OpenText’s Todd Cione on its radical pivot to partner-led mid-market growth

Robert Dutt: Hello, and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the past 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor at ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show.

We’re coming to you from OpenText World 2026 in Orlando, where the company is laying out an ambitious vision for its future, positioning itself as a critical provider of trusted information and connected data for the emerging world of enterprise AI.

But delivering on that vision is going to take more than technology. It’s going to require some significant changes to how OpenText goes to market, particularly how it works with its partners.

That’s where today’s guest comes in. Todd Cione is OpenText’s president of Worldwide Sales, and I had the opportunity to sit down with him shortly after CEO Ayman Antoun laid out the company’s strategy in his opening keynote.

Todd describes what he calls a radical pivot in OpenText’s approach to the mid-market, moving away from a predominantly direct sales approach towards one that depends much more heavily on partners to reach and serve customers.

We also get into the company’s new One OpenText commercial model, the opportunities for partners to build businesses around more of OpenText’s extensive portfolio, and what it will take to make that cross-selling opportunity a reality.

And we discuss where the company’s substantial MSP-focused cybersecurity business fits into the broader strategy, as well as efforts to simplify the experience of working with OpenText across its many businesses.

It’s a conversation about some significant changes in how OpenText thinks about its channel, and what partners can expect as those changes take shape.

Let’s get right into it, my chat with Todd Cione.

Robert Dutt: Well, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. I imagine this has got to be a busy, active week for you and the whole team here.

Todd Cione: Thanks for having me, Robert. It’s a fantastic week, and very excited to have colleagues, partners, and clients here at OpenText World.

Robert Dutt: So we just sat in on a session where Ayman laid out a pretty ambitious vision for where OpenText goes from here. When you look at that strategy, when you were formulating that strategy, where do your partners fit into making that all a reality over time?

Todd Cione: Yeah, I think they play a critical role in the AI stack. I mean, put simply, no one vendor partner can deliver value across the entirety of the AI stack to a client. Shannon’s metaphor of a team sport, I think, is directly applicable. It takes an entire ecosystem working together to deliver the value that clients expect today.

Robert Dutt: Let’s talk about that ecosystem. Moving down the stack into the long tail of the channel, when you get beyond the GSIs, the technology partners, and start looking at the regional solution providers, the consultants, the implementation partners who are working directly with customers, large and small, but especially once you get into that mid-market and below size.

Todd Cione: Yeah, look, clients expect, whether they’re a large enterprise or they’re in the mid-market, they’re dealing with the same problems. They just have different amounts of resources available to them to solve problems. They need technology, they need expertise, but it’s that combination of technology and expertise where business value comes that they all expect.

Partners of all categories play a critical role. As you’re referencing, regional system integrators, resellers that are localized in markets, bring either local expertise on the marketplace or the country where they are serving and operating, or they bring some type of vertical expertise, whether it’s public sector or private sector. In that combination of their expertise and our technology is where I think the value lies for a client.

Robert Dutt: How do you see the transition that this whole industry, this whole world is in right now changing the definition of who is, or will be six months, a year, two years from now, an OpenText partner? I’m curious if the kind of things you’re looking for in the partner base are evolving as both the market itself and OpenText’s place within it evolves.

Todd Cione: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think if you look back on the last decade, just for context before we look forward, it’s important to recognize that we certainly have invested in a partner ecosystem and a partner channel. However, the expectation of value and scale was different previously than it is now, and it is going forward.

Partners unequivocally are core to our entire company, including our commercial model that I’m responsible for. That means large global system integrators and regional system integrators to extend the delivery of professional services expertise. That means cloud service providers to provide the infrastructure layer on that modern AI stack. That means technology providers like SAP, Salesforce, that we integrate into their systems of record. That also means technology providers that build applications, agents on top of our platform as well, and then resellers and distributors that provide scale.

Moving forward, this ecosystem is not only critical for clients because no one technology provider can provide the entire stack, but it’s core to OpenText. It is core to what we do. It’s going to be core to our product roadmap. You’re going to see more and more and more tomorrow. It’s core to how we bring value to our shared clients. It’s like an integrated part of our sales force that I’m responsible for.

Robert Dutt: How does that go-to-market continue to evolve, especially as that whole ecosystem that you describe gets more complex? We get into situations where it’s you plus an OpenText partner plus any number of those technology partners who may have their own channels, and sometimes there’s going to be overlap between their partners and your partners, but not always. It can create a complex ecosystem, and managing that is a little bit of a different beast.

Todd Cione: Yeah, certainly with more providers working together to provide a common solution for a client, there can be complexity. But put simply, our job is to simplify it. Our job is to integrate and work super closely with a partner ecosystem early in a sales cycle, in a value cycle with a client, so that we all have clarity on our roles and responsibilities. What part of the overall solution for a client are we going to provide? And that way there’s kind of a seamless experience, most importantly, for the client.

And so we work really, really, really hard on it. We’re not perfect. We’re learning a lot. Our teams are learning, but we’re making big investments, human investments in resources, to be able to bring that simplicity to clients, and then enablement investments for the teams that we do have.

Robert Dutt: Is it changing kind of the nature of the sales call, the sales motion, when you’ve got all those different folks potentially in the room to make something that hopefully will reach some of those outcomes that we’re all striving for on behalf of customers?

Todd Cione: Simple answer is yes. And the longer answer is, gone are the days where OpenText would show up just with a product specialist to our client by themselves. And here are the days where we’ve launched an initiative, an organizational structure, a program, a model called One OpenText that puts the client at the center of everything that we do and is partner-centric.

And with that, for our largest 2,400 clients globally, we have a client executive that we’ve deployed. And this is a new role that represents the breadth of OpenText for that client and is an orchestrator then of specialist resources, product specialists from OpenText, technical specialists from OpenText, but also partners working together to seamlessly, again, assemble that solution that brings value to the client. So it’s a new approach and a new model. Again, we call it One OpenText.

Robert Dutt: You’ve got such a broad portfolio of technology across information management, security, AI underneath it all, and other areas as well. Where do you see the biggest opportunities today for partners to build differentiated businesses around the portfolio rather than simply reselling product X or product Y?

Todd Cione: Yeah, that’s reselling. It’s not a lot of value. So put simply, our role in the modern AI stack is to provide trusted context and connected data. It’s a core, critical part of that AI stack, without which really an enterprise cannot get business value from AI.

So as it relates to a partner ecosystem contributing around OpenText, trusted context, and connected data, look, there’s tremendous opportunities. At the infrastructure layer, again, cloud service providers provide very, very valuable modern infrastructure in the cloud to enable AI. Systems of record providers, SAP, Salesforce, and others, obviously that’s where structured data sits. We integrate with those key systems of record, and then models and orchestrators. If you think about Cohere, really important, tight partnership. Then you have agents and applications as well.

For resellers and distributors, their ability to connect into tiers on that AI stack, understand the value that they can provide to localized clients in a local market or in a specific vertical, is the way to differentiate.

We know that we can’t be all things to all clients, and we won’t be. We need localized resellers and solution providers across the world, heavily in emerging markets. We also can’t be all things to all clients by vertical as well. Public sector, we depend very heavily on a very specific specialized channel to work with public sector clients, as an example.

Robert Dutt: It sounds like the key to the value is being the last mile. You can get that integration between yourselves and your technology partners to X percent, but there’s still going to be that little bit extra that needs to be done to make it really light up for a customer in their particular niche, their particular priorities, their particular business.

Todd Cione: Yeah, I think that’s a good way to put it, the last mile. Look, we actually have a direct sales force quite significantly at scale around the world. And even though we have strong coverage, I’d say amongst the best coverages in the marketplace, look, we know we don’t have comprehensive coverage, and we do need those localized partners, that last mile, using your phrase, to provide incremental value to clients.

Robert Dutt: How much of that is in place today versus something that you feel needs to be built out or evolved for the current market condition?

Todd Cione: Yeah, coverage is in place right now. Very publicly, Ayman, our CEO, has highlighted that we’ve invested in our commercial model this year, in FY27, hiring and staffing those client executive roles and then also our specialist seller roles. So that model’s in place.

We’ve also invested in partner development executives to be able to be experts on the localized partner ecosystem within markets. We’ve organized that structure into three geographies: an Americas geography, a Europe geography, and an APJ, Middle East, Africa geography.

Within those geographies, we have 15 markets. So small atomic teams, think of it, operating in markets that are each unique in and of themselves and have unique partner ecosystem requirements as well. Those market leaders then are accountable to work with local partners to execute and serve clients. So that is all in place right now.

Robert Dutt: One part of the business that we didn’t hear a lot about in the keynote is the MSP-focused business. I think that’s because it’s kind of historically been a little bit unto itself, but it’s a substantial business that’s been assembled over the years, largely through acquisitions. How do you think about its place in the broader OpenText strategy going forward?

Todd Cione: Yeah, that’s a fair question. And I’ll answer it this way. Look, we have a professional services, first-party OpenText PS team that’s important and will continue to be important to add value to clients. The purpose of our professional services team is to bring expertise around our technology to clients and to help us drive software growth for our shareholders. That’s the purpose.

So a managed service provider ecosystem plays an important connected partnership, even with our first-party PS organization as well. And look, that’s a shift. That’s a shift for OpenText. And it’s not a light switch. Shifts as significant as that take some time, but we’re in the midst of that.

I have a colleague, James McOrley, who, and Jack Miller, run our global PS team. And they’re working hard to invest not only in clients, but now in a partner ecosystem as well, so that managed service providers, RSIs, GSIs can be an extension of OpenText, and we’re not competing with them.

Robert Dutt: Particularly around that, that security and backup business that’s been built up through Carbonite and all those acquisitions over the years, and kind of has, over the last few years, become an MSP stack platform unto itself. How does that kind of fit into OpenText moving forward?

Todd Cione: Yeah, we’ve been very public on the breadth of our portfolio and focusing on a core, a core part of our portfolio. That includes content, that includes our IT operations management portfolio, it includes our business network portfolio, as well as our cyber enterprise portfolio.

Now, relative to your question, Robert, around the MSP ecosystem for cybersecurity, cybersecurity is a core focus of ours. We take those products to market directly and through an MSP channel. So it’s super, super important to us.

Robert Dutt: It sounds like one of your previous answers may have informed some of the way, but I’m just curious. Historically, many of those partners have come into the OpenText ecosystem through those acquisitions with a security or backup lens, whatever it was. But as you say, you’ve got a lot more going on. Is there an opportunity to bring more of that portfolio to MSPs? I have to imagine yes. And ultimately to the SMB and mid-market customers that those guys typically serve?

Todd Cione: Yeah, that’s a good question. Look, you’re right that SMB and the mid-market is such a massive marketplace. And the best way to cover and serve that client base is through a channel, period. So you’ll continue to see OpenText invest in channel partners to serve those market segments.

Robert Dutt: You’ve got such a broad portfolio built through acquisitions, including the MSP business, but there’s been a lot of talk, you guys have been pretty open about wanting to focus more on organic growth.

Is that a signal that the goal is to get more value out of the portfolio that you already have, particularly through better integration and cross-selling opportunities for partners, getting more of the partner base that’s maybe sitting over here in part of the business thinking more OpenText at large?

Todd Cione: Yes is the answer to the question. So by that, I mean we have over 120,000 clients globally, and the opportunity for those clients to get more value from OpenText sits with our ability to expand our portfolio into each of those client relationships.

On stage today, this morning, as an example, you heard a couple examples of that. Ochsner Health, a large integrated healthcare delivery network in the Southeast, uses very effectively our IT operations management platform to help them with asset management and discovery for acquisitions. And they’re just beginning to use other parts of our portfolio, just beginning to. And huge opportunity.

You heard from IBM on stage today. I think it’s a great example of AI actually in the enterprise that’s in action. And that came through an ecosystem. That came through integration with SAP, and SAP and OpenText working together. And that’s our content platform that IBM is leveraging today. Big opportunity for a large enterprise like IBM to use other parts of our portfolio.

And then particularly as you scale down into the mid-marketplace, we have a huge opportunity to scale the breadth of our products into our existing customer base. And that requires a partner ecosystem to do that.

Robert Dutt: What unlocks some of that cross-selling? Because it’s a thing where a lot of organizations are really interested in getting their existing partners selling more across the base. Because of course, it only makes sense. You’ve already got the relationship. They already know part of your business. So it’s a lot easier than ramping up a new partner at large.

But talking to folks who have put that stake in the ground, it can be challenging to get partners out of their comfort zone, their lane that they’re in, and thinking across the lines of business that you may have.

Todd Cione: Yeah. Put simply, value. Honestly, what unlocks it is value for the client first. The client has to see value in leveraging other technology from OpenText, and then value for the partner ecosystem.

We think about value for the partner ecosystem in a few components, Robert. First of all, it’s a value proposition that the partner has to understand for the client, number one. Number two, there have to be financial incentives for them in place to be able to leverage more of OpenText’s portfolio.

Number three, they have to be enabled to do that, both technically enabled, but also commercially enabled to do that. And then number four, we think about kind of a governance process that includes systems and tools and escalations and process to be able to support and serve them.

So we’re making investments across those four areas to enable the partner ecosystem to be able to cross-sell for our clients.

Robert Dutt: You talked a little bit earlier about the One OpenText kind of viewpoint, and having that viewpoint, I’m curious, do you see that logic extending to the partner base? Do you need to have a more unified partner experience across the various businesses, or is the diversity of those businesses such that it makes sense for them to kind of have their own approach, their own look and feel when facing partners?

Todd Cione: I think it’s a little bit of both, in that there’s no reason that we need to have complexity in contracts and in programs and systems and tools depending upon partner type or specialization. No reason at all. So we’re working to simplify that and ways that partners engage with us and vice versa.

But also we acknowledge that specialization within the partner ecosystem is critical. And a cybersecurity deep expert partner is not the same as a partner that’s been working on vendor invoice management and backup and recovery with SAP’s ecosystem. Very different.

So they need different types of enablement. They need different types of programs. But again, there’s a common denominator of systems, tools, process that needs to be simplified, and we’re committed to doing that.

Robert Dutt: On that first part, the kind of driving out complexity and making things as simple and streamlined as possible, where’s that at? And what do you see as the next big projects, milestones, demons to slay, however you want to phrase that?

Todd Cione: It is a long list, Robert, of simplicity that we’re working on. So you can start with programs. We’re working to simplify and bring consistency to our program infrastructure across all of our partner categories.

You can then go to enablement, and there’s different philosophies in the marketplace around enabling a partner channel, particularly technical delivery-oriented enablement.

In the past, OpenText has looked at that as a pretty important revenue stream for us to charge partners for, and we’re looking at different ways and have already introduced a few new programs to invest in a partner ecosystem so that they can take advantage of technical delivery competency-oriented training without maybe some of the historical heavy expense.

A couple examples.

Robert Dutt: Okay. How do you see the mid-market and below opportunity for OpenText? Enterprise has obviously kind of been the sweet spot historically, but I’m curious, especially when you’ve got that base of MSPs in the cybersecurity space who are primarily, I would say, transacting in the SMB space. Is there an opportunity to take the broader message down to that group, especially as AI becomes more baked in and complexity in terms of operator requirements hopefully declines over time?

Todd Cione: Yeah, that’s a good question. And our bread and butter and what we know extremely well is the large enterprise market segment. So you think about a billion dollars of annual turnover of clients on their side and above. And that’s what we do extremely well. And that’s our legacy.

Now, the mid-market, sub-one billion, maybe above 1,000 employees, roughly segmented, represents a huge opportunity for OpenText. And the way that we’ve gone to market there in the past has not enabled us to scale.

The metaphor I use is we’ve had a couple rowboats in the Atlantic Ocean rowing around for coverage in our direct inside sales model. And of course, you get much more coverage through a partner ecosystem.

So we’ve radically pivoted the way that we are trying to serve clients and new logo targets in the mid-market through a partner ecosystem. We have a couple leaders that are leading the charge there, and it’s a radical pivot that we’re in the midst of.

Now SMB and below, as you referenced, that’s 100 percent partner ecosystem. We’ve made some investments in technology to engage with that ecosystem and allow them to resell through a portal. We’ve modernized, and we still have room to improve and are still working on it, but we’ve made some investments, important investments for that ecosystem.

Robert Dutt: If we were having this conversation again at OpenText World next year, what would you hope has materially changed for partners? What should partners be looking for, expecting from OpenText over the next 12 years, 12 months or so?

Todd Cione: Yeah, well, we do have a long-term view while we execute in the short term. And I think, look, if you and I, when you and I, I hope we have an opportunity to talk next year at this point, what will have happened?

Outcomes that I expect to have happened is, today, directionally, half of our revenue is influenced by partners. Influenced meaning either resold or heavily influenced in some way in the buying decision by a client. That will have increased quite significantly 12 months from now, based on the investments that we’re making, the model changes that we’ve already introduced.

Robert Dutt: All right. That’s a big one the partners ask about, so I appreciate that. Yeah, that’s kind of where I wanted to go. I appreciate your taking the time, and thank you.

Todd Cione: Thank you, Robert. Appreciate the time, and thanks for the advocacy for OpenText.

Robert Dutt: Thanks again to Todd Cione for taking the time to join us here at OpenText World, and thanks to you for listening.

A few things that stood out for me from that conversation.

First, I think the scale of the change OpenText is making in its mid-market strategy is significant. Todd was pretty candid that the company’s previous direct sales approach simply wasn’t giving it the coverage it needed, and that partners are going to play a much bigger role in reaching those customers going forward.

Second, there’s the opportunity around OpenText’s existing portfolio. With more than 120,000 customers globally and a broad collection of technologies, there’s clearly an opportunity to bring more of those capabilities into existing relationships. But as Todd acknowledges, making that work means getting the incentives, enablement, programs, and partner experience right.

And third, I think it’s interesting that OpenText is looking to simplify how partners work with the company while recognizing that a cybersecurity specialist and an enterprise information management partner don’t necessarily need the same things. Finding that balance is going to be important.

There are still questions about exactly how the company’s existing MSP-focused cybersecurity business fits into the larger picture, particularly whether those partners will have the opportunity to take more of OpenText’s portfolio to their customers. That’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on.

And Todd gave us a useful benchmark to watch. Today, roughly half of OpenText’s revenue is influenced by partners, and he expects that number to grow significantly over the next year. We’ll see how that develops.

We’ll have more conversations from OpenText World here on In The Channel, so make sure you’re subscribed wherever you get your podcasts. And if you find these discussions useful, a rating, review, or recommendation to a colleague is always appreciated.

Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.