Ruijie Networks Launches Channel Co-building Model for the First Time, Aiming at the Difficulties of Traditional Cooperation

Ruijie Networks, born at the first dawn of the 21st century, is about to celebrate its 20th birthday. In the past 20 years, Ruijie Networks has developed rapidly, with the number of employees increasing from 50 to 5,500, with an average annual compound growth rate of more than 30% for 20 consecutive years.

Ruijie Networks has been able to survive and grow in the extremely dangerous Chinese network market to this day, thanks in large part to its boldness, from focusing on scenario-based solutions to transforming from direct sales to channel sales. This time, Ruijie Networks has innovatively launched a "channel co-building customer" cooperation model: giving the project's operating ownership to partners.

There has always been a problem in the enterprise IT market: manufacturers are close to their core partners, but are not close to their customer-oriented terminal channels. Ruijie Network's cooperation model is expected to fundamentally solve this pain point, contribute innovative thinking to the construction of enterprise-level IT ecology, and open up a new world.

Ruijie's determination!

Hitting the pain points of traditional project reporting model

Like other enterprise-level IT vendors, Ruijie Networks also adopted a direct sales model in its early days and experienced a lot of pain and twists and turns in its transformation from direct sales to channel sales.

"After 20 years of development, Ruijie Networks has made one thing clear: cooperation is necessary and only cooperation can create greater value. In the past 20 years, Ruijie Networks has transformed from a company that did not like cooperation and could not cooperate to a company that is eager to cooperate and is good at cooperation," said Liu Zhongdong, president of Ruijie Networks. Today, more than 90% of Ruijie Networks' sales revenue comes from partners.

However, facing today's market, Ruijie and its partners cannot simply maintain a regular cooperative relationship to withstand the ever-changing macroeconomic risks. In order to seize the micro-market opportunities brought about by digital transformation, it is imperative to change the cooperation model.

It is an industry consensus that the relationship between manufacturers and partners is far from close. Among thousands of partners, only a few hundred "core" ones have good cooperation, and they are usually distributors in the commercial market. Compared with distributors, SI-based partners facing end customers often lack communication and trust with manufacturers.

Project reporting is the most common cooperation model between manufacturers and these partners. However, in actual operation, such an idealized model often becomes a formality. Partners are often reluctant to report projects for fear that manufacturers will snatch orders. Even if they do report projects, they are always on guard against the intervention of the manufacturer's sales staff. Manufacturers complain that partners do not understand products, report plans randomly, and only bargain with them for special orders.

In order to cure the above-mentioned cooperation problems, Ruijie Network's "channel co-construction" cooperation model came into being.

Liu Zhongdong, President of Ruijie Networks

From being distant to close cooperation

Ruijie Networks' "channel co-construction" model was piloted in six provinces in China as early as last year. After achieving good results, it was rolled out nationwide in April this year.

Huang Yuhui, vice president of Ruijie Networks, said that after seven months of intensive work, nearly 10,000 partners have signed a "Memorandum of Co-construction" with Ruijie Networks, involving 20,000 projects and project opportunities exceeding 10 billion yuan.

Ruijie Networks' "channel co-construction" cooperation model means that the channel has the ownership of the project in the cooperation with Ruijie, and a written agreement in the form of a "memorandum" is made that as long as the manufacturer wins the bid, the interests of the co-construction channel will be protected first in any case. Its core concept is: "Those who till the land have their own land, and those who till the land have their own benefits."

Song Jizhou, general manager of the channel department of Ruijie Networks, said that the ultimate goal of Ruijie Networks is to open 100% of its customers to partners, and that they can "co-build" as long as the partners are willing. Partners who are unwilling to co-build can still maintain a case-by-case project-based cooperation relationship in the original model.

Through "co-construction", Ruijie Networks and its partners have achieved a high degree of consistency in the interests, avoiding the "competitive cooperation relationship" in the traditional model and forming a cooperative situation that makes partners feel more at ease.

At the same time, both parties have a clear division of labor and clear responsibilities and rights. The partners focus on customers: exploring and guiding business opportunities, and jointly promoting customer recognition; Ruijie focuses on product technical support: leveraging professional advantages, delivering value and providing technical support, and promoting projects with rich and professional marketing activities.

Huang Yuhui, Vice President of Ruijie Networks

From eternal interests to eternal friends

"There are only eternal interests, no eternal friends." This statement is both right and wrong. The key point is that the interests of both parties are not aligned, which also determines whether it can become a truly sincere and mutually trusting strategic cooperative relationship.

Of course, the "channel co-construction" cooperation model is easier said than done. "To avoid problems during implementation, there are too many details that need to be improved, such as the revision of the internal employee assessment system and the supporting of relevant channel policies," Song Jizhou said.

Fundamentally, a good partnership is built on the basis of mutual values. On the basis of trust, Ruijie and its partners must each give up a small part of their sense of security and let the other party provide the guarantee in order to achieve common goals.

"A good cooperative relationship should be based on three major principles of cooperation: both parties should have an open, inclusive and mutually beneficial attitude," said Song Jizhou.

From the first visit, both parties should open their hearts and disclose all information to each other to form a mutually transparent relationship. In the implementation process, they should not deny the possibility of future cooperation due to the other party's mistakes and be responsible for long-term cooperation. In terms of results, they should not be too concerned about a little profit and focus on long-term benefits.

To this end, Ruijie Networks has also established a behavioral model for both parties under the co-construction model: clarifying common interests, setting consensus goals, clarifying respective divisions of labor, abiding by common norms, and communicating closely and frequently.

Song Jizhou, General Manager of Channel Department of Ruijie Networks

On November 8, Ruijie Networks held a national co-construction partner conference, with more than 5,000 partners attending. The purpose of this conference was to convey the key points of the above-mentioned "channel co-construction" cooperation model to all partners, including potential partners.

This unprecedented cooperation model will help Ruijie Networks build a "comrade-in-arms cooperation relationship". Will it be unprecedented?