Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2017 - 33

TECH FORUM:NVIDIA

all of the companies together. "It was a little more complex because deployment of the technology is in Tokyo.
You are working across different countries and languages. At the end of the day, it was a combination of the
team that worked. On my side, we worked very closely
with VMware and HPE to help them achieve their
goals," Fanelli added.
NVIDIA is bringing even more 3D to users with virtual
realty technology and design with photorealism, said DeMarco. He has been involved with 3D CAD/CAE/CAM
technology for 40 years-both software and hardware-
in the AEC and manufacturing industries. Independent
software vendors such as ANSYS and Dassault Systemes
leverage NVIDIA technology to improve customer productivity for their design and engineering workflows.
"These ISVs are strategic alliance partners with NVIDIA,"
DeMarco continued. "You really need to put the alliance
management close to the partner, independent of where
the managers live in the organization. Rather than a
centralized alliance organization, this [structure] allows
us to be more nimble. We're more distributed. For example, John's managers are working as part of his
product team instead of a centralized organization.
That's why we talk about a 'speed of light' culture. We
took a quick poll with ASAP attendees, and unlike
NVIDIA, the majority has centralized organizations."
In the tech industry, it's increasingly important to move
at the speed of light, which to DeMarco means bypassing bureaucracy to cut to the chase: "When we have an
initiative or project, it doesn't matter where the person
in charge comes from in the organization. We all pitch
in to follow that leader. It could be the CEO or an individual contributor in marketing," he remarked.
Fanelli chimed in in agreement. "When swarming an
issue, you bring to bear those resources necessary to
serve a customer quickly with focus" and alignment, he
said. "One slide of a chart in our presentation was about
how we engage with different parts of the organization.
It works because you decide how the partnerships will
work, where you want to focus, and then you track your
process in those areas. It's an alliance summary with
three categories: executive function, go-to-market, and
the technical aspect of the partnership-with sub-categories. We use the same tool with our partners, which in
itself may be unique. So when we have joint meetings,

NVIDIA:

How do we engage?
Personal relationships to build trust

* Internal champion(s)
* Strategic alliance counterpart
* R&D management
* Sales/Marketing/Support
management

* C-level (CEO, CTO, VP GMs)
* Multi-level contacts within NVIDIA
Technical projects to build

credibility & competitive advantage

* DevTech support/best practices/SDKs
* License technologies (e.g., Iray,
OptiX, MDL)

* Build better understanding of
workflows

* Source models for marketing assets
* QA/performance testing
we collectively view the issues."
In their presentation, "John Fanelli was super-impressive in outlining his channel and alliances, but admitted
that NVIDIA is just getting going building out services"
and services partnerships, recounted Erna Arnesen,
CSAP, chief channel and alliance officer at ZL Technologies. She was impressed with how Fanelli and DeMarco
make the company's partnering efforts "fast and nimble
and agile" where "alliances are not centralized-the
company has a distributed strategy and model."
"John Fanelli and Olimpio DeMarco really set the tone
for the rest of the day-it was really good," commented
Gregory Burge, a consultant, a former San Mateo County
Q3 * 2017 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2017