Jim Adams

Channel goals, bios and fun facts from our 2022 Channel Leaders

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Number of years in current role

1.5

Number of years with the company

1.5

Number of years involved with indirect sales

Are you the highest-ranking channel executive in your organization?

Yes

To whom do you report in your organization?

Robert Johnston / CEO

Does that individual report to your organization's CEO/president? If not, how far removed?

Same

Channel Chief Bio and Background

Jim Adams is the Vice President of Worldwide (WW) Channels at Adlumin, a cybersecurity technology firm that focuses on revolutionizing the way financial institutions secure sensitive data and intellectual property and achieve their compliance objectives through its security and compliance automation platform. At Adlumin, Jim is responsible for the GTM strategy, Channel Programs, and Sales and Channel teams. Prior to joining Adlumin, Adams was the Head of WW Channels and Alliances for CloudBolt Software, a cloud automation and orchestration solution for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. At CloudBolt, he built and launched their Partner Resale and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) Program, and signed alliance relationships with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google. Before CloudBolt, Adams spent 20 years at Cisco Systems, where he held a variety of Sales and Channel Sales leadership roles across the Americas and at the WW level. He built and ran a cybersecurity channels teams for the Americas, supporting more than 1,000 resellers with revenues in excess of $800M. In his last role at Cisco, Adams built and led a WW sales organization selling Enterprise License Agreements in support of the company's transition to a recurring revenue model for cybersecurity software. Adams has 30 years of Sales and Channel Sales leadership experience and has been involved in cybersecurity for the past 14 years as well.

What are your top channel goals for 2022?

Launch new/revamp existing channel program Improve partner profitability Increase the amount of recurring revenue going through partners

Name the single most innovative initiative for which you and/or your team were responsible in 2021 and describe its impact on your partner community.

The biggest initiative that we launched was moving to a 100% Channel revenue model, with no direct deals. We changed the compensation plan for our AEs to incentivize working with the Channel, and are moving all of our existing Customers and renewals to Channel Partners. In support of this move, we more than doubled our co-funding for Partner demand generation activities to create pipeline and deals, and hired Sales Development Reps to build top of funnel opportunities to bring to our Partners.

What were the key channel/partner investments you made over the past year?

Ranked #170 on the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private companies in the US Personally was recognized as a CRN 2021 Channel Chief Recognized as a CRN 2021 Emerging Vendor

What honors awards or commendations - professional or personal - have you won over the past year?

Ranked #170 on the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private companies in the US Personally was recognized as a CRN 2021 Channel Chief Recognized as a CRN 2021 Emerging Vendor

What is your advice to solution providers on how best to capitalize on the everything-as-a-service trend?

Pick you niche. Specialize. Differentiate. Focus on value and Customer business outcomes. Understand the Customer care-abouts, pain points, and requirements. Build you offer to address those. Think about monetization models, pricing, billing, compensation, Customer success, tools and platforms. It's a significant shift for Solution Providers, but aligned to how Customers want to consume IT.

Number of employees in channel organization:

Do not wish to disclose

Company's percentage of revenue from solution providers: