With Tackle, Weka significantly accelerated time to close.
Executive Summary
While Weka has built its storage infrastructure solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS) since day one, building its cloud go-to-market (GTM) strategy was new territory. As the company expanded its offerings, it looked for new ways to reach its growing customer base. Tapping into AWS Marketplace and working with Tackle to streamline the process proved to be a massive opportunity. In under one year, Weka grew its cloud pipeline deals from zero to 15 percent of the company’s overall business opportunity.
Key Highlights
15%
of the companyu2019s overall business through Marketplace
20x
increase in cloud pipeline & landed several Fortune 1000
Saved nearly a week
in financial monthly reconciliation
Sales team pivots after missing out on AWS partner relationships
When the Weka team decided to launch its cloud GTM strategy, they knew that listing on AWS Marketplace was a major channel to connect with customers. At the time, most of Weka’s AWS business followed a bring-your-own-license (BYOL) structure. While this approach worked, it didn’t involve AWS, so Weka sellers weren’t able to develop relationships with their AWS partners. It also meant Weka missed out on potential co-selling opportunities with AWS.
AWS Marketplace and Tackle propel GTM strategy to the cloud
At first, the Weka team handled the AWS Marketplace listing in house, but they quickly realized they needed a better solution. Tackle—with its zero-engineering approach to listing on AWS Marketplace—was the clear choice. “From day one, Tackle made us feel comfortable with the AWS Marketplace process and educated us on the whole journey before we even started,” said VP of Cloud Strategy at Weka, Barbara Murphy. The fast, straight-forward onboarding process had the entire Weka team up and running in just six weeks.
As a cloud-native company, leveraging a cloud-native channel aligned with Weka’s business philosophy, and the timing of listing on AWS Marketplace was just right. “Our whole view is to be part of our customers’ migration from on-premises data centers to managed services in a public cloud,” Murphy said. “This has nurtured a huge shift in our business, and we hit the wave at the right time.”
Private offers and co-selling drive 20X+ growth
Between co-selling and creating private offers, Weka has hit its stride in building a strong AWS pipeline and closing AWS deals. In less than a year, the company has landed several Fortune 1000 customers via AWS Marketplace and increased its cloud pipeline by more than 20X. The majority of Weka’s contracts are private offers, which used to be an involved process for the team, but Tackle has simplified it exponentially.
Now, with a greater presence on AWS Marketplace thanks to Tackle, Weka has cultivated stronger co-selling relationships with the AWS team.
“Before, the only way we would do a private offer was through a BYOL structure that came from a direct relationship with the customer,” Murphy said. “We were really cutting out our partners on the Amazon side, which was not going to help scale our business. Today, the difference between doing business via co-sell through AWS Marketplace versus BYOL is night and day. Key to this was allowing customers to consume their enterprise commitments with AWS.”
VP of Marketing, Weka
