Role purpose: The Strategic Partnerships Sr. Lead is responsible for building an ecosystem for Solutions providers and manage the business relationship & agreements with them to work with Vodafone solutions team. Offering an end-to-end service portfolio supporting Vodafone in their digital transformation journey.
The ecosystem should consist of different solution providers including startups, software houses and global service providers offering relevant on-shelf services meeting Vodafone Solutions Strategy. The SPSL should be able to have an end-to-end agreement including but not limited to the business model, pricing, sales with model, training & enablement for different teams, GTM activities, Sales and marketing strategies, and financial model with Vodafone. The SPSL should be working closely with different product owners to build the relevant business plans which would be accordingly executed with those partners.
SPSL should be working with different organizations and entities working on both Startups and entrepreneurs in addition to entities supporting different SME’s in Egypt, either private or governmental. The SPSL is responsible for partnering with these entities and engaging the Product owners in relevant events to increase awareness about Vodafone services, and accordingly increasing the queue of solutions/services that would be bundled with Vodafone services and offered for SME’s.
SPSL is responsible of partnering with new selling channels including resellers and build referral programs for Vodafone Solutions services, in collaboration with the product owners and customer experience team to have the end-to-end experience and process build and closed properly and ready for operational work with relevant teams.
The SPSL is a solutions expert and is responsible for assessing the different technical solutions that would meet Vodafone Solutions criteria including understanding different top notch technologies like software solutions, Cloud, IoT, SaaS solutions, Messaging, big data & Analytics.
The SPSL will accomplish this by fostering strong relationships across the business, working closely with product owners to understand their needs as well as understanding the broader environment, before then creating a vision, partnerships strategy and backlog that would support the product owners in their roadmap and solutions growth and business development growth.
Key accountabilities and decision ownership:
• Grow solutions offering through partnering with solutions providers
• Reach out for relevant Strategic partners who would be key for solutions growth
• Build business plans with Product owners and strategic partners
• Leverage Vodafone Group agreements & strategic partners and implement local agreement to get the maximum benefit for Egypt’s team.
• Drive performance management of partners through monthly/quarterly reviews to review overall business performance and to measure against partners’ agreed business plan.
• Consistently develop work with product owners on SME solution strategies and provide partner solutions that are market competitive.
• Leverage on existing partners to build agreements with Government and other entities to cascade those services to SMEs sponsored and backed up by government initiatives & Partners solutions strength.
• Execute the engagement process completely and ensure audit ability
• Support on working with different stakeholders to finalize the contractual agreements of new Strategic partners.
• Lead the development of the SME services portfolio and ensures it meets the product owners business plans.
• Innovation, thought leadership and asset reuse as part of solution creation
Core competencies, knowledge and experience:
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
• Evidence of Use Conflicts for Constructive Change
• Customer-orientated and innovative approach to service design and delivery and result orientated
• Must have a solid understanding of marketing programs, events, and promotions, as well as experience in developing partner marketing plans
• Hands-on, self-directed executive who plans, prepares and executes professionally
Must have technical / professional qualifications:
• minimum 6 years of relevant experience with partner management experience a must
• ICT experience is preferred
• Solid IT offering background preferably with technical education
• Experience in any of the following solutions: Digital Solutions, SaaS (ERP, E-commerce), Hosting, Fixed Connectivity, Big data & analytics, IoT
• A Commercial experience is an asset
• Professional knowledge about Partner development and business development for/with SMEs & startup community
• Ability to communicate effectively in a variety of written and verbal formats with a wide range of people - external individuals, organizations and agencies
• Ability to manage team, contracted staff, partnerships and relationships
• Strong time management skills and motivation – ability to work to deadlines and under pressure
• Understanding of revenue reporting needs and effective data & information management issues
• Experience in working with budgets and financial systems
• Ability to work and contribute effectively to a team
• Commitment to own personal professional development
• Experience of assessing and/or evaluating individuals and projects