Krishanth Thangarajah

Partner Champion

Setting up a partner program? Not sure where to start?

Working with partners and wanting to know how to make the best out of partnerships?

Working with one type of partnership and wondering what else will work - SI, GSI, Consultant, Implementation partner, Referrals, Resellers, etc? 

Want to set up a marketplace; Anything around product APIs, platforms, integrations? 

Are you an SI feeling stuck and looking for the next best ecosystem to work with? 

Just message me. Happy to help you.

Co-Founder

Konnect Insights

I work with Saas vendors, Agency partners, Resellers, Consulting partners to bring the right solutions/partners for Konnectinsights customers. 

Top goals:
-Setting up the partnerships team, partner program, goals for 2023-24
-Focus on international expansion

Consultant - Global Partnerships

EU Partnership Crew

This community brings together partnership managers from the Tech Space with activities in the EU/UK. We are here to set the standards, share the best practices and keep track of the latest partnerships, and all that together in an open structure powered by its members.

If you are in partnerships and would like to be part of the community, reach out to me.

Ambassador

Yellow.ai

Senior Director - Head of EU, UK, Africa and Americas partnerships

I head partnerships for EU/UK, Africa and LATAM at Yellow.ai (Greenfield markets). 

I work with channel partners, boutique SIs, Consulting partners and Saas vendors to get the best solution for our customers, thereby contributing to revenues.

Senior Director - Head of EMEA and LATAM partnerships

Freshworks

In this role, I head the global ISV/marketplace partnerships at Freshworks. 
(Ownership of building a successful ecosystem partnership - any app/integration built by other Saas vendors, SI partners or in-house teams)

My primary responsibility is to formulate a productive and mutually beneficial integration partnership. 

Ideate & evaluate joint solutions built by technology partners and educate GTM teams on value proposition and competitive differentiation of these joint solutions.

Head of Ecosystems & Strategic Partnerships

Led the Strategic partnerships team with the primary goal of increasing revenues via Tech partnerships. 

• Involved the right set of ISV partners to develop sound GTM plan, build pipeline and enable co-sell (Sell through, sell with or sell to)
• Worked with the marketing team on structuring innovative campaigns, webinars, collaterals etc that best suits the joint solution, partner & country/region, thereby making the region most successful one (wrt ISV partnerships)
• Identified potential opportunities from partner accounts and aligned the right GTM teams to drive deals to closure - Achieved more than 130% of my targets (in all 4 quarters)

ISV Partnerships Lead

Responsible for onboarding key integrations to the Freshworks marketplace ecosystem by working with technology partners-ISVs, SIs and other SaaS companies to understand how Freshworks and the partners can work together to create joint solutions for our customers.

• Explored, identified and onboarded key partners/integrations for Freshworks marketplace ecosystem - Achieved 120% of my targets

ISV Partner Onboarding

Prodapt

New business acquisition and business development initiatives for Telecom clients in European regions.
Key focus areas: RPA, SDN NFV, AI/ ML & IoT.

Exceeded the annual targets by 135% within 9 months.

Business Development Manager

Idea Cellular Ltd

Handled the Prepaid Voice vertical that contributed to 70% of Idea’s TN Revenue on a customer base of 6Mn. Responsible for CMS, RMS, ARPU, minutes of usage, voice & data bundled usage growth, churn reduction and new product development

Customer Engagement
•	Devised market segmentation logic based on geography and customer behavior, resulting in revenue of ₹10Mn/month
o	Reduced churn by 3% (from 8% to 5%) by designing an automated process in SAS that identifies potential churn base
•	Increased My Idea App downloads by 50% in 3 months by optimizing communication medium for segmented offers

Product and Process Innovation
•	Designed 2 new brand propositions; validity extension and subsequent recharges, generating revenue of ₹22Mn/year
•	Customized and promoted products in customer’s language - increased STD usage by 20% and caller tune users by 10%
•	Created a customer initiated interactive recharge model, reducing sales commission payout by 5% (₹3.15Mn/year)
•	Drafted communication plan for new products across all customer touch points; Reduced distributor complaints by 40%

Awards and Recognition
•	Won the Annual Recharge Contest among 7 emerging circles of Idea cellular; collaborated with 80+ sales executives
•	Excellency award – Product Innovation “Use and Get”-increased usage, engaged potential churn customers
•	Awarded certificate of excellence twice in a year for innovative products, which increased voice usage by 5%

Manager-Usage and Revenue-Marketing

Responsible for Cell site selection/ planning for North Tamil Nadu. Responsible for management of telecom equipment, licenses, manpower planing and cost optimization for all 6500 towers of Tamil Nadu.

Effectively used available network resources, made stringent CAPEX planning (₹450Mn), efficiently coordinated with the operations team to accomplish projects with timeliness, managed vendor relations & supported sales, marketing, finance team on network related queries.

Project Management
•	Led project to develop mobile app for sales team to monitor daily KPIs and locate potential areas, saving ₹2.1Mn/year
•	Built and mentored a team of 6 to improve radio interface utilization and performance of 900 Towers in Tamil Nadu
•	Saved ₹5.85Mn by leading a 6 sigma green belt project on effective utilization of radio interface hardware
•	Formulated a method to use new spectrum spot in existing hardware, reducing cost of procurement for 3500 towers (coordinating with 200+ engineers)

Account Management
•	Managed network related queries and complaints for 26 key accounts; Maintained turnaround time of less than 8 hours
•	Won 3 key accounts worth ₹2.2Mn/year by providing solutions to their telecom related product requirements

Crisis Management 
Ensured cellular network availability during Chennai floods in 2015 by redistributing power resources

Awards and Recognition
•	Excellency award for formulating towers visualization tool-helped business teams identify potential areas faster
•	Spot Award, for formulizing a solution for Pondicherry Jail thereby preventing network shutdown & helped 80,000 people enjoy mobile connectivity (solution shared to competition)

Assistant Manager-Planning Engineer

Handled Radio Network optimization for 2G/3G network of Chennai | Vendor management

Optimization
•	Optimized and sustained Chennai South region as the best region in terms of KPIs such as call drops, call success rate, handover and call quality
•	Reduced peak hour call drops by 30% (25,000 call drops to 17,500 call drops per day); Traffic per tower increased by 20%
•	Initiated a Green belt project to improve Data throughput that increased data speeds by 30%
•	Controlled roaming leakage in airport that resulted in 10% increase in roaming revenues
•	Modulated a process to address network related complaints, reducing resolution time by almost 60%

Awards and Recognition
•	Excellency Award- 1st across India to test & implement 3G inter operator network sharing features
•	Received Excellency Award from the HR team for having worked with them the new recruitment process

RF Optmization Engineer

Partner Champion, Co-Founder | EU Partnership Crew Ambassador | Partnerships at Konnect Insights

Co-founded Partner Champion with a mission to make every partner manager a Partner Champion. 

I have handled different types of SaaS partnerships - Referral, Reseller, ISV, Integration/Marketplace partnership, Tech/Saas Vendors, Cloud partnerships, Strategic Tech alliances, Solution partners, SIs, GSIs.

At Yellow, I worked with partners in the EU, UK, Africa, North America and LATAM. The primary goal is to help partners become successful and add revenues to both their company and Yellow.ai. 

At Freshworks, I worked with Technology partners (across the globe) to build the right solutions required for Freshworks ecosystem and guide them with the right strategies to become successful.

I am passionate about ecosystem partnerships. I have helped multiple startups with ecosystem/ partnership strategy and mentor partner managers to create a solid ecosystem program that fits their product/org. 

With 12+ years of diverse experience across different functions in the Telecom, IT services and SaaS industries, I am a highly collaborative result oriented business technology executive, with a proven record of building and leading strategic partnerships, business development and sales.

Core competencies:
Strategic Partnerships | Solution & Partner Marketing | Multi-Level Client/Partner Relationships | Strategic Business Planning | Sales Enablement | Revenue & Profit Growth | Pipeline Development

Taplio

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