An interview with Panasonic Connect Europe

Stephen Spector: Welcome to a Unifyr Podcast. This is your host, Stephen Spector from Unifyr, and today we are talking with Frank Nijholt—European Channel Marketing manager at Panasonic—about their use of the PRM solution, Unifyr. Hello Frank.

Frank Nijholt: Hi, Stephen. Thanks for inviting me to this thrilling experience. I’m Frank Nijholt. I’m European Channel Marketing manager at Panasonic Connect Europe, working for the company since 1991, so I’m already in my 34th year. Since I started at Panasonic, I’ve been in touch with resellers so let’s say I’ve engaged with the channel all of my professional career.

Stephen Spector: Frank, could you provide information on how Panasonic takes advantage of Unifyr?

Frank Nijholt: Panasonic is using Unifyr to supply a single platform solution for channel partners for sales, marketing, and learning. We have integrated the experience with our CRM so the Panasonic sales and marketing people can continue to use their CRM for partner activities and by utilizing the channel team, creating the necessary marketing actions. Because we integrate the project registration, lead process and MDF process with our CRM, Unifyr is now an integral part of our organization.

Stephen Spector: How long has Panasonic worked with Unifyr? And why was it selected as your European channel platform for Panasonic?

Frank Nijholt: Some of the core beliefs of Panasonic is to enhance lives and put people, our customers first. During this process, we’ve been enhancing our channel program and supporting our online portals for nearly 10 years ourselves. However, we found that we had to combine different workflows or applications into a single platform in order to support our channel better. So late 2019, we started a global initiative. This resulted in a selection of ZiftONE as the chosen PRM solution because of its flexibility, completeness of channel, supporting functionalities and features, and wide range of integration options. Panasonic started with only the academy application in 2020 and rolling out all other functionalities throughout the year 21. We completed our integrated solutions early 2022. So let’s say we are now using Unifyr for about three complete years.

Stephen Spector: What does that product do for your company?

Frank Nijholt: Looking at the easiness where our partners can utilize the platform as as they wish, and see what they are entitled to see. It’s for us a very attractive way to digitize the channel experience. This way we can leverage all tools to a multitude of partners, which we could never all visit at the same time, or I’d say even in the same year.

Stephen Spector: What are the benefits of Unifyr, for Panasonic?

Frank Nijholt: From the start of the integration, there was a very intensive partnership between Panasonic and Zift as normal in any integration. We had our bumps on the road, but unforeseen issues, although you always believe you have thought about everything, you never know upfront as professionals, we discussed and agreed to the best way forward. Now, on a day-to-day basis, we have a good understanding with the level one and level two support team. Our customer success manager is a great direct line into the wider team of Unifyr, and also Unifyr has identified Panasonic as a true asset. So yeah. We also advise from time to time on future road roadmap ideas, which is of course great for Panasonic.

When we, for example, explain our existing functionalities where improvements can be made for the users of the platform, it’s not always instantly understood how they should be best integrated or amended. With the support of Unifyr development, we are able to clarify the changes needed into a more, let’s say, software development-ready workflow style. This then helps to get software updates for Unifyr to be ready for testing and deployment more easily. As mentioned already, the level one and level two support team is really willing to provide day-to-day solutions where sometimes it’s just difficult to provide a positive answer, but we keep challenging them and in most cases it resolves and, and we get an out of the box solution, which is workable.

With Unifyr as a PRM, we’ve also brought a high level of analytics to the business. Nearly all activities are measurable, making sure we correctly are investing funds into our channel.

Stephen Spector: Could you tell us more about the relationship between Panasonic and Unifyr?

Frank Nijholt: Finally, Panasonic is continually improving, evolving our program, and are looking to bring an even deeper focus. On the user experience by removing frictions for a fast time to market. And that with Unifyr, we believe we have found a partner that will go with us on this journey, not only with their offering and technologies, but also with their advisors and out of the box thinking, and the level of support we can only find in long-lasting and trusting relationships.