Since the launch of the Camunda partner program, Camunda Connect, hundreds of partner companies have developed solutions for Camunda’s process automation clients around the globe. These Camunda partners have built technology that has made process automation more accessible, impactful, and customizable for companies of various sizes across industries. The solutions developed by our partners have had a tangible impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes for countless Camunda clients.
To learn more about the impact of Camunda’s partners, we caught up with Christiana Christenson, global vice president at Camunda, who was recently named to the 2022 CRN Women of the Channel, in part due to her achievements in orchestrating the Camunda Connect program.
Q: Why are partners critical to the success of Camunda?
Christenson: There are several ways in which partners play a critical role for Camunda. First, Camunda made a strategic decision to focus on building and innovating our process orchestration platform. That means we are not focused on delivering professional services, business consulting, or other services that would dilute that focus. The reality is that we rely on our partners to develop, deploy, and implement Camunda for our clients, and our partners are best positioned to do that work.
Furthermore, with our product-led focus, we are not focusing on building applied functional or vertical solutions, we are instead looking to our partners to innovate and bring vertical expertise and solutions to market. For our partners, this is an outstanding opportunity to innovate, create value-add solutions around Camunda, and in the process, distinguish their leadership in delivering process automation solutions.
Q: You were recently recognized in CRN’s 2022 Women of the Channel, a who’s who of channel executives. What does that recognition mean to you?
Christenson: I’m humbled and grateful. There are so many fantastic channel pros on the list, and it’s an honor to be counted among them.
Q: Do you have any advice for other women who may seek to become executives in companies to help drive channel success?
Christenson: Just show up and give your best every day. Not every day will be a smashing “win,” but even in disappointments, embrace the opportunities to fail and treat them as learning experiences that can truly help you grow. Also, find a mentor who will ask you tons of questions, challenge you, push you, and help you to be honest with yourself.
Speak with openness and honesty and always do so as kindly as possible—which doesn’t mean it will always be well received, but at least heard and respected.
Finally, remember that differences of opinions are healthy, and instead of looking at these situations as a threat, never make assumptions.
Q. What has been the driving factor for the success of the Camunda Connect Global Partner Program since its launch in 2021?
Christenson: The process automation market is experiencing explosive growth, driven by high demand from organizations that are looking to reinvent their processes for better digital experiences while reducing operational costs. Camunda finds itself in a great position to support these organizations with its scalable, flexible process orchestration platform that is easy to deploy and cost-effective to maintain and run. Partners see huge opportunities to bring Camunda’s new and innovative technology to their clients to solve their biggest process challenges, and as a result, we are seeing unprecedented demand to partner with Camunda in all of our markets and customer segments. It’s an exciting time to participate in the company’s success and help Camunda and partners alike to serve the customers in our market.
And Camunda has placed big bets on partners to drive our growth and adoption in the market and intends for at least half of our revenue to come through the channel.
Q: What do you consider to be the cornerstone features of the Camunda Connect program?
Christenson: We’ve built our program to support the way business works in the cloud, with flexibility for partners and the customers they work with. Partners can work with Camunda as one or more types of partners, depending on their modes of engagement and go-to-market models. With Camunda Connect, we have multiple types of partners:
- Services partners provide value-added services and implementation.
- Sales partners resell Camunda Platform.
- Solution partners build platform solutions that they sell to end clients for specific use cases.
We believe in flexibility for partners to engage in any or all of these modes, which drives consumption of our products and the related solutions and services customers need for their larger automation projects. We also based the program on the fundamental concept of building the capability of our partners, where knowledge drives better outcomes and for that reason, we’ve removed all “barriers to entry” for partners with free and unlimited sales and technical training.
Q: What kind of benefits do participating partners receive from the program?
Christenson: Partners receive full and unlimited access to Camunda Partner Academy on-demand training, and skilled resources dedicated to working with partners to enable technical success.
In addition, we offer a partner portal to automate partner support with tools such as:
- Self-service sales and marketing assets
- Access to funding and support for co-marketing initiatives
- New and streamlined deal registration with protections for partner investment
Q: What are you most proud of thus far in your career?
Christenson: Enabling enduring success – for people I have worked with and counted among members of my teams, like my former bosses and so on. Seeing them succeed in bigger roles, etc., makes me happy. It’s also great to see companies where I’ve helped create partner businesses that are still successful today and know that I helped them to do that. I’m also grateful for the many amazing, kind, smart, interesting, and worldly people I’ve met along the way.
Q: Where can people find more information about the Camunda Connect Global Partner Program?
Christenson: Information about Camunda Connect and our partners can be found on our website.
