Posted Date: 1/27/2012

Q&A with Juliann Larimer

By George L. Koroneos
Motorola Solutions, late last month, announced that it had promoted Juliann Larimer, a former NCR exec and relative newcomer to Motorola, to the position of vice president, global channels. Larimer played an integral roll in implementing the company’s PartnerEmpower partner program, which is currently being deployed in North America. Larimer sat down with VSR to talk about her new position, the role AIDC plays in Motorola, and the next stages of the company’s PartnerEmpower program.

vsr: What is the current state of PartnerEmpower? What are the next stages?
We have launched Phase 1, which consists of the reseller program for both radio and mobile solutions for North America. The wireless part of the program was launched last year. As we look at the future phases, we have an ISV or application developer program that’s in development, as well as a carrier program, and an update to the wireless specialization program, and we are also building out market specialization. We want to recruit partners that have domain expertise in vertical markets, whether that’s selling into the federal government, healthcare, or education. We want to make sure that they will be valued and grow inside of the program, even if these may not be core markets for Motorola.

vsr: How do you use pricing and discounts to separate partner tiers in the program?
Our channel philosophy is differentiation, and we want to differentiate. That was one of the things that we heard from the North American partners as feedback from the previous programs that had been out in the marketplace. We heard that there hadn’t been enough differentiation in the program and that people were resolving to different techniques, from a pricing perspective, to differentiate themselves. We believe in differentiation between and across partners, because it helps customers understand who the partners are that made the investment.

vsr: Just as the program was rolling out,
Motorola took down the certification programs, when will these certifications be available?
We measure competency with certification and we have rolled out many new courses worldwide. What we are doing is balancing the need to go deeper in one region, for example North America, versus the need to go wide across regions. So because the regions outside of North America are also launching EmPower, we had to make tradeoffs in terms of getting that content globally—meaning available for consumption in local languages with local resources—versus building out a deep certification program in one region. We tried to make a balance that makes sense for the business. 

vsr: You will be the first manager at Motorola in a while with experience in AIDC, how do you plan on making that segment a focal point again at Motorola?
The good news is that I don’t have to do that. From a company and channel perspective, the technology within AIDC is critical and strategic. From a proof point perspective, if you look at some of the recent electronic announcements that we’ve made in the last 60 to 90 days, and when I look at the pipeline, we are investing in this business. When you look at mobile and at the enterprise tablet—these are products that are sweet spots for our AIDC, data capture, and mobile computing partners. What I’m excited about in this role is that I bring an objective point of view having not come from the Motorola side of the business.
My goal is to make sure that all the partners in our global partner community feel valued, that they trust us, that we’re predictable, and that they understand that they play a critical role in our success. In North America alone, in Q3, the data capture partners alone contributed nearly 20 percent growth over the same quarter last year. Our partners are continuing to deliver exceptional growth for the company.

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First job
Magician’s assistant
(7th grade)

Biggest inspiration
My 100-year-old grandmother. She had a career while raising two children at a time when women did not typically do that.

Hobbies
Cooking, ice hockey, Girl Scouts

Tech you can’t live without?
My smartphone (Motorola Atrix, of course!)

Words of wisdom
Both from my dad: “Life is a journey, not a destination” & “Any job big or small, do it right or not at all”

Key to success
Acknowledge your mistakes, surround yourself with extraordinary people, and stay true to yourself.

Proudest Moment
When my children demonstrate they are growing into caring, thoughtful people.

Favorite band
U2