This is a guest blog post authored by Edo de Zwaan and Onur Duran, Citrix Solutions Advisors, SoftwareONE.
At SoftwareONE, our mission is simple: “Making Transformation a Reality.” When the pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to remote and hybrid work, companies were required to accelerate the pace of their transformation like never before. Our team dove right in, putting in long hours and hard work, to help our customers shift to this new work environment. That’s why being honored as CSA Worldwide Partner of the Year at Citrix Field Kickoff 2022 was so meaningful. It’s a true testament to our team’s passion and commitment to making our customers’ business transformation goals a reality.
As we reflect on the last year — while there were challenging times — what stands out is the tremendous successes our team was able to achieve on behalf of our customers. We worked closely with the Citrix team to drive and support the transition to the cloud and subscription-based business, and as a result secured nearly half a million dollars in new cloud growth, and fulfilled new business 3x year-over-year. Most importantly, we helped our customers adapt to the new normal, and helped their employees thrive.
What was the key to this success? We believe it all hinges on the close relationships we maintain with our customers, which allow us to provide them with the right advice and solutions to achieve their unique goals.
Putting the Customer First
We pride ourselves on being a truly customer-focused organization, and we invest our time, and knowledge, into each customer relationship. We hold workshops with in-depth sparring sessions with our customers, to get to know their individual needs. This allows us to transcend the role of a traditional reseller and to become a trusted advisor. We understand our customers’ business, their pain points, and how to help them get to the next level.
During these in-depth conversations with customers over the last year two major themes stood out. First, the idea of enabling work from any device, any place, any time became front and center. And, our customers’ IT needs shifted and became more complex as a result. Even internally, we saw this change as our IT department needed to manage more solutions with the same amount of staff. Second, we saw security become top of mind for every organization. Customers were challenged with making their digital workplaces more secure, without compromising the overall user experience.
As we worked in lockstep with our customers to address these challenges, we took a customized approach based on their unique needs. Take the journey to the cloud, for example: Our approach to cloud migration varies with each customer. But, the most important element in each situation is listening carefully to their needs, and which risks will need to be mitigated, before presenting a solution or a roadmap. Understanding the needs of our customers and translating this into a bespoke solution allows us to become a valued and trusted partner — and allows our customers to achieve their business objectives more seamlessly.
Focus on the End User
The success of our customer engagements is ultimately measured in the happiness of the end user. We constantly ask our customers (and ourselves): “What would this solution mean for the employee themselves?”
At the start of the pandemic, when remote work was a newer concept for many organizations, the goal of many of our customers was just to make remote work possible — and to do so quickly. Now, the focus has shifted to how to make remote work a good experience for the end user, regardless of location. This means ensuring security is baked in, reducing friction in dealing with technology, and ultimately allowing employees to work how and where they want without hassle. Focusing on the end-user experience not only helps to simplify their experience but also drives productivity, providing a win-win situation for both employers and employees.
The Future is Now
In the future, every company will be a technology company. And, as we’ve seen firsthand, IT will continue to become the backbone of every organization. Knowing this, it’s important that organizations invest in IT as a changemaker to ensure they’re equipped to adapt to the needs of the times.
We don’t just talk to our customers and tell them what they need. Rather, we listen and work together to create solutions that ease the way of the modern workplace, allowing work anytime and anyplace. We show our customers how easy it is to adapt to a smarter way of working. Citrix Workspace, for example, is an easy proof point we can showcase to help our customers see the bigger picture.
Looking forward, with our Citrix CSA Worldwide Partner of the Year achievement fresh on our minds, I’m excited to continue the path that we are on as a company and team, placing our focus on our customers to allow them to do their best work. By working together, it’s a bright future for Citrix, for SoftwareONE as a Citrix partner — and our customers and their end users. With the strategic plans we have in place, we can ensure that our customers will have an even better experience tomorrow!
Learn more about SoftwareONE and see the complete list of Citrix Partner of the Year Award winners.
