March 17th, 2023 by Adam Sandman
The Inflectra partner team has just completed stop two on our ambitious 2023 itinerary: London! (Also see Inflectra Partner Tour 2023: Mexico City)
We were enthusiastic about getting to the United Kingdom (UK). While we’ve attended conferences in Europe over the last couple of years, we hadn’t visited London since 2019. It was great to be back. The UK represents a sizable percentage of our European market, and the goal is to develop a robust partner network that can help us serve our current and future customers. The trip, and the city, did not disappoint.
Thursday: Settling into London
We arrived on Thursday, Adam in the morning after a redeye, and myself in the evening after a day flight.* What better way to dive into London than to have a pint in a pub?!
Cheers from the Crown and Horse
Friday: Partners and Pubs
Partner Meeting with TTC UK:
Friday we kicked off our series of meetings with our global partner TTC. TTC is one of our most rapidly expanding partners with Darren Weber and Kevin Palmer establishing the UK office relatively recently. Kevin kindly recommended a number of possibilities for meeting locations so I made a reservation at….a pub! We shared a meal and heard from Kevin about the local software testing market. Both companies will be attending EuroStar in June and will explore joint ventures in Antwerp as well as co-marketing and joint customer introductions. It was a productive meeting and a great way to kick off our visit.
Ready to meet with TTC
Evangelist Meeting with Shankar Parameswaran
Among our partner meetings, we were also fortunate to visit a few of our product evangelists. Shankar Parameswaran is an Oracle Fusion Program test manager and friend of the team. He joined us on Friday evening in the West End where I’d love to say we shook things up a bit and went to a show or a walking tour of the sights or to St. Paul’s Cathedral, but we went to….a pub! We talked business and learned more about Shankar’s projects, but we also talked family, shared pictures of our dogs and just generally had a great time hanging out.
Saturday: Coffee with a Friend
Partner Meeting with Inmarsys
As our trip was jam packed, we were fortunate to have partners in the UK willing to meet us on the weekend. Saturday morning we strolled down the Strand to….a cafe! There we met with Vlad Plotkin, founder and CEO of Inmarsys. Inmarsys specializes in safety-critical software development and validation processes in the EU. Vlad offered insights into the current market and had suggestions for the Spira roadmap as well as specialized conferences that are appealing for our marketing roadmap. It was excellent to catch up with Vlad in person, and we are grateful that he made time for us in his own busy travel schedule.
The remainder of the weekend Adam visited friends and family, and I took full advantage of all London has to offer between Hyde Park and the East End, from the Roman ruins underground to the skyline view of the entire city atop John Wren’s Monument to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666, and of course…pubs!
Monday: Kicking off the Week
Meeting with Eggplant
Monday began with a walk to the Keysight / Eggplant offices to meet with VP of Global Alliances, Toby Marsden. Eggplant is an automated testing tool with which Spira integrates and is the only technology partner with whom we met during our visit. Toby explained Eggplant’s go-to-market strategy, their desire to offer an end-to-end solution for their customers, and their place in parent company Keysight’s offerings. We gave Toby a deeper insight into SpiraPlan’s capabilities and discussed ways we might enhance their solution in the QA/portfolio management space. It was an exciting discussion and we look forward to the next steps.
Meeting with Partner Experimentus
Back at the hotel, we met with Martin Adcock and Simon Frankish of Experimentus, specialists in TMMi process evaluation and certification. Experimentus is headquartered in the UK but has a worldwide customer base. They understand that even the best tool will struggle to add value to a company with a flawed process. Our very productive meeting reaped concrete next steps for co-marketing and joint ventures in the UK and beyond.
With Experimentus at an Iconic Phone Booth
Tuesday: New Friends and a Proven Customer
Meeting with Inspired Testing
While Farid couldn’t join us in person, he was working behind the scenes to connect us with Bruce Zaayman of Inspired Testing. Bruce opened the UK office of the South Africa-based company six years ago and was interested in learning more about Inflectra and the tool suite. We in turn were able to learn more about Inspired Testing’s ideal customer and the industries in which they specialize. Bruce asked pointed questions and we had an inspired talk. (sorry) We look forward to continuing the conversation.
Meeting with Customer Computacenter
It wouldn’t be a trip to the UK without a visit to Computacenter. Computacenter is a long-time user of SpiraTeam, and we’ve been working very closely with the team, especially Dan Ramasamy, to introduce the use of Rapise to automate some of their processes. Dan organized introductions and meetings with several key teams in Computacenter with whom he is working to provide us with a better understanding of the scope of their project and POCs. The meetings were incredibly productive in increasing the breadth of our knowledge around Computacenter’s processes, needs and challenges and how we can assist them.
I can’t express strongly enough my gratitude for the people who not only made themselves available to us but who also saw value in coming to Central London to meet us. While video meeting platforms have allowed us to conduct business globally from the comfort of HQ, and even our homes, it’s challenging to create the same kind of bond you can forge with a person or a team when you meet with them in person. Thanks for a great trip, and we hope to see you all again soon! Next stop: Antwerp.
*Farid had planned to join us, as he knows many of our partners from his previous experience building partner programs and relationships in Europe. Unfortunately illness kept him in France, and we were forced to proceed without him. Farid, we missed you!! (He’s feeling better though so we’re sure to see him soon.)