ALE holds three-day virtual event for APAC Partners

The three-day series focused on how partners can capitalise on customer insights and maintain business continuity in today’s world

SINGAPORE, Asia Pacific, August 14, 2020 - Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, a leading provider of communications, networking and cloud solutions tailored to customers’ industries, today concluded its first-ever Connex20 APAC Partner Virtual Series. The online event took place from August 12th to 14th 2020.

Over 250 tier-one and tier-two partner executives and sales teams representing more than 120 organisations from across the Asia Pacific region participated in the event each day to share best practices in driving successful business continuity and enhancing customer engagement in today’s “new normal”.

During his address, Jack Chen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, spoke about the need for partners to come together to support customers with their business continuity efforts as they transform their businesses. Though the health crisis has disrupted the way we live, work, play and commute, Mr. Chen highlighted that the situation has also helped businesses see the value of cloud and collaboration tools, resulting in many building a more productive workforce through remote working arrangements. He added that digital transformation should no longer be an afterthought but a journey all enterprises should embark on immediately in order to capture the opportunities that await as we emerge from the current global challenges.

Highlights from the virtual series include a customer insights session emphasising how partners can capitalise on these insights to remain relevant. It discussed how the health crisis may have shifted customer priorities as well as focused their attention on new-look technology investment strategies.

Additionally, participants tuned in to a panel discussion featuring representatives from partner organisations DXC Technology, Exclusive Networks and iValue InfoSolutions. Tony Hughes, founder of Sales IQ, also joined as a special guest. The panel highlighted business challenges and opportunities presented by the current business environment and tough economic times. Participants discussed the following topics in depth:

• Equipping employees with new technologies today to co-create solutions with customers 
• Going back to one’s business playbook and adjusting customer touchpoints where needed, using the playbook as a guide 
• Today’s new business acumen equation requiring businesses to have IQ (intelligence quotient) + EQ (emotional intelligence) + TQ (tech quotient)

Pierre Samson, APAC Senior Vice President for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise said: “The Connex20 virtual series offered us an invaluable opportunity to engage with our partners directly to understand what challenges they are facing and explore ways to ‘Move Forward, Revitalise, and Thrive’ together. Having a platform like this where all our partners can come together and learn from each other is critical, especially during this time when face-to-face interaction is limited. We also packed the event with insights and learnings so that participants can truly benefit from the time spend. More importantly, we want the partners to see that the health crisis, despite being a business disruptor, is also an accelerator for digital transformation and technology adoption.”

Rukmini Glanard, Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise also spoke to the participants about ALE’s focus on bringing more relevant cloud and communications solutions to customers. She highlighted the recent strategic partnership between ALE and RingCentral, Inc., a leading provider of global enterprise cloud communications, collaboration and contact centre solutions, and how the companies have jointly introduced the co-branded cloud solution Rainbow Office powered by RingCentral. She added that ALE and RingCentral will jointly develop programs enabling both companies to lead cloud communications services for customers and partners in the enterprise market.