Amy Knox’s journey: from licensing expertise to long-term success

Amy Knox has had a long climb up the ICT ladder – and she has the expertise and insight to show for it. With 17 years under her belt, first at rhipe and now at Crayon New Zealand, she’s become a pivotal figure in the company: a mentor and sales leader with plenty of battle-tested negotiation experiences.

Amy credits much of her longevity in the field to long-standing working relationships. “Most of mine have been with me for 14 years,” she explains. “They’re like colleague-friends; I would feel terrible if I left them.”

This Women’s Month, we’re highlighting Amy’s journey (just one of many) to show how women in tech can powerfully #AccelerateAction by proactively ‘leaning in’ to the leadership roles they’re called to take up.

Amy’s career beginnings and meteoric growth

As employee #17 at Newlease, Amy got in on the ground floor of a company that championed cloud adoption long before it was cool. Newlease was founded in 2003 to promote subscription-based cloud services through Microsoft’s Service Provider License Agreements (SPLA).

Before long, the company had rebranded to rhipe, and achieved meteoric growth – Amy’s responsibilities evolved to keep up. Not that it was smooth sailing all the way; Amy has faced challenges related to her field’s technical complexity, specifically the constant need to adapt to industry changes. Her tenacity and thirst for upskilling, though, have seen her through.

“My special interest area is Software Asset Management – compliance – and that changes all the time,” Amy explains. “You have to stay current with new licensing terms and conditions, because they change so often. I like that. I especially like it when someone asks me a question and I don’t know the answer to, and I have to go and find out!”

Negotiating surprisingly successful outcomes

In her role as Channel Sales Lead at Crayon NZ, Amy turns her decades of vendor licensing expertise into real-world success for partners. From high-stakes negotiations to hands-on guidance through evolving programs, Amy’s strategic approach helps businesses navigate licensing challenges and unlock major financial wins.

Amy often advocates for managed service provider (MSP) partners and customers facing significant non-compliance issues. Her deep understanding of vendor licensing policies and programs allows her to effectively negotiate surprising outcomes in her clients’ favour.

Early in her career, she helped a U.S.-based vendor beat a ~$400 million penalty for failing to follow licensing procedures. Amy eventually talked the charge down to $28 million – a reduction of nearly 94%.

“We call it the ‘dance’,” Amy explains. “They can’t walk away without some consequences for non-compliance… so we lead the client through a process to get to a number that they’re happy with.”

Amy is also Crayon’s resident expert at steering partners through a dynamic licensing environment. For instance, she guided Crayon’s partners through Broadcom’s new VMware Advantage Program, advising partners on the program’s complex and unfamiliar requirements, and even visiting each partner and drawing scenarios for each partner.

Her work helped Crayon improve its standing as a key enabler of VMware solutions in New Zealand; Crayon’s NZ-based VMware sales later achieved a 2023-to-2024 year-on-year growth of 477%.

Leader and mentor

Beyond Crayon partners, other stakeholders also gain from Amy’s keen practice of mentorship and knowledge-sharing.

MSPs benefit from Amy’s guidance on navigating audits effectively, minimising financial exposure, and restructuring licensing agreements. Partners profit from her regular knowledge-sharing sessions that show how to engage vendors in compliance discussions.

And Crayon’s own sales team members capitalise on Amy’s expertise in the Microsoft SPLA (Service Provider License Agreement) program. One key resource she developed, called “the SPLA Bible”, helps colleagues and Crayon’s partners confidently navigate and maximise opportunities within vendor programs, such as Azure Migration & Modernisation funding.

Amy also pioneered a 12-week onboarding program to overcome common challenges faced by new hires. Her program took a methodical approach that was so successful, Crayon’s HR department eventually adopted it for company-wide use.

Amy’s influence and legacy

In the near future, Amy plans to advance her leadership in the ICT industry, particularly in licensing compliance, cloud adoption, cybersecurity, and AI strategy for managed service providers.

With the launch of New Zealand’s first Microsoft data centre in December, Amy believes Crayon’s partners have an opening to leverage AI’s efficiencies in their business. “There’s a lot of opportunities with AI and the data centre launch,” Amy explains. “I need to understand the dynamics of what these mean to our service providers, and how they can monetise that.”

Amy’s experience in Crayon embodies what it means to drive meaningful change, not just for herself and her company, but also for the broader industry and the next generation of leaders. Her career is a powerful example of how dedication, expertise, and proactive mentorship can create a lasting legacy of growth and innovation.