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Why Joe Golemba is Excited to Launch Advantage Pricefx and the New Partner Portal

February 19th, 2020 (Updated 06/20/2023) | 7 min. read

By Pricefx

Find Out About Advantage Pricefx and Our New Partner Portal

 

As Pricefx gears up for the launch of its partner program, Advantage Pricefx, Joe Golemba, the company’s new VP of Global Ecosystems and Partners, cannot wait to see the program officially launch. I sat down with Joe, who joined Pricefx late last year, to find out about the new leader of the ecosystem team to give partners and customers alike a chance to learn more about the man that is tasked with using ecosystems to disrupt the pricing space.

 

The Journey to Leader of Pricefx’ Ecosystem Organization

 

Joe is a veteran of the global ecosystem space. “Partnering has always been in my DNA,” says Joe when describing what makes him such a good fit for the role, “I’ve always taken pride in helping other people connect dots within organizations.”

His love of global ecosystems and partnerships began at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, where, after several years of selling and delivering large, complex SAP projects, he was tasked with building a new web content management practice. “That meant doing all the typical things you would expect: defining strategies, working out budgets, and r go-to-market plans,” but it also meant choosing which partners the company should go to market with… “That was the one thing that was critical to the success of building the practice… and it was what I had a lot of passion for.”

Fast-forward three years, and Joe was recruited by one of those very partners to create a new global ecosystem. “They liked my philosophy and saw how I worked with partners first-hand,” Joe says of why he was offered the job. “I have always been a big believer in win-win, open, trusting, and collaborative relationships. One where both the technology company and the system integrators build a long-term, successful business together.”

The ecosystem Joe built ended up driving a significant amount of business for the company and created strong relationships with resellers as well as mid-tier and multinational professional services networks like Accenture and Deloitte. Oracle later bought the company which presented a unique opportunity. “I’ve been very fortunate in my career to work for some great enterprise companies like Pricewaterhouse, IBM, and Oracle…  and learn a lot about enterprise software from some great mentors and coaches.”

But, it was the work that followed, working with startups and midsized companies, that Joe found most stimulating: “When I was thinking through what I’d done in the past, I realized that I really enjoyed working for smaller companies that had energy and wanted to not just grow but make a difference. ”

Joe had the desire to “lead a strategic transformation.” “That’s what gets me excited… I want to use both my consulting and partnering experiences to drive transformational initiatives!” And he had a couple of strict criteria in place for any new company he might consider joining: They had to have “a disruptive solution in the market” and a “great company culture.” Fortunately, Joe found everything he was looking for at Pricefx, a company he calls “a great personal and professional fit.”

When asked about the keys to building a best-in-class ecosystem at Pricefx, Joe is in no doubt about what it takes. “First, there has to be buy-in from the executive team,” something Joe says was already firmly in place prior to his arrival, and “there has to be a solid plan that supports the overall vision that the executive team has.” During his short-time at Pricefx, the executive team has been “incredibly helpful,” says Joe, both supporting his vision and challenging his ideas, “which is great, because then we get better answers and crystal clear alignment.”

 

The Future of Ecosystems at Pricefx: Pricefx Advantage & the Partner Portal

 

As VP of Global Ecosystems and Partners, Joe wants to build trust and transparency with partners, just like Pricefx does with its customers. “We want to make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction and helping each other to achieve their respective goals… We want to have a completely open ecosystem, where Pricefx as a company and our partners ALL work together and collaborate. That’s our goal.”

Joe is intent on leveraging Pricefx’s partners’ best skills, combining them with the “immense talent” in the Customer Solutions team to bring “phenomenal value” to customers. This kind of collaborative approach is something entirely new for the pricing industry, but something Joe has been talking about for years. It was an idea that used to make traditional partners “cringe,” says Joe, but “as System Integrators have become more familiar with the SaaS world, and started working with cloud-based technology, they’re beginning to open up to the idea and see the value.” He said they already have initial success stories of partners starting to work together in support of customers.

Joe’s collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit make him the ideal person to head up Advantage Pricefx, Pricefx’s new partner program. Pricefx has partners of all different sizes and core competencies and they are all set to become a part of this rich, new ecosystem. “There will be partners who understand pricing and have strong pricing expertise. And then there’s going to be others who are building that core competency. And that’s OK because we’re going to help connect them with either our Customer Solution pricing experts and/or with other partners in our ecosystem, who do have pricing expertise.”

 

Why Advantage Pricefx

 

While most companies focus their partner programs mainly on driving revenue, that’s not Joe’s “mantra.” “Obviously, we want to continue to grow our business fast, even faster, than we are today. But, the Advantage Pricefx Ecosystem is first about creating best-in-class delivery outcomes for our joint customers.”

In addition to Advantage Pricefx, Joe and his team have been working on the Advantage Pricefx Community Portal, a closely aligned project that provides partners with all the tools they need to offer the best value to our customers. Partners can access sales and delivery excellence tools and materials that Pricefx already uses to deliver strong customer successes. “Anyone that’s been following us will know that we have a high, 97% retention rate,” Joe says of Pricefx, “thus, our customers are realizing the value of Pricefx from both a product offering as well as a delivery perspective.”

Partners can expect to see more and more value from the portal in the coming weeks and months. Our Ecosystem team is working towards increasing the amount of training that takes place within the Portal and has plans for a series of how-to-videos. “We love to see people and meet everybody face-to-face, but we also know that partners, especially the system integrators, are out implementing solutions for customers. It’s hard for them to get off the road and physically come to class.”

Joe has only been in his new role for five months, but already his impact is being felt throughout the company. And, early feedback on both the Advantage Pricefx Ecosystem program and Portal has been overwhelmingly positive. “Partners haven’t seen anything like this before. So it’s exciting! They’re intrigued.” says Joe, “Now we have to continue our focus and drive to make sure that we follow through on our commitments.” You can be sure that Joe and the Advantage Pricefx Ecosystem team will.

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