CRN Channel Awards - Finalist Q&A with Mike Kan, Director, EMEA Partnerships at Smartsheet UK Ltd

Mike Kan talks being a finalist at this year's CRN Channel Awards

Why do you think awards like the CRN Channel Awards matter?

Awards like the CRN Channel Awards validate the immense value our partners bring to Smartsheet and our mutual customers. This recognition shines a critical spotlight on the hard work and transformative solutions our entire partner community delivers. It underscores to the entire UK channel that Smartsheet is a proven, high-growth partner of choice with a successful program.

What would winning this award mean to your company?

Winning this award would be a powerful signal that our renewed, strategic investment in reimagining our partner program is already yielding results. It would serve as a vital endorsement of the Smartsheet platform's enterprise value and confirm we are positioned as a must-have partner for ambitious UK solution providers. This recognition would fuel our efforts to simplify and scale our program globally, driving even greater mutual success.

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

Our proudest achievement is how we are successfully elevating our partners by building deeper, more strategic relationships with global industry leaders, exemplified by our collaboration with PwC UK. By partnering with organizations that nearly every enterprise already trusts, we not only validate using Smartsheet for complex business transformation, but we create an immediate, highly effective channel to drive major, enterprise-wide adoption across the entire UK market.

What have been the biggest challenges of 2025 so far and how have you overcome them? How have your people helped with that?

Our biggest challenge this year has been balancing our internal focus on efficiency with the need to completely reimagine our channel program to accelerate regional, partner-led success. We overcame this by launching a comprehensive audit that doubles down on high-value, go-to-market partners, removing friction and creating a clearer path to mutual success. Our dedicated global team has been instrumental, providing the deep market insights and foundational data that ensure every strategic decision maximises growth while keeping customer transformation at the forefront.

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

The industry has fundamentally shifted from a focus on tool consolidation to the orchestration of intelligent work—where human-decision making combines with AI automation—driven by the rapid integration of generative AI and the reality of hybrid work. Enterprises now must move from simply managing tasks to leveraging intelligent platforms to drive strategic outcomes. To meet this demand, the industry must continue to evolve from selling point solutions to providing scalable, secure AI-powered platforms like Smartsheet that orchestrate work and deliver measurable, strategic value across the entire organization.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the industry in the coming year? How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?

Our main opportunity lies in continuing to help our customers move beyond departmental use to embedding our platform for enterprise-wide strategic transformation—the true growth engine. We will capitalise on this by focusing on building strong partnerships that unlock deep industry expertise, enabling us to deliver specialised, scalable, and secure solutions. This approach solves complex problems for our customers, driving measurable results that map directly to their most specific and challenging business needs.