Sumal Karunanayake, ForgeRock Senior Vice President Asia Pacific and Japan
1. Key channel plays for 2015
Defining and implementing an organisation’s digital transformation strategy will be top priority in 2015.
Companies that quickly implement digital technology to extend reach, enhance customer engagement, and accelerate time to market will be best positioned to dominate the market.
Using digital technology to create an omni-channel experience across the digital and physical world to refefine channels and expand industry boundaries provide unprecedented opportunity for SIs, MSPs, SPs and carriers.
2. Key technology for 2015
Organisations will be unable to properly take advantage of mobile, Cloud, or Internet of Things (IoT) technologies without a scalable and repeatable identity strategy.
They will be unable to identify and engage with their customers in a meaningful way without it — whether it be through a laptop, mobile phone, tablet, connected car, healthcare wearable, connected home device or the next great connected solution.
Organisations that implement a unified identity strategy across all lines of business will be better prepared for the digital transformation and have greater success building long-term customer relationships and driving increased revenue and growth.
3. Key message to the channel for 2015
The channel has a key role to play in the digital revolution. Most channel companies, regardless of the services they provide, differentiate themselves through one attribute - relationships.
This is augmented by a deeper understanding of their customers’ business than any IT vendor can attain. The message to the channel is - leverage knowledge, IP and relationships with customers to influence and drive the digital agenda.
If you can do this, you will be a strategic partner to your customer. But you have to be focused on business outcomes and not be merely a provider of technology and services.
4. Key warning to the channel for 2015
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Don’t just be project focused or short-term focused. Drive a strategic roadmap for your customer. Align yourself with where your customer wants to be in the next five to 10 years.
Drive the agenda and the roadmap to achieve these mid- and short-term goals. Today, the clear agenda is digital transformation. Help your customer get through this. Whilst you are doing this help map out a vision which allows them to be ready to drive the next wave such as IoT.
As always, help your customer make money or save money. It’s as simple as that.
5. Key to your company’s success in 2015
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We are currently driving our expansion into Asia and already see significant demand across our target customers in Australia, New Zealand, ASEAN, India, Korea and Japan.
As with any start-up in any market the key to short and mid-term success is focus. Our strategy is very much a channel focused go-to-market and we are currently working with numerous channel partners for both coverage and delivery capability across the region.
At a global level, we are focused one accelerating solutions that are defining identity management. One of these initiatives is in the area of user privacy, also known as user managed access, as well as enabling end users with more control over their profiles and personal data.
Another initiative is in the area of IoT which is driving a proliferation of data that is most interesting when associated with an actual user.
