Channel Awards: Q&A with SVP channel sales EMEA at Zyxel, Jean-Michel Bielli

Bielli talks about the biggest challenges and opportunities of 2023

Jean-Michel Bielli, senior vice president channel sales EMEA at Zyxel Networks has been leading Zyxel Networks' success in the strategic channel business for the last 12 years. He has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and has vast experience in aggressive strategic business growth and managing international presence and teams in the Technology sector.

Why do you think awards like the Channel Awards matter?

Internally, the awards give people a feeling of pride and encourage them to continuously improve and deliver the best possible user experience to our customers. We all like to receive appreciation for our work, and it gives everyone in the company, at all levels, confidence in the attractiveness of our brand.

Externally, the awards give the brand credibility and contribute to positioning us as a valid contender in the market. They clearly help put the brand under the spotlight.

What would winning this award mean to your company?

Recognition of a job well done, confirmation that we are doing the right things, and that we have a very competitive team in place.

What would you say is your company's proudest achievement over the past year?

We were the first to market with WiFi 7 Access Points and the only vendor who actually started selling the product.

What have been the biggest challenges of 2023 so far and how have you overcome them?

Excess inventory after the covid period and the massive shortages we experienced last year. We brought our inventory down to normal levels in just 9 months. We ran targeted promotional activities and took advantage of the situation to nail down some important deals.

How have your people helped with that?

High determination and commitment from the team, plus a financial incentive helped us meet the objective.

How do you think the channel has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?

Online business is gaining share every year, and resellers who only count on products to deliver margin have been under a lot of pressure. We see more and more resellers looking for alternatives. Our MSP channel grew double-digits in the past 2 years, and we see more and more traction from our Cloud software solution that has become an important revenue stream for them. The UK pioneered our MSP campaign and had an almost immediate success.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the channel in the coming year?

Moving to Cloud to generate another more sustainable source of revenue for our partners. Nebula, our Cloud solution was entirely developed in-house. We have full control of the development, and this allows us to keep enriching it at a very fast pace. Cloud is our second largest R&D department after security.

How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?

All our products can now operate in a standalone or cloud mode. Our Nebula Cloud solution is our umbrella for all our products in all categories (Security, Switch, WLAN and even LTE/5G). We have a very attractive licensing policy. 70% of our customers can enjoy a free version, and others can go for the professional version without paying a premium price. We have seen an increase in the loyalty of our resellers since we introduced our Cloud solution. Nebula is key in helping resellers to move from a product sale to a solution sale. It has clearly become a key factor in the decision-making process.