Ecosystems are important for technology service providers, because while these companies build business ecosystems with contracts, the customer ecosystem rises from a shared community. These days, growing and managing such a community is a vital part of company outreach. Veritas Technologies LLC’s Veritas Open eXchange, or VOX, is one example of a growing user ecosystem.

“It is our customer community where our customers, partners and employees are sharing knowledge and information,” said Tyler Welch (pictured, right), director of digital marketing at Veritas Technologies LLC.

Welch and his colleague, Justine Velcich (pictured, left), VOX community and advocacy programs manager at Veritas Technologies, spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestream studio, during the Veritas Vision conference in Las Vegas. They discussed the VOX community program and how it helps customers seek answers, share insights and make informed decisions. (* Disclosure below.)

Giving a voice to a growing user community

In Latin, “vox” means voice, and Veritas has created the VOX initiative to give a voice to its community, according to Welch and Velcich. The company wants people to come and share their knowledge in an open environment. And because ecosystems and customer concerns drive sales, this is vital to the company’s success.

“If you think about digital transformation, to transform means you’re going from one somewhere to another location,” Welch said. In this case, customers sharing experiences about their own digital journeys helps other businesses new to the path. The cloud is complex, but a helpful community can make it easier to navigate, Welch added.

Within the VOX community, some are bigger players than others. “The VOX VIP program […] is an award program rewarding our super users, our top users in the community who are making outstanding contributions,” Velcich said. It’s a recognition program to thank those people who log in every day, produce content and help out the community.

The VOX community is a broad slice of the tech world. Storage admins, information technology people, data center managers and even Veritas executives share their perspectives in the community. “They are doing everything from creating blog posts to jumping in and answering troubleshooting questions. Discussions are probably one of our busiest areas,” Velcich said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Veritas Vision 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Veritas Vision 2017. Neither Veritas Technologies LLC nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE