“Building Deeper Customer Intimacy is Key to Driving Success”
Salma Nisar, the Vendor Alliance Director at Bespin Global MEA, an e& Enterprise Company says value creation, through differentiated solutions and advanced specializations is now key for any partner to stay relevant in this ecosystem
Could you share an overview of your career path to date, highlighting the pivotal moments or achievements that have shaped your leadership within the IT channel?
My career spans 20 years across technology services, sales, business strategy, and channel management – initially starting off in the field, being part of the troops (an experience I cherish the most) to having leadership roles across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Eastern Europe region. I started with Microsoft Pakistan, and transitioned into the Middle East & Africa team in the UAE that was a key turning point giving me the opportunity to work with a diverse partner and customer ecosystem.
I had the opportunity to lead the region’s largest cloud services projects with governments, telecoms and private enterprises. Leading business management across multiple geographies taught me the value of agility, partner empowerment, and strategic alignment. Today, I channel that experience into driving transformative growth with Bespin Global, an e& enterprise company where we empower organizations to achieve their AI and business transformation outcomes through best-in-class cloud and AI services.
As a key channel influencer within your company, what are your primary roles and responsibilities in shaping strategy, driving engagement, and fostering growth within the partner ecosystem?
As Vendor Alliance Director, I lead the development of our vendor strategy and execution, ensuring alignment with our AI and cloud services vision. My role involves nurturing strategic alliances with Hyperscalers as well as 3rd party providers – as we focus on creating end to end cloud services and solutions for our customers.
From vendor strategy, joint sales motions, investments and go to market programs – we bring together our cloud expertise, sales engines, customer relationships with our partners’ cutting-edge platforms and solutions. I also advocate internally for partner-centric innovation, ensuring our ecosystem remains a growth engine – and that is evident in the strategic role Bespin is playing in shaping the region’s sovereign digital future.
How would you assess the current health and evolution of the IT channel, particularly within our region? What significant trends or shifts are you observing?
I have seen the channel evolve from what used to be customers buying boxes and products – to an engine that now demands strategic partners for driving long term value creation. The leadership in our region has led by example and paved the way for organizations to rapidly mature their IT and technology landscape – with a clear pivot toward business outcome and solutions driven partnerships, rather than product-centric transactions.
Value creation, through differentiated solutions and advanced specializations is now key for any partner to stay relevant in this ecosystem. The rise of multi-cloud strategies, a shift towards SaaS and subscription models, an increasing focus on adoption and usage of technology vs. just the deployment factor alone and the acceleration of AI integration are key levers shaping the channel.
What do you see as the single biggest challenge facing the IT channel in the region today, and conversely, what is the most significant untapped opportunity for partners?
With rapidly maturing technologies, changing trends and increased customer awareness – I believe, the challenge partners face is the need for rapid evolution of skills and innovation — especially in areas like cloud architecture, AI, and cybersecurity. This is further heightened by the imperative to stay competitive while providing differentiation in the market.
Cloud and AI partners must now also focus on driving usage of cloud and adoption of services and solutions sold to end customers – besides investing in the solution architects and engineers. Conversely, the most promising opportunity lies in industry-specific AI and business transformation solutions, where partners can differentiate by combining vertical and industry expertise with cloud and AI innovation. Those who invest in capability building now will lead tomorrow.
In your opinion, what are the most effective strategies partners can employ to drive sustainable growth and profitability in the current market, especially considering evolving customer demands?
I am a staunch believer, having led global investment programs and advised multiple CEOs on their cloud economics – that double digit profitability can only be arrived at through differentiated IP, value creation and long-term roadmap driven customer relationships. We need to focus on value creation through consulting-led engagements, recurring revenue models, and outcome-based services that focus on adoption and change management just as much as technology and platform.
Building deeper customer intimacy is key to driving the success of sticky solutions that rely on AI and cloud innovation. Additionally, I am also a strong advocate of co-innovation and co-selling with ecosystem players through the partner-to-partner model – as it unlocks new addressable markets and margin opportunities. Both these are key to the success of Bespin Global and e& enterprise. We thrive on customer obsession, and forging partnerships that unlock customer value through multi tower end to end solutions.
How is the rapid advancement of AI, including Agentic AI and Generative AI, fundamentally reshaping the channel’s business models, partner opportunities, and the skill sets required for success?
AI is redefining the landscape from infrastructure deployment and cloud migration opportunities – to intelligent solution integration and business outcome transformation led engagements. It’s no longer about deploying a system for automation or cost savings – but is all about creating value to unlock incremental business growth, transforming employee experience or driving efficiencies through optimizing operations. The biggest change partners need to make is toward investing in talent that can address CXO challenges, identify transformation hotspots and be able to lead the vision towards agentic AI transformation while justifying its economic value to the organization.
Customers all want AI but mostly don’t have the relevant Data governance in place. From building the right data foundation, to envisioning the business transformation use cases to building machine learning models and developing agents that can complement human value creation – is a specialized engine with the skillset needed being very different from that used in infrastructure projects. this reskilling is key for partners to be able to tap into the agentic and Gen AI solutions.
Given the escalating sophistication of cyber threats, how can channel partners best position themselves to deliver comprehensive cybersecurity solutions, moving beyond traditional offerings to address emerging risks like AI evasion?
Cybersecurity is no longer a standalone, product operating in a silo – rather it’s a strategic imperative that underpins every aspect of AI and digital transformation. As businesses increasingly migrate to cloud environments, embrace AI, and operate across complex hybrid infrastructures, the surface area for cyber threats has expanded exponentially. For the channel, this represents both an opportunity as well as a responsibility.
We are not just technology resellers – we are trusted advisors to our customers and hence our customers should have the trust that the services and transformational outcomes we promise do not come at any cost to their organizations’ data integrity. Moreover, Cybersecurity is also one of the fastest-growing and most profitable service areas such as the managed detection and response (MDR), security operations centers (SOC-as-a-service), or compliance audits, providing partners an opportunity to tap into recurring revenue streams with high customer stickiness.
The IT landscape demands continuous learning. What advice do you have for channel partners on attracting, developing, and retaining top talent, particularly in areas like AI, cloud security, and specialized industry solutions?
Culture drives the success of any organization. We can build top class solutions but if we don’t have the right talent to build lasting customer relationships and be trusted advisors for our customers, our relevance will fade. Leadership that champions continuous learning, inclusive culture, fosters innovation and drives toward employee empowerment will eventually win the race.
How do you see the roles of different partner types—such as Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and system integrators—evolving, and how can they best collaborate to deliver integrated solutions?
We’re seeing a convergence where MSPs, ISVs, and system integrators increasingly co-create value by combining managed services with IP and vertical expertise. Such multi tower solutions are a key to unlocking higher profitability as well as delivering end-to-end value creation for the customers. If we want to transform business outcomes that unlocks incremental growth for our customers, we can no longer afford to offer point solutions.
Collaboration models that align around customer outcomes—such as joint solution accelerators or marketplace offerings—are gaining traction. The future belongs to agile, interoperable partnerships that act as solution orchestrators. This is evident in the success of e& enterprise that is today well positioned to be a partner for any customer’s digital transformation journey by providing managed services, vertical solutions as well as system integration through our own portfolio as well as our strong partnerships in place.
Drawing from your experience and looking ahead, what is your most crucial piece of advice for partners seeking long-term success and relevance in this rapidly transforming IT channel?
A growth mindset, customer obsessed culture, an empowered and agile workforce that is rewarded for fostering innovation – is the key to developing differentiated solutions that solve business outcomes, deliver customer success and unlock incremental business value. The growth mindset helps us unlock new partnership opportunities that impact our bottom line, collectively unlocks regions’ AI potential, offers differentiated customer experience to citizens and customers combined – while providing the leadership insights into solving for the future.
