Sprout Award for Technology Innovation

I recently attended the Everything Channel Xchange ’09 event at The Gaylord just outside of Washington DC this past week and want to share some of my observations.  MindTouch was one of the Sprout Award winners for innovative technology start-ups.  First, the Washington DC area is extremely humid this time of year.  Second, that the attendees, Value Added Resellers, System Integrators, and other types of partners were all there for a number of reasons.  I talked to a lot of partners, and there seemed to be a common thread of why these folks were taking the time away from selling and servicing their customers, all around the common theme of increasing sales revenue and the efficiency of running their business. 

• Partners were there to talk and socialize with other partners.  They discuss what works well for one another, as well as just feeding a sense of camaraderie among a group of business people  that have common goals and objective.

• They take advantage of Everything Channel’s expertise in the industry to learn emerging new trends and techniques for building and driving their businesses, and for being able to better serve their clients.  They also learn of ways to find and attract new clients by different marketing programs.

• They are looking for new and exciting technologies that will help them better serve their clients, and increase incremental revenue to their organizations.  While maybe a little bias, being a Sprout Award winner and all, I think this is a very important reason for them coming to these types of events.  Partners need to find the “next great innovation” that will help set them apart; making them look better in the eyes of their clients because they are helping their clients become more efficient and effective within their various businesses.  One partner shared with me how adding a Sales Force Automation practice to his business (obviously this was some time ago) really helped differentiate him from other VARs who were not doing this at the time.  It gave him a competitive advantage within his marketplace.  Since then this guy is always looking for the next technology coming around the corner.  In the words of Geoffrey Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm,” this partner was clearly an early adopter, which is most definitely working for him.

MindTouch’s Enterprise Collaborative Networks helps partners accomplish their goals by providing a next generation platform for:

Building dashboards and interactive reports to help executives and other managers make informed decisions.

• A platform for rapid application development to build plug-ins and applications to solve specific business issues, and take advantage of market opportunities.

• To build intranets, extranets, and knowledgebases for various business segments.

MindTouch helps partners help their clients by fostering collaboration and communications among internal employees, suppliers, and most importantly, customers.

Again, just a few observations.  I hope potential partners, and others, will learn more about MindTouch and how we can help you.  Visit us at www.mindtouch.com/partners, and see why being a MindTouch partner is the right decision for you.

The following is a brief video of Aaron Fulkerson, MindTouch Founder and CEO, that was pre-recorded to accept the Sprout Award. He also speaks about starting and growing MindTouch.