Security Staff Acquisition & Development, Channel chiefs, Channel partner programs

Zendesk Hires Oracle Cloud Veteran for Partner Program Push

Zendesk has hired Oracle Cloud partner program veteran Jeff Porter as director of partner programs, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Jeff Porter
Jeff Porter
Ricardo Moreno

The move comes at a key time for Zendesk, which develops IT service management (ITSM), help desk and CRM (customer relationship management) software for SMB customers and partners.

Zendesk has been growing both organically and via acquisition. Key moves include the September 2018 buyout of FutureSimple Inc. and Base, a salesforce automation software platform for small businesses. About a month later, Zendesk named Intel, Cisco and Infoblox veteran Ricardo Moreno as its vice president, Worldwide Partners and Channels. Around the same time, VP Jeff Titterton was promoted to CMO.

Zendesk Business Growth

Zendesk certainly has a growth story to share with partners that want to resell, integrate or consume the company's ITSM, help desk and CRM software. For its third quarter of 2018, Zendesk's revenue was $154.8 million, up 38 percent from Q2 2017. The company had a net loss of $34.1 million during the period -- preferring to focus heavily on continued growth at the time.

The company is expected to announce Q4 2018 results on February 5, 2019. We'll be watching for the financial updates.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.