Chapter 4:
Fostering sustainable relationships
Relationships with customers
Who inspires us? If you ask our leaders, they'll tell you that our customers are visionary product users who have inspired and influenced our product roadmaps. Even in our formative years, we've had a great business and personal rapport with customers, one that has only evolved to a deeper, more meaningful relationship in the last two decades.
Customers have always been vocal about their expectations and feedback on our products, a trait our product teams value deeply. At any given time, we have around 500-1,000 customer-suggested features in the works across ManageEngine’s suite of products. In fact, one key feature in our flagship product was introduced because of a single customer! The customizable priority matrix on our help desk solution was added upon a customer’s request.
Localization and internationalization:
Localization (L10n): adapting existing software solutions to meet the language and cultural needs of each region the solution is used in.
Internationalization (i18n): building solutions keeping in mind the future requirements of each market as we expand. One of the key objectives of internationalization is to make localization easier.
In 2006, our team noticed a support email from a non-English-speaking prospective customer who was trying to replace their existing help desk software. They jokingly mentioned that they would first have to learn English before they could purchase our solution. That incident pushed our teams to work on localizing the solution to their language and expanding to other languages like Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish. Today, our help desk solution supports 21 foreign languages.
Customer events:
ManageEngine routinely hosts a series of user conferences and seminars worldwide to engage with customers. These events usually run for two days, covering talks from our IT leaders, technical workshops, one-on-one meetings, and certifications for all IT professionals.
Down the line, we also intend to host a customer advisory board (CAB) program for enterprise customers to interact with other leaders in their region, tap into their expertise on trending IT topics, and discuss common industry challenges and their solutions.
Creating an employee-centric workplace
Employee experience has been a priority in IT for the last couple of years, more so since the pandemic. ManageEngine follows three core principles to offer employees a space that prioritizes their well-being above all.
Experiment:
Employees are encouraged to take up different roles and find out where they can unlock their potential. Our workspace is often equated to a lab or a playground—a space for employees to not just learn their trade, but also to try out various aspects of product development and become well-rounded individuals.
Our leaders experimented with different roles like product support, writing, coding, and marketing. In fact, doing so led to the creation of some of our most successful products. Now, they're passing that curiosity and desire for more knowledge on to future leaders.
Flexibility:
We no longer focus on hours clocked in or mode of work. Are employees keeping up? Are they as productive, if not more, when working hybrid? Absolutely. For our IT leaders, their responsibility lies in enabling a business model where employees can work at their own schedule and still get the job done.
Availability:
What does a good student need? A great mentor. ManageEngine is privileged to have senior leaders who have stuck around and have seen many phases of the organization's growth. Their incomparable domain understanding helps employees come up with solutions to challenges they encounter. Employees can reach out to leaders over chat, call, or in person to get advice, tips, or even a pep talk to get back on track.
IT-centric events:
Sysadmin Day:
Every year, we celebrate Sysadmin Day in July to appreciate and celebrate the backbone of our organization, often working silently in the background to keep our systems running and our productivity up. We celebrate with mailers, e-cards, games, and prizes.
Bug bounty:
Zoho's security team has an internal bug bounty program. The aim is to encourage responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities, resolve bugs before they affect business, prevent incidents of widespread abuse, and ultimately make our products more safe, secure, and bug-free. Developers who participate are rewarded and ranked for their contribution.
Hacktober:
The month of October is dedicated to security awareness. Throughout Hacktober, the security team hosts events to aid in better understanding the foundations of security and safe practices to be followed to have a safe and gratifying user experience. Employees participate in games, creative events, and vulnerability challenges, and often share awareness posts on our internal collaboration app.
Working with partners
Partners have played an essential role in shaping ManageEngine. In many cases, partners are the face of our organization, especially in countries where we don't have a direct presence. Initially, we started working with partners in countries where English is not the primary language for business communication.
In an interview with Sridhar Iyengar, head of operations in Europe, we talked about the importance of partners in ManageEngine's journey. Partners share an amicable relationship with us that allows us to work and grow together easily. He believes partners are our eyes and ears on the ground who give us an outside perspective, providing feedback on how we're doing in different markets and sharing what steps we should take to improve.
Our relationship with partners has grown tremendously over the years. In 2008, we had ten partners, one in each region. As business expanded, we added five countries every year and ended up working with 20 partners over the next five years. By 2014, we introduced a multi-partner system for some regions and distributors in select countries. Today, we are working with over 200 partners across the world. Apart from partners who represent our products, we also work with tech partners who build complementing products that can offer better value to customers.
Customers view partners as an extension of ManageEngine and engage with them to not only find the right solutions for their businesses, but also to implement and utilize them the right way. They provide end-to-end support. We work with partners by conducting partner training sessions; providing technical assistance, marketing resources, and best practices for solutions; and engaging with customers if the issue is complex and requires in-depth knowledge of the tool.
Every year, ManageEngine also organizes a global partner meet—a five-day event in January where partners visit our headquarters in India and interact with product teams. Product experts conduct in-person sessions and give them an overview of what to expect in the year ahead, product roadmaps, growth trajectories, and areas partners should focus on.