Rebecca Gibson |
Partnerships provide unparalleled opportunities for people to share knowledge, experiences, resources and ideas, all of which leads to the development of innovative products, services and employee and customer experiences. Hence, partners are a pivotal part of the business strategy at Netherlands-based firm Anywhere365, which provides a cloud-based dialogue management and contact centre platform for the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
In August 2022, the organisation created a new Ambassador Program to recognise accredited partners for their knowledge about Anywhere365 technology and their commitment to helping other businesses to implement the product. Accredited partners were able to nominate themselves or members of their technical, sales and marketing teams to receive ambassador status, giving both the successful individual and the organisation industry-wide recognition for their achievements.
After receiving more than 100 nominations, Anywhere365 selected its first 30 ambassadors from around the world this autumn. “We’ve now seen first-hand that our partner network contains some truly knowledgeable and dedicated people,” says Loira Browning, partner marketing manager at Anywhere365. “Each and every one of the 30 ambassadors brings their own skillset and we’re excited to work with all of them.”
For example, US-based ambassador Robin Lehr, director of operations at Cloud Revolution, was recognised for her extensive knowledge about the data schema for Anywhere365 and her proficiency in creating custom Microsoft Power BI reports for customers. “In addition, we wanted to reward Robin for her work to develop helpful Microsoft PowerApps add-ons that make it easier for customers to interact with Anywhere365 solutions,” says Browning.
Meanwhile, Lam Pang Ngean, director at Axiom IT Solutions, is actively promoting the Anywhere365 solution for call centres using Microsoft Teams in Singapore and the wider Asia region. “He has set up a strong sales, marketing and technical team to pursue this business in the region and is working closely with Anywhere365,” says Browning.
Anywhere365 also named Chris Goodwill as its first-ever Ambassador of the Year. Goodwill is a modern workplace sales specialist at Symity, which brings together Microsoft Teams phone systems, contact centre and meeting room products to create a single communication solution.
“Chris is truly passionate about the Anywhere365 product, services and the team, and he is fully committed to promoting all of these internally within Symity and externally via social media,” says Browning.
Speaking about his award win, Goodwill says: “I was very pleasantly surprised to receive the first Ambassador of the Year Award as it’s a reflection of not only my own, but also the wider Symity team’s, efforts to build a close reciprocal relationship with Anywhere365.”
All ambassadors were invited to celebrate their achievements at an exclusive summit at Anywhere365’s headquarters in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
“We want this group of people to feel truly connected and welcomed into the Anywhere365 team, so it was important for us to kick off the ambassador journey with an event where everyone could meet each other in person,” explains Browning. “In addition to hosting an awards ceremony, we also took our ambassadors in water taxis to the Euromast observation tower, giving them the opportunity to see a 360-degree view of Rotterdam from 180 metres above the ground and then enjoy lunch at the restaurant, which is 112 metres up.”
According to Browning, appointing ambassadors and hosting the summit has strengthened Anywhere365’s relationships with its key partners and expedited its mission to help their customers improve contact centre operations in the Microsoft Teams environment.
“Ambassadors had the chance to meet key members of Anywhere365’s management and product teams and gain insider knowledge about the projects we’re currently working on,” she explains. “We shared our product roadmap to illustrate how we’re improving our product and our services to ensure we can better support our partners moving forward. Microsoft also gave an update about our strategic relationship and joint roadmap.”
Crucially, the summit also offered a unique forum for ambassadors to provide direct feedback on the product roadmap, requested features, service improvements, cloud tooling and marketing initiatives.
“We greatly appreciated the opportunity to gain valuable insights from our ambassadors because it has allowed us to build an approach that will better support our partners and their customers in the future,” explains Browning. “We saw a community starting to form during the event, with ambassadors and Anywhere365 executives sharing knowledge, and various ambassadors also collaborating on ideas, integrations and advanced scenarios to improve their respective customer contact centre operations.”
Goodwill was one of many ambassadors to note the tangible benefits of attending the summit. “I’ve attended a range of partner events during my career and in my opinion, Anywhere365’s Ambassador Summit was exceptional,” says Goodwill. “It allowed direct engagement with both key stakeholders at Anywhere365 and a community of likeminded professionals across the globe.
“Anywhere365 is clearly passionate about its solutions and partners, and ultimately their clients. There were real benefits to being able to discuss opportunities and best practices with, and provide feedback to, the product, service, commercial and marketing teams. That’s something which is difficult to access with other manufacturers.”