they turn to when evaluating how AI should be applied to their business. That’s why Sage is involving partners directly in AI development initiatives, including its agentic AI developer program. “They’re building AI with us.” Sperry referenced partners already building agents and AI-driven solutions on top of Sage capabilities. This reflects a broader ecosystem trend: hyperscalers and platform companies increasingly need partners not just to sell AI, but to operationalize it within specific workflows and industries.

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