News
Meet Your VP of Alliances Kevin Zellmer
- Company Update
- 4 MIN READ
- Mar 1, 2024
Summary
As we continue to grow our footprint, we recognize the need for new senior leadership roles that will help us better serve our clients and partners within our expanding ecosystem.
We are pleased to welcome Kevin Zellmer to the team, who brings 25 years of experience and proven results for global brands across business development, product, partnerships, sales, and marketing. Passionate about technology's cutting edge, Kevin has pioneered numerous digital transformation projects, from building the first Toy Story website to enabling some of the first electronic transactions and API integrations.
Kevin sat down with us to share a little bit about his new role and how he’ll work in collaboration with our global team and partners to drive impact for our clients.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Apply Digital: Why are partnerships so valuable in business, especially for companies looking to advance digital transformation?
Kevin Zellmer: Partnerships aren’t just about driving revenue; that’s simply the end result. It’s about building credibility, removing barriers to entry, and creating digital change that drives impact. Many companies don't know where to start, or they don’t have the technical expertise required to make digital transformation happen. That’s why we partner with companies that are experts in various tech stack components. Through this approach, we create a support network for clients so they don't have to establish one themselves. So, in other words, we’re removing barriers to entry for clients because of our relationships with partners like commercetools, Big Commerce, Talon.One and Contentful.
The ability to deliver optimal client solutions really comes down to communication and how effectively partners work together. If you look at some of the most successful business partnerships, they’re between companies that are highly intertwined with a similar go-to-market strategy and alignment on how they can best serve their clients together.
Apply Digital: What do you wish more people knew about why business partnerships can be so valuable?
Kevin Zellmer: I wish clients understood that when we join forces with other companies who have proven results in their realm, we bring more expertise and impact via:
Leveraging industry expertise: A consideration worth mentioning is the need for highly specific expertise. For example, if you want to win a local, state, or federal government project, partnering with a company with procurement rights or certifications might be necessary. Given that’s sometimes a very time-consuming and expensive process, working with a partner with those credentials allows you to take on projects you might not be able to otherwise. The same concept applies to projects in other industries like FinTech or pharmaceuticals.
Expanding into new markets: Partnerships are also a great way to expand a client’s footprint in new regions. Specifically, clients can leverage our global footprint to expand their own business. For example, our work with Femsa and Coca-Cola was multi-brand and multi-geography. Having the right tech, an expert team to build capacity, and diverse perspectives can help get the product to market faster and more successfully.
Creating holistic experiences: We’re building a 360-degree profile of our customers to determine how we can best serve them. So, whether it’s their CMS, order entry, POS, localization, loyalty, or personalization efforts, we can ensure we’re partnering appropriately to deliver what clients need. We want to create a holistic experience for clients so that whatever they need to achieve their goals, we are there to support them.
Apply Digital: How are you most excited to collaborate in your role?
Kevin Zellmer: I’m excited to continue growing our collaboration with key partners to ensure we deliver client impact.
When you effectively establish these kinds of partnerships, your integrations work better, delivery is on time, time to value is good, and the results are what you said they’d be or better. All of these outcomes rely on how well you communicate with your partners. This process typically involves establishing a workflow or “playbook” with your partners that determines each party's responsibilities and brings transparency to what everyone does best. That way, when clients come to you, all of those details are worked out, which makes client-facing interactions seamless.
Congratulations again to Kevin; we look forward to continuing to better serve our clients wherever they are. To connect with Kevin or learn more about Apply Digital, please reach out to us at hello@applydigital.com
Interview conducted by Jordon Ahosaari
