In an interview with CRN, new PTC Chief Partner Officer Kimberly King, formerly of Hitachi Vantara, talks about her plans to simplify the industrial software vendor’s partner program, make services more profitable for partners and expand its reach through ISVs and OEMs.
The new channel chief of industrial software vendor PTC said she hopes to simplify the company’s partner program, make services more profitable for partners and expand its reach through new engagements with ISVs and OEMs.
Previously senior vice president of strategic partners and alliances at Hitachi Vantara for seven years, Kimberly King became chief partner officer of Boston-based PTC last month—a role that brings her back to the software space and to a company much closer to her in location with a compelling vision for its future, she said in a recent interview with CRN.
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“For me, it was all about where are they going and what’s happening, but the leadership team and the technology was really a big draw for me. And I felt like I did what I can do at Hitachi. Sometimes it’s just time to do something new,” she said late last month.
King was hired roughly a year after PTC appointed Neil Barua—who joined the company in 2023 through its $1.46 billion acquisition of ServiceMax, which he previously led—as its new CEO, taking over from longtime chief executive Jim Heppelmann.
In her interview with CRN, King talked about her plan to push for greater partner engagement with PTC’s foundational product lifecycle management (PLM) and computer-aided design (CAD) products, find the best ways for partners to engage with other products and simplify its partner program without making disruptive changes.
“When you live in the partner program every day, sometimes you don’t realize the complexities that are created that don’t necessarily benefit partners,” she said.
“And so I’ve already talked to the team about how do we audit the program, how do we simplify it, how do we create more benefits for partners, so that they understand how to absorb the program and the technology to be more effective versus there’s 2,000 requirements that you have to follow, right? That’s an exaggeration, of course, but that’s sort of an idea [of the conversations taking place],” King added.
King said she is also looking at expanding PTC’s partner program beyond its traditional channel to include other types of partners, like ISVs and OEMs.
“We have this theme inside around ‘power to create,’ and so we’re really looking around that power to create with partners. And so not just looking at resellers and distribution partners and services partners but technology partners that help us expand the portfolio and really drive that next generation of solution,” she said.
Another focus for King is making sure that PTC partners can increase profit margins on services they provide on top of its products, especially since the company “got rid of its services business a few years ago.”
“We want to make sure that our partners are highly profitable in that and some of our competitors are not doing that. They have a competitive nature with their partners when it comes to services. So those sorts of things are going to be really important,” she said.
The chief revenue officer at Lake Mary, Fla.-based PTC partner IQNOX—which focuses on selling the vendor’s IoT and application lifecycle management products along with related services—told CRN that he’s excited about King’s push to reduce complexities within the PTC partner program without making disruptive changes.
“When you make programs that become complex, the problem we’ve experienced is you spend a lot of time managing to the program itself, as opposed to getting out there in front of customers and doing what’s important, which is driving the product sales and solving the customer problems with [those products],” said Michael Ottoman.
Ottoman also applauded King’s move to align partners with PTC’s verticals-focused sales teams, which he said will help IQNOX with the investments it’s making in areas like automotive, medical devices and manufacturing.
“Now with Kim in there talking about breaking down the barriers or incenting sales to work with partners where it makes sense to us, that’s super important, because we do have a value,” he said. “We do work with large global medical device companies and manufacturing companies and stuff like this, where we’re doing PTC but also [adding] our own unique value to that.”
“We have that ability. We have that expertise to play in those bigger accounts, and we need to figure out how best we can put that attack team together and go after that line of business so that it’s mutually beneficial for both organizations,” Ottoman added.
What follows is a lightly edited transcript of CRN’s interview with King, who also discussed how she plans to grow PTC’s partner program, how PTC plans to align its channel partners with its new verticals-focused sales organization and how King plans to build an “on-demand engine” for a variety of partner needs.
You were with Hitachi Vantara for a while. What led you to leave and go to PTC?
So a couple different reasons. I’m always looking for a change in what I can do and where I can make an impact. And I’ve been following PTC for a long time. They’re a local company to me here in New Hampshire, Boston. And with all the leadership changes, I got to know all of the leaders here at PTC—and what a great group of people.
So , to me, between the technology really moving back into more of a software space versus hardware space, and then the vision that that PTC has going forward. For me, it was all about where are they going and what’s happening, but the leadership team and the technology was really a big draw for me. And I felt like I did what I can do at Hitachi. Sometimes it’s just time to do something new.
When you came into PTC, what was the state of PTC’s partner program and its work with channel partners, and what are you hoping to accomplish in your new role?
PTC has a really great foundation and a ton of great momentum with the partner community, but I see this as an opportunity for growth and sort of expansion on that foundation. [We are] solving real world customer problems and strong partners, but I found in the last two weeks—this is the beginning of my third week— when you look at the partner community, there’s probably areas where we can use more partners and then different partners as we start to expand our portfolio. it’s just been a matter of getting behind that focus and that foundation and driving it to the next level is what I see.
And there’s so many great components that—I don’t know why we don’t talk about them for our partners—and really exciting benefits. So it’s some of that, getting that word out there on all the great benefits that we’ve created for partners, but they don’t necessarily know about.
So it’s amazing. I want to say probably 25 or 30 partners immediately reached out to me on LinkedIn, said, “Can I get on your calendar?” And they were surprised that I was like, “Sure, no problem.” And so I’ve scheduled round-the-clock calls with new partners that I hadn’t spoken to before, and some of them knew me from before. it was the third day I was in, we had a bunch of GSIs in the office, and so I went downstairs, and they were like, ‘Kim!’ It was really great to just catch up with them. But when you look at it from that perspective, all the foundational elements are there. It’s that looking at it from a different lens and being able to take it to the next level is really exciting to me.
You said there are some areas where you want to push for more partners or different kinds of strategies. Are there any particular product areas where you’re looking to push for more partners or higher partner engagement?
So our foundational products, PLM and CAD, would be the first two. And then we’re really looking at our newer products in more of an incubation mode, identifying the partners that currently sit in our ecosystem and how do we transform them versus recruiting new ones. And then where we do need to recruit new ones, what do they look like?
And so that’s a lot of the conversations I’ve had the last two weeks: What is the ideal partner profile for new solutions? How do we drive that? Do the current partners fit into that? How do we expand?
And then we have this theme inside around “power to create,” and so we’re really looking around that power to create with partners. And so not just looking at resellers and distribution partners and services partners but technology partners that help us expand the portfolio and really drive that next generation of solution. I’ve had a lot of great conversations with some of our product managers about that. So we’re really looking at the 360 for our partner community.
With what you’re doing, you’re pushing PTC’s partner ecosystem beyond just the traditional resellers and distributors. Is that correct?
Yes, we are. We’re looking to do that definitely. It’s going to take us a little time, but we are going to push it beyond where we are today.
I’m guessing this would possibly involve ISVs and maybe even OEMs in some cases?
You’d be surprised, but yes, those are the things that we’re looking at. It’s definitely ISVs, how they fit into our portfolio as well as OEMs. And really there are a lot of companies out there that have gaps in their portfolio [where] we fit nicely.
And some of the conversations that I’ve initially had—and we still have to [work] these things through—is understanding where is truly the right fit? Make sure there’s not a super competitive fit, but we’re driving the right engagement, and it’s beneficial for the ISV or OEM as much as it is for us. So finding that win-win is going to be really important for us.
You’re talking about CAD and PLM being two of the biggest focuses. But is there any focus on working with existing partners to expand them to other product lines as well?
Yes. And so that’s one of the items that we’ve looked at, is we’re actually mapping all of our partners today and identifying the ones that have the capability to expand into others.
Part of our challenge is some products are just not channel-friendly or channel-ready products. And so those are the ones that we’re trying to make sure that, do they go to our ecommerce site, and can partners work with those and from an ecommerce perspective? And how do we really create that seamless engagement across our portfolio? But there are products that just don’t fit in there, and we can’t push something that isn’t service friendly or partner friendly, right? If it’s something that’s easy to install and you can download it off the web, do you really need a partner community, or do you need an ecommerce site for that? And then it gives our partners the capability to really focus on the products that are driving them to create that change and provide that sustainability and solution and truly the outcome that a customer wants. And that’s where we’re seeing partners really play, is that they’re delivering the outcomes for our customers and with our customers and our sales team that help them deliver on the promises,
Whenever there’s a new channel chief, there’s sometimes a question of, how much change are we going to see? What are you envisioning? Is there going to be a reinvention of the partner program, or is it going to be more of an evolution, or somewhere in between?
It’ll be an evolution. One major thing that I heard from our partners is too much change. We’ve been constantly changing over the last couple of years. They’d like us to be more prescriptive about the change. And, in the past, the way I look at it is, let’s take all the feedback and incorporate the change into our new program. We’re already halfway through our fiscal year, so we would incorporate that for an October release, letting partners know the things that we’re going to change, but the number one thing we’re going to do is simplify the partner program.
So I’ve already looked at it. When you live in the partner program every day, sometimes you don’t realize the complexities that are created that don’t necessarily benefit partners. And so I’ve already talked to the team about, how do we audit the program, how do we simplify it, how do we create more benefits for partners, so that they understand how to absorb the program and the technology to be more effective versus there’s 2,000 requirements that you have to follow, right? That’s an exaggeration, of course, but that’s sort of an idea, just looking at it in the first couple of weeks and having conversations with partners.
What are the broader opportunities that PTC sees, whether it’s vertical- or application-based?
Well, we’ve transformed our sales team, and you should talk to Rob, who’s our new CRO. He’s really fantastic. So he’s completely transformed our sales organization specifically into verticals. We’re not going to transform our partner community into verticals, but we’re going to figure out how they seamlessly can collaborate in the vertical market. So we don’t want to have two separate go-to-markets where partners are focused on regions and sales are focused on verticals.
So we are shifting the organization to a vertical focus, and partners will do that in a really meaningful, thoughtful way. I do think that’s going to be important for our folks, especially the partners. And then really just looking at it, sustainability is really important, as we know. When we look across our business and the quality of our solutions in the state and making sure that they drive sustainable solutions—that will be important. So we’re looking at those sorts of things, some micro trends versus massive shifts.
I feel like this is a pretty efficient interview!
There’s not a ton of stuff to fix. It’s more “modify it,” but also getting people excited again about the channel. It’s sort of been on the backburner. Until they had brought in the right leader for them, it was kind of like, all right, it’s over here, and we know that it’s functioning and it’s doing well, but then how do we really take it to the next level?
You’ve talked a lot your plans for this year. Is there anything else that you didn’t address yet that is important for partners to know?
The biggest thing is when I look at partner benefits. So one of the things that when we just look at our transformation going forward, we’re going to get really aggressive about this: We have a whole dedicated, what we call [an] ICAM team that’s an inside partner team that’s focused on helping partners accelerate pipeline growth, customer acquisition, and they’re 100 percent dedicated. And we have that globally.
And I met with this team last week, and I’m spending time with them this week. They’re really super excited about making sure not only we transform our partners and help them become better at demand [generation] and also support them through that process, but they’re really excited at growing.
And we’re actually using that team as a mentoring ground for our partner community. So we’ve actually had a few people that were in that group that have gone out to work for partners. So it’s this really nice group of folks that are just high energy, super smart, and you’re seeing them progress not only through our organization, but also go through the organization and then go to partners. So I see that as really a proving ground for the partner community.
And then we’re offering up for our partners, if they want to hire those people and embed them in our team for a period of time to get completely trained and up to speed, we will fully take that responsibility on and help them. And so we’re actually mentoring and using our tools to help train their inside sales folks before we send them back into the field. So it really helps them.
The number one item I’ve heard from partners is really around enablement. How do we make that simpler, easier for partners to collaborate and succeed with us? Because we have a lot of products, we’re going to focus on some core products and then expand those, but enablement is going to be critical for that.
And then the other thing is we have all of our partners deliver on services. I don’t think we’re good at talking about the fact that we do this demand [generation]. We have partner-enabled services. We got rid of our services business a few years ago, way before I was here. And we want to make sure that our partners are highly profitable in that and some of our competitors are not doing that. They have a competitive nature with their partners when it comes to services. So those sorts of things are going to be really important.
And then I’ve already talked to our head of strategy about completely revamping our marketing and demand [generation] go-to-market to support for partners. As you know, I was all about the portal and the enablement of our partner community and really scaling them through those processes [at Hitachi Vantara].
We’ve got to do a little bit of that here, too. We’ve got the building blocks, but we’ve got to get all of the rest of the tools and solutions in place so that it’s really an on-demand engine, a sales motion for these partners to ensure that they can be successful, and they don’t have to rely on us for everything. But when you look at all those together, we can just get them that motion moving in the right direction. The volume and velocity of opportunities across our entire portfolio will be pretty great.
