Bull`s Eye Awards: Global Channel Executive of the Year - CHALLENGER

Janet Schijns
Vice President of Global Channels
Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions

For channel executives on the 2009 speaking circuit, Janet Schijns was the most feared name on the agenda. Those who saw her name appear before theirs on agendas knew they had a hard act to follow, since Schijns has built a far-reaching reputation for delivering entertaining and informative keynotes and presentations that focused on partners, best practices and market trends rather than just the usual corporate PowerPoint rants.

But Schijns is more than just a dynamic speaker; she is a visionary for her channel program as well as the overall channel community.

Since abandoning her channel consulting practice to take up the reins of the Motorola EMS global channel program, Schijns has worked to implement a vibrant and productive channel-centric culture within Motorola. She has built programs and enablement tools so Motorola sales managers around the globe understand the value Motorola’s partners bring to market penetration, solution building and fulfillment, and customer relationship and satisfaction. Her efforts to build internal partnerships with product managers, industry groups, marketing teams, services divisions and theater operations have made the channel an integral part of Motorola EMS’ global go-to-market strategy.

Schijns understands the value that independent software vendors (ISVs) add to the hardware products of a platform vendor such as Motorola EMS. In the past year she has worked to build bridges between ISVs and value-added resellers and solution providers so they have a better understanding on how to build holistic solutions that meet mutual customers’ needs. Motorola EMS has even built a lab in which engineers help ISVs and VARs integrate and test their solutions in simulated customer environments.

Not missing from her field of vision is the end-user community, since the customer is the one who needs and pays for the solutions created by the Motorola ecosystem. Under her “Power of a Partner” program, Schijns is instilling in end users greater awareness of the value that solution providers bring to the IT purchasing and fulfillment process. When customers or prospects think about Motorola solutions, Schijns wants them to turn to a partner first.

Schijns is one of the most dynamic and committed leaders in the channel today. She is a fount of ideas and receptive to the suggestions and needs of her partner community. We expect to see her star rise higher in the year to come as she sets the standard for her peers to follow. Channel Insider is honored to award the Challenger Bull’s Eye Award for Global Channel Executive of the Year to Janet Schijns.