An Inside Look at Sigma’s EMEA Partner Enablement Tour
I just returned from the Sigma’s EMEA Enablement tour, and the energy and commitment from the Sigma Computing team toward the European market were infectious. As a partner in EMEA, it's thrilling to see this level of investment in local expertise and support. Sigma is committed to the EMEA market and to building a robust, customer-focused regional presence, and we at Brooklyn Data are excited that our global footprint puts us in the perfect position to support this expansion.
Building the Sigma community
While it’s essential to have partners on the ground that have the skills to lead Sigma implementations for customers, the EMEA enablement tour also served a greater purpose: to build the Sigma community in the region. At Brooklyn Data, we have a long history of community-building, we are committed to connecting practitioners of the modern data stack, and we even regularly organise the New York dbt meetup.
At this Sigma event, it was great to meet and share perspectives with partners from all over Europe, including France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, and Romania, discussing everything from market trends to advanced implementation strategies. Sigma shared partner-built solutions, and we were excited to see our embedded app Brooks Grocery featured as their reference for embedding solutions.
We discussed critical questions for partners like: How do we bring cutting-edge solutions to clients? How do we ensure we keep up with all the rapid innovation Sigma is bringing? These discussions highlighted how important a community is: it's the only way to effectively translate Sigma's technology into tangible business value across diverse European cultures and regulatory landscapes. The collaboration and knowledge-sharing at the event proved that the future of Sigma in EMEA will be driven by this strong, connected partner ecosystem.
A Strategic Foundation in EMEA Leadership
The cornerstone of Sigma's expansion in EMEA was the strategic leadership now in place. The initial phase focused on the UK, with the opening of a new office in London. This was solidified by the hire of Stuart Simmons as Vice President of Sigma EMEA, a leader tasked with scaling the company across Europe. Simmons has stated his intent to build out the UK operations first and then “scale across EMEA as our customers and Sigma demands dictate."
This Fall’s Enablement tour was evidence that the scaling across EMEA has started. Sigma is starting to hire for high-level positions like SI Partner Solutions Senior Principal - EMEA and Sales Enablement Partner - EMEA, it's evident that the pipeline for expansion is already being primed. Last week they announced they are making their first hires in Germany and France. The goal is to build out a team capable of delivering client solutions that democratise data and bring cutting-edge self-service solutions to European customers.
Compliance and Service Built for European Customers
For European organizations, value is defined not just by product capability, but by data sovereignty and compliance. Sigma has proven its commitment here by addressing one of the most critical concerns: data residency. In 2023, they launched a GDPR-compliant deployment in AWS Europe, located in Frankfurt, Germany. This strategic infrastructure move provides European customers with greater control and enhanced compliance support over where their data resides, a non-negotiable requirement for many businesses, particularly in Germany and across the EU.
Furthermore, recognizing the challenges of supporting a global customer base from their US headquarters, Sigma has significantly improved regional support. They are extending their customer support live chat operation hours to 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. PT, to ensure that customers in key time zones across EMEA receive rapid, high-quality assistance. (I use this feature all the time, and I cannot overstate how amazing the Sigma support team is!) This level of dedication was highlighted in the announcement of Sigma winning the 2024 Snowflake AI Data Cloud Product Business Intelligence Partner of the Year award (for the second time in a row), where the focus on better serving EMEA customers was a key factor.
The Value Proposition: Democratizing Data in Real-Time
Ultimately, this expansion is about bringing a superior product closer to the customer. Sigma's core value is its ability to democratize data.
Sigma’s Unified Intelligence platform enables business users across the continent to perform instant, in-depth analysis on massive data sets using a familiar spreadsheet-like interface. This power, combined with features like real-time analytics and the unique write-back capability, is redefining how European businesses unlock value from their modern data warehouses. This investment in a local presence and infrastructure ensures that more European companies can leverage Sigma to turn complex data into a launchpad for actionable insights, making better, faster decisions.
With all these pieces in place, Sigma is uniquely positioned to scale their impact to more European businesses. The buzz from the EMEA enablement tour shows the community is ready: partners, customers, and Sigma; we are ready to accelerate data democratization across the continent and drive a new wave of data-driven innovation.