This is a transcript of one episode of the Samsung Developers Podcast, hosted by and produced by Tony Morelan. A listing of all podcast transcripts can be found here.
Host
Tony Morelan Senior Developer Evangelist, Samsung Developers
In this episode of POW, I interview Morgan Parker, Program Manager for the Knox Partner Program, the team at Samsung that provides resources and support for strategic partners building on the Knox platform. Not only do we talk about the benefits of joining the Knox Partner Program, but also just how easy it is to get started.
Sign up for the Knox Partner Program and gain free and immediate access to exclusive Knox development tools. Strengthen your business software with powerful SDKs, REST API services, and resources that leverage exclusive features in Samsung devices. Access marketing resources to help enable the creation of high-quality marketing materials, as well as new marketing channels for qualified partners.
Transcript
NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and reviewed by the Samsung Developers web team. Inaccuracies from the transcription process do occur, so please refer to the audio if you are in doubt about the transcript.
Tony Morelan 00:02
Hey, I'm Tony Morelan. And this is Pow! Podcasts of Wisdom from the Samsung Developer Program, where we talk about the latest tech new trends and get insight into all of the opportunities available for developers looking to create for Samsung. On today's show, I interview Morgan Parker, program manager for the Knox Partner Program, the team at Samsung that provides resources and support for strategic partners building on the Knox platform. Not only do we talk about the benefits of joining the Knox Partner Program, but also just how easy it is to get started. Enjoy. Hey, Morgan, I'd like to thank you very much for joining me on the podcast. I need to ask who is Morgan Parker?
Morgan Parker 00:44
Yeah, so I'm lucky enough to live in Vancouver BC so beautiful outdoors and really have picked up more hobbies than I have time. So who I am is someone who is always running around doing different sports and staying outside. Nice Cover is a beautiful place. It's on my short list of places to visit once the lockdown is removed, I will definitely be up there soon. Yeah, once
Tony Morelan 01:07
they opened up the borders. Exactly. So you are the program manager for the Knox partner program.
Morgan Parker 01:14
So what exactly is Knox so Samsung Knox is a security platform that's, that's really built into all Samsung smartphones and other devices as well as wearables and tablets. And what it does is really secures the device from you know, boot up, you know, and during runtime to ensure that the data is stored and secured in the most secure way. There's also a suite of solutions built upon the Knox platform, you know, enabling, you know businesses and other secure organizations to, you know, ensure the devices running and operating in a way that meets their needs, you know, the most secure needs as in government and financial and other really highly secure industries. And as well, you know, we as the Samsung Knox partner program provide a bunch of different SDKs and development tools to build on top of that Knox platform as well. So, you know, we extend that functionality to our partners to build, you know, kind of those next grade solutions and really, you know, provide tailored solutions to our customers as well.
Tony Morelan 02:13
Excellent. So what exactly
Morgan Parker 02:14
do you do? Hmm. So we, we break down the program really into for different areas. So we provide a bunch of resources that, you know, our developers and partners can come in and really discover and learn what we do as a program. You know, what we offer is the Samsung Knox partner program and, you know, the different tools we offer to build upon Samsung Knox and the other technologies we provide, and then, you know, moving from that, you know, it's really the SDKs and support and, and other development resources, so people can get started building and then really facilitating, you know, better go to market activities to, you know, get more exposure to these solutions. And then also further from that, you know, the growth phase which is really building a deeper connection in relationship with Samsung. So, what I focus on is really providing more resources under each one of these kinds of four categories. So right now, that's really been more focused on, you know, increasing, go to market resources and activities for our partners. And really, you know, working to build out the benefits we provide to our partners and looking internally to see what else we can provide and extend to our partners from kind of each one of those segments as well. So really focused on building out a really rich program for our partners that delivers a lot of real-world value.
Tony Morelan 03:29
Yeah, that's great. You know, my role as a developer evangelist for the Samsung developer program, you know, kind of falls in line a bunch of what you're doing as far as trying to help a lot of developers with different tools so that they can be successful creating for Samsung. So I think a lot of our responsibilities kind of intertwine. Absolutely,
Morgan Parker 03:47
yeah. And as Samsung as well, I think like we're so big, and I think it can be pretty easy for us to extend you know, some things that are kind of like small exposure things from our channels, but some of our partners are very You know, big opportunities. So I think looking for more of these things where, you know, they're the channels there, and everything's ready and extending that further to our partners is, is a big win for us and our partners.
Tony Morelan 04:14
So I understand that that you actually had an opportunity to go work for a year in Korea at our headquarters. I did. Tell me a little bit about that. And how exactly did you end up in this role at Samsung?
Morgan Parker 04:26
Yeah, that was an interesting one. So I've been at Samsung now for almost six years. And this was about after my fourth year. So I was on a business trip actually in California. And I got a phone call, you know, stepped out into the hall to take the phone call and it was my boss then at the time, who said Morgan, I've got a job that I want you to go and do. By the way, it's in Korea, and also, I need to know right now. So without being able to think of a reason, you know, not to go. You know, I committed to it and essentially, it was two months later, and I wasn't real You know, fantastic experience, I think it was really good as probably the first time I felt truly out of my element and maybe probably the first time I felt truly stupid in a while where, you know, you look around, you can't read anything and, and it's, you know, you can get yourself pretty lost. But overall really great experience, I think learning how the company operates from, you know, an HQ level in Korea, and working with a lot of really, you know, talented, intelligent people was really fantastic and enabled me to, to kind of figure out how to make a bunch more things work when I'm back home and venture.
Tony Morelan 05:34
You know, I actually had an opportunity to spend a week in Korea at HQ. And one of my fondest memories was getting on the subway there and not having any idea what my exit was because I just couldn't read the language. And by the time I realized what my exit was, we had missed it. And I looked at the map and saw that it truly is just a big circle. The route Oh, yeah, I thought you know what, what a great way. See, Seoul, Korea. So I just stayed on it for an hour and just got to see all the sights and to loop back around to my exit. So
Morgan Parker 06:08
Oh, yeah, some of the infrastructure there is pretty fast. Yeah, exactly. And still miss the food. It can't get quite as
Tony Morelan 06:13
good. Absolutely, yeah. I love that in cycling too. I'm a big cyclist. So when I was there, I rented a bike and just took off for the day and just rode along the river. It was absolutely beautiful country. Definitely. So can we talk a little bit about the Samsung enterprise Alliance program? Because I understand that was originally in place before the Knox partner program, correct? Yeah, it
Morgan Parker 06:36
was. So yeah, the Samsung Enterprise Alliance program was I think it was up and running for, you know, about five or six years before we transitioned that into the notch partner program. You know, the, the program was great. I think the difference in why we wanted to transition is to really have another go to build out the program to you know, take all the great things that were in the Samsung enterprise Alliance program, roll them into this new program. But also, you know, expand our focus not just on the enterprise, which, you know, obviously was in the name of that something enterprise Alliance program, but look at other ways in which, you know, Samsung Knox, you know, it's really applicable to, to more than just, you know, the enterprise segment, I think, you know, SMBs is a great play. I think there's a lot of, you know, b2b to see examples that are really good. You know, even looking at some, some b2c examples, potentially, and other ways that Knox can be used in that in a great way. And I think, you know, by changing the name, you know, and really trying to push the what we're doing with Knox platform forward, and how are, you know, offering some of these development tools to our partners and developers, you know, we just get to really, you know, move ahead and build these things out to use these in a different way.
Tony Morelan 07:48
So what are some of the development tools that you're offering to partners?
Morgan Parker 07:52
Yeah, so we offer a few different developer tools and resources. So the first being the Samsung Knox SDK is a collection of, you know, a few hundred unique Samsung API's that really give our partners and developers the ability to have more granular control over the device mostly based in security, authentication, and device and app management. So those are typically used by a lot of our UTM and MDM partners. You know, the next is Knox. So it's a way that our partners can have a little bit more control over the air firmware updates and how those are handled on the device. There's also knock service plugin which enables our developers to really save you know, ongoing development costs and time by integrating with the knock service plugin to have more automatic updates amongst other benefits right so when there's a new Knox feature released, the use of the knock service plugin helps the you know solution kind of update to the latest Knox you know, version and solution that is available and the last one, Knox mobile enrollment. So this really helps our partners figure out how to enroll thousands Have devices at once easier, and really controlling how those devices are, you know, enrolled and rolled out into an enterprise environment. So that's a, you know, very, very high-level view, but encourage people to go to www.developer.SamsungKnox.com to go dig deeper into those tools and see, you know, how they may fit in with, you know, what is desired for the partner developer solutions being created?
Tony Morelan 09:21
That's great. That's great, you know, because I know one of the biggest challenges when developers are creating their solutions are staying on top of the latest devices. So you know, you put all this effort into making compatible with a specific device, but then when there's a new release or a new update, you've got to you know, start right back into it. So Exactly. Great to hear that you guys are making that a little easier. That's
Morgan Parker 09:40
that's the goal, right? Yes.
Tony Morelan 09:43
Yes, what would you say is the primary goal then of the Knox partner program,
Morgan Parker 09:47
really is to increase the success of our partners. So what I really look to do is just find ways in which, you know, we can provide those resources, additional resources to our partners to help them make more sales. You know, when our partners are successful, we're successful. And so I think looking for ways to increase the successful partners is really what we're trying to do
Tony Morelan 10:07
charge a fee to join the partner program. Nope, everything's totally free.
Morgan Parker 10:11
And there's a lot of really great, you know, free resources in there as well, including, you know, one of the biggest ones is really technical support as well. So, you know, anyone who comes in and joins the program starts building, they can actually put in support tickets and get help when they're when they're building their app, so they don't get
Tony Morelan 10:27
stuck. What would be some of the other ways that the Knox partner program is supporting partners?
Morgan Parker 10:32
Yes. So I think, you know, while they're building, as I mentioned, the support is very important. Our documentation is fantastic. You know, there's support forums that, you know, obviously, you get peer, you know, feedback and support through that, but also those are monitored by our support professionals as well. So really, while you're building, you know, we do everything we can to help support you. You know, moving from that, you know, when you're going to market. The program is really designed that when you start to have some in market success, and you're actually serious about Going in selling and creating a business with this, you know, we take notice. So the, you know, we can see whose kind of activating licenses and who's making some sales. So we have really good regional contacts and people that work with the program around the world. So we work to, you know, once you start having some success really start working with you. And this is where we really can build our relationship and start to promote you even further. where, you know, once you get some notice, you know, we can promote you on our different websites. There's a solution catalog on www.SamsungKnox.com as well as starting promoting solutions internally to our sales teams as well. So, you know, once you kind of build some momentum, we work to help you, you know, increase that momentum and get more exposure and conquer, you know, make more sales is really the goal. Is
Tony Morelan 11:43
this where the different tiers start to come into play, because I understand that you do offer I think it's four different tiers.
Morgan Parker 11:49
Exactly. Yeah. So everyone joins that, what would be a bronze tier, and really that is you get all the development resources and you can come in and start building and doing what You need to do to get your app off the ground, when you start making some sales and you know, started getting some notice, that's where, you know, we as the program would bump you up to what would be a silver tier partner, put you in contact with regional contacts and start you on that journey. From there, you know, as you start to, you know, get in more and more sales, you know, we bumped you up to gold, and then platinum, those right now are pretty large partners, platinum partners right now are no blackberry and Sony. So at that level, you know, that is just more, you know, obviously, like joint PR and doing events together and that type of thing. So yeah, we just really want to, you know, create more silver and then create more gold and hopefully create more Platinum partners as well to really start growing our ecosystem. So then what is it that you're doing for the small and medium sized businesses? Yeah, that's why I think it's really the promotional, and connections with Samsung that are really important. So that's where the solution catalog comes in. where, you know, we start to, you know, do things to jointly promote the solutions to you know, our base of customers and potential customers. So I think, you know, doing that and having the relationship with Samsung to pull you into more deals at that phase, I think is a really good and important, some really important benefits.
Tony Morelan 13:13
Sure. So giving a lot of visibility then. Exactly,
Morgan Parker 13:16
yeah. And that that comes back into, you know, with our global scale, I think this is one of the best ways that we can we can do this is, you know, providing more visibility from a very large customer base to our partner solutions.
Tony Morelan 13:30
So, tell me a little bit about the Knox validated program.
Morgan Parker 13:33
Yes, we just launched that this year. So the NOx validated program is for our partners. And really what it does is it validates the implementation of a couple of our Samsung Knox products essentially. So with that, you know, having no these rich implementations of Samsung Knox, we do a check to see how those are implemented. Make sure that you know both from a technical and security perspective, as well as some degree of you know, user friendliness, that these things are done in, you know, a really good way to then give our customers confidence that if they're buying these solutions that, you know, these things are implemented in kind of the best way possible. So really designed to give our customers more confidence of these partner solutions, and to, you know, give our partners that, you know, go through this validation process, you know, even more promotional opportunities to promote those solutions further, as you know, kind of our chosen top, you know, validated solutions. So, can you give some examples of these additional resources? Yeah, absolutely. So, first of all, it's really collecting all the existing sales and marketing resources that we do provide, whether that be you know, device imagery, and a lot of the latest device imagery, you know, then other sales and marketing collateral as well. So, you know, our partners get to see you know, what we use and how we sell some of those solutions to our customers and get a better understanding of what those are and those can also be reused with, you know, their customers as well to show You know, what is the Knox platform and if you're putting all this effort into integrating with the knowledge platform, you obviously would be good to have an understanding of what that is, and then convey that to your customer as well. So those are a couple of, you know, kind of key areas of the sales and marketing resources. And there's a bunch more in there as well. And then really, as I mentioned before, really pushing ahead, and, you know, even doing the active promotion of those solutions, so, you know, getting in front of the obviously more customers, as well as our internal sales teams and other internal business units as well.
Tony Morelan 15:29
It sounds great. Now, you had mentioned the acronym UTM. In, for those who might not be aware of that, can you write exactly what are those acronyms?
Morgan Parker 15:38
Yeah, so I guess in the world of mobile device management, which is MDM, people can classify their solutions in a different way. So UCM is unified endpoint management, Enterprise Mobility Management CMM. So they're all you know, basically a different way of managing mobile devices or endpoints and I think, you know, depending on Guess who you are, you may classify your solution as a different way. UVM could be the latest, as you know, endpoints can be more than just mobile devices. It can be, you know, other type of smart devices or dongles or whatever. So yeah, I think how you classify your solution and what you manage, you can name it something different.
Tony Morelan 16:18
So what is the next partner program done to drive awareness?
Morgan Parker 16:22
Yeah, I think the biggest one, and we'd work pretty hard to just get our solution catalog launched on www.SamsungKnox.com which is what I've mentioned before, so that is taking our silver and above partners, you know, getting what we call a solution brief or a solution profile off them and then putting together a full catalog of the solutions to promote to our customers and anyone coming to that website, essentially, you know, we also work hard to promote a lot of solutions more internally as well. So we have some features coming later this month that will really help you know, promote a lot of these solutions more internally. Again, taking that solution brief solutions. profile and working to support are no sales and technical sales teams. So if they're working with a customer, and they identify a need that a partner solution they fit, we give them the catalog that they can go and search to find the partner solution that, you know they're looking for to fit that customer needs. So, really working to promote that solution sale. So, you know, I think a lot of times it's, you know, Samsung Knox and Samsung devices plus partner solution or partner solutions, equals like that full solution that our customers are looking for.
Tony Morelan 17:32
You know, right now our society is going through a big transition, dealing with COVID-19 Can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges the that your team is facing?
Morgan Parker 17:44
Right, yeah, this is a, you know, as I mentioned, you know, trying to put together a lot of new features and things for our partners you know, we still have a lot of development on the program that that we're doing I'd actually say where we're probably more in still the growth phase, you know, coming out of something enterprises Lines programs still, you know, pretty freshly transitioning before, you know, COVID-19 happens. So, you know, it's challenging with, you know, keeping our development timelines and still adding lots of new features quickly. So, you know, we've had some, some delays with that, I think, you know, I'd like to see a lot of richer features in the program that we've had to wait a little bit more forward. But yeah, I think, you know, just really keeping our heads down working more as a team globally to still get these features in the program as soon as possible. Excellent.
Tony Morelan 18:27
That's great to hear. So, can you tell me what are some of the success areas for the next partner
Morgan Parker 18:32
program? Yeah, we, I mean, even as you know, the COVID pieces, one example. I mean, you know, having partners come in and use our development tools and new and innovative ways to, you know, solve for real world problems, whether it be social distancing, or, you know, contact tracing and that type of thing. You know, there's some great uses of our tools for that, you know, other you know, large partners, you know, doing really great implementations and you know, again are the demand for the knowledge validated programming, how many partners we've had past that, so far has been really good to see as well. And I think for what I look at successes, as, you know, people coming in and really using those development tools to make something great that, you know, has success in the real world. So there's the opera world need for these things. And that happens quite frequently. So, you know, there's, there's lots of those successes. And I would say, you know, a good way to see a lot of them is go to www.SamsungKnox.com And check out that solution catalog and see those solutions and see other success cases on there as well.
Tony Morelan 19:31
Are there any companies or solutions that you can talk about that are built on knox?
Morgan Parker 19:36
Yeah, so, you know, I think, you know, starting with our Platinum partners is blackberry and Sony, you know, really full rich implementations of Samsung Knox really, you know, giving those customers using those solutions and Samsung devices, extremely rich way to manage those devices and tailor them for you know, different business needs. So I think starting with those guys is the probably the reason Just implementations of a lot of them, you know, Samsung Knox SDKs. And those API's they use. That's great.
Tony Morelan 20:08
any upcoming news? Any webinars or events that you guys are participating in?
Morgan Parker 20:13
Yeah, I think I mean, you mentioned how COVID slowed a lot of this stuff down. So obviously, you know, not as many physical events this year. But we do have lots of webinars that we run. Typically we do at least a monthly webinar, covering, you know, other more technical topics, or you know, how to work with Samsung. So those are actually posted on the blog at its developer, Samsung Knox Comm. So yeah, keep on checking there, and we have events going all the time online.
Tony Morelan 20:40
So what advice would you have for companies looking to
Morgan Parker 20:43
join the next partner program, but really just come in and join? I think, you know, it's a very easy thing to come and join to sign your company up. You know, come poke around and see, you know, what we have and you know, how we can start working together and really just Don't get started you know as it's free and registration only takes probably about 1015 minutes. Yeah, just come and join and come see how we can work together.
Tony Morelan 21:09
So now Are there any requirements that must be met in order for a company to be eligible to join the partner program?
Morgan Parker 21:15
We just asked that the partners register with no corporate email address and their corporate details. So other than that, there's no real strict requirements. It's just we asked for it to be a company and we do a quick DUNS check for the you know, company registration that's actually it's nice to hear that you've
Tony Morelan 21:33
made this so available to companies to get started to create opportunity.
Morgan Parker 21:37
Absolutely. Yeah low barrier to entry is really the way that we wanted to make it so you know, people can again come in and check things out and see what we have to offer and
Tony Morelan 21:47
just get started quickly. And again, that website is www.partner.samsung.knox.com Exactly.
Morgan Parker 21:53
And there's the you can go straight to the development tools that guide www.developer.samsung.knox.com as well. So we've made that quicker for the more technical audience to really get started.
Tony Morelan 22:03
Okay? Are you guys active on any social channels like YouTube or Twitter?
Morgan Parker 22:07
we do work with our, you know, developer teams as well. So you're yourself. And we actually have a little sub channel on your YouTube channel, where we post all of our more technical webinars and everything. They're so
Tony Morelan 22:20
excellent, a great way for people to, you know, get online and check out some more of what you guys are doing. So, absolutely, yeah. Happy to be a part of that. Yeah, it's really great to work together.
Morgan Parker 22:28
Yeah, I think Yeah, you know, one of the things that is really top of my mind is, you know, how we work together as one Samsung, right, I think, you know, coming across to our audiences is not really fragmented, even though we're, you know, quite a large global organization. It's really important. So, you know, keeping working together with yourself and your team and other teams globally to make sure that, you know, we're working to, you know, come across as one unified front.
Tony Morelan 22:52
Yeah. And I think also one thing that we push how accessible we are. Exactly, you know, I mean, it's obvious that you guys are very accessible with the program being free. And how easy it is to get started. I know from our side that we're extremely accessible. I mean, I'm constantly, you know, reaching out to people when they're posting questions, whether it's on YouTube, or they're contacting me, you know, directly, whether it's LinkedIn or Twitter or whatnot, that we are here to absolutely help. So we've made it really easy for developers to get a hold of us whenever they have that, that need. Absolutely,
Morgan Parker 23:21
yeah, yeah, I sit next to some of our support staff, and they're really great. And, you know, they're, they're right on every ticket that we have. Yeah, I think, you know, I would echo that, that, you know, there's a real person behind, you know, every ticket and every issue and, you know, really working to solve these things as quick as possible.
Tony Morelan 23:37
Definitely. Us too. You know, we work as a team, I sit really close to some of our support people, and a lot of times it's a team solution that we're putting together. So absolutely. That's great. It's really great. So when you're not working, what is it that you do for fun up and up in Vancouver?
Morgan Parker 23:52
Yeah, as I mentioned, I mean, Vancouver's got a wealth of things to do. So in the winter, it's really snowboarding and spending Every moment I can in the mountains and yeah, just getting as much snow as I can in my life in the winter when there's a lot and then lucky enough as well once the snow starts to kind of melt, I start riding motorbikes. So dirt bikes and street bikes and do a little bit of racing here and there. So really, yes. Really full season of activities around and
Tony Morelan 24:19
outdoors person and outdoors
Morgan Parker 24:21
person. Exactly. You like
Tony Morelan 24:22
the wind blowing through.
Morgan Parker 24:24
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it feels good. Gone. Gone quick, sometimes.
Tony Morelan 24:28
Sure. Excellent. Well, hey, Morgan, absolutely appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me and talk about the next partner program. So thanks very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Outro 24:37
Looking to start creating for Samsung, download the latest tools to code your next app, or get software for designing apps without coding at all. Sell your apps to the world on the Samsung Galaxy Store. Check out www.developer.samsung.com today and start your journey with Samsung. The Pow! Podcast is brought to you by the Samsung Developer Program and produced by Tony Morelan.
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