When it comes to integration solutions and B2B technology, delivering a great product is only part of the equation. True success comes when customers achieve their desired outcomes. That’s where Customer Success Managers (CSMs) come in.
At Axway, CSMs are strategic partners who help customers unlock the full potential of their solutions. We spoke with CSMs from around the globe to give you a closer look at the people guiding that journey: what they do, what they love, and how they collaborate across Axway’s broader success engine — including Professional Services and Support — to drive real results.
What does a Customer Success Manager (CSM) do, exactly?
A CSM is more than a point of contact — they’re a strategic partner, a trusted advisor, and a relentless advocate for the customer. From onboarding to renewal (and beyond), CSMs guide customers through every phase of their journey, ensuring they extract maximum value from the solutions they’ve invested in.
As Ankit Gulia, Principal CSM in Sydney, Australia, puts it: “We sit at the intersection of technology, business outcomes, and customer relationships, helping organizations bridge the gap between what the product can do and the business value it can deliver.”
At Axway, CSMs are embedded in the customer lifecycle from the moment a deal is signed. Ankit describes how a typical CSM relationship evolves:
- “Early on, it’s about guidance and enablement: making sure the deployment goes smoothly, use cases run as expected, and teams feel confident using the platform.
- As things stabilize, we move into adoption acceleration, helping customers use more capabilities, follow best practices, and automate what used to be manual.
- Long-term, we become trusted advisors: shaping their integration roadmaps, discussing cloud transformation strategies, and helping them plan for the future.”
Matt Vadala, Principal Customer Success Manager based in New York City, calls it a journey “from start to forever.” He works hand-in-hand with technical teams, business stakeholders, and internal Axway experts to ensure smooth onboarding, drive adoption, and proactively identify opportunities for growth.
A day in the life of a CSM
No two days are alike, which is precisely what makes the role so dynamic. “There is never a boring day as a CSM!” says Cymantia Tomlinson, Principal CSM based in Philadelphia, U.S.A.
Customer Success Managers juggle a wide range of responsibilities, including:
- Leading onboarding and enablement sessions
- Monitoring adoption and customer health
- Managing escalations and coordinating with Support
- Assisting with compliance or security surveys
- Facilitating Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs)
- Advocating for customer needs internally
- Identifying expansion opportunities
Ankit Gulia learned one important lesson early on:
“I once worked with a financial services organization where the IT head said, ‘Don’t just show us what the product can do; show us how others like us are using it successfully.’
Now, I always bring real customer success stories and reference architectures into the discussion. It helps customers see what’s possible, beyond the basics, and sparks ideas for automation, security, and modernization they hadn’t considered before.”
One recent interaction that stands out for Cymantia was helping a smaller organization overcome a recurring technical challenge. During a regular check-in, she mentioned an upcoming Axway User Group focused on AS2 and Certificate Exchange Messaging (CEM) — a topic the customer had been struggling with for months.
She arranged a one-on-one session with a product expert in addition to the user group and made sure the customer had access to the right resources. The impact was immediate: not only did the customer gain clarity, but they also saw a path to saving hours of manual work.
“Working to solve problems is really what I love best about my job,” Cymantia says.
Whether it’s helping a small pharmacy navigate certificate renewals or supporting a global enterprise through a complex migration, CSMs are there to make sure customers are supported, heard, and empowered.
Supporting more seamless platform migrations
Migrating from legacy systems or competitor platforms is rarely simple, especially when those systems are deeply embedded in critical business processes like financial data exchange or supply chain operations. Here too, Axway’s Customer Success Managers play a central role – making these transitions smoother, faster, and more secure.
As Barbara Chamorro, Principal CSM in France, explains,
“These migration projects can take time; it is not simple to have a global view of what’s happening, the orchestration of the different teams internally. We’re in the middle of these conversations — gathering insights, facilitating deployment, and making sure the customer’s voice shapes the solution.”
Axway CSMs help orchestrate internal teams, gather customer feedback, and surface feature needs to Product Management, keeping the customer informed and supported. Their involvement can significantly reduce deployment time and cost, while ensuring the migration delivers real business value.
Ankit shares another example where he assisted a global automotive company in migrating from their legacy MFT platform (IBM Sterling) to Axway SecureTransport and Transfer CFT.
“The switch wasn’t just about features: their old platform had limited automation, no real-time monitoring, and costly license constraints. They wanted a solution that could support cloud-native deployments,” Ankit explains.
During the migration, he helped coordinate weekly technical war rooms, ran POCs, and brought in Axway experts to design a phased cutover approach to make the migration a success.
Learn more about how Axway has designed a migration journey that’s structured, predictable, and deeply collaborative: What moving to Axway MFT Really Looks Like
What CSMs love about their role
For many CSMs, the most rewarding part of the job is building long-term relationships and seeing the tangible impact of their work.
“The best moment for me is when a customer said, ‘Thanks for bringing the transparency that we need. You listened to our main need,’” shares Barbara.
Others, like Matt Vadala in the U.S., find fulfillment in helping customers grow – acting as a bridge between the customer and the broader Axway organization. He recalls supporting a major U.S. insurer through a complex cloud migration after they transitioned from IBM.
By providing consistent presence and advocacy, he helped the customer stabilize their operations and uncover new ways to leverage Axway’s MFT services more effectively — aligning the solution more closely with their evolving business needs.
“Being a conduit through an entire organization is a key to making me a trusted advisor for my customers,” adds Matt.
A common misconception about CSMs?
“We’ve sometimes been mistakenly viewed as Customer Support Managers or Sales Support,” says Matt Vadala. “Instead, we both enhance the value of a customer’s investment through joint success planning with our customers — bringing executive-level visibility of their ROI.
We help solidify Axway as ‘one voice’ by being an internal advocate for our customers, sharing our customer’s thoughts and perspectives on what’s going right and what could use improvement in how we operate.”
Lance Howk, Principal CSM based in Scottsdale, Arizona, adds that he quickly learned customers hate only hearing from vendors at renewal; “Proactive check-ins build trust,” he notes. Case in point: he provided critical support during a recent migration by coordinating across teams, ensuring zero disruption of their services.
Customer success fits into a larger story of support at every level
At Axway, Customer Success is not a siloed function — it’s a collaborative force that joins with Professional Services and Support to deliver the full potential of our solutions.
As Marc Souterene, VP of Axway’s Professional Services Organization, put it: “When customers choose a solution, they’re not just buying software. They’re investing in outcomes.”
And support — in the broadest sense of the term — can make or break your data exchange strategy, adds Michael Koo, Axway VP of Global Technical Support.
This integrated approach ensures customers receive consistent, strategic guidance throughout their journey. Luis Franco, Director of Pre Sales, Services, and Support, for Axway in Latin America, describes how CSMs play a key role in bridging the gap between the customer’s strategic objectives and technical delivery:
“While Pre-Sales focuses on designing the right solution, and Services and Support ensure successful deployment and stability, CSMs are the ones ensuring that everything we do translates into measurable business value for the customer.
This type of collaboration—where CSMs, PSO, and Support work together around a common customer goal—is what truly drives long-term outcomes and retention in our region,” concludes Luis.
Lance Howk explains:
“We’re strategic partners, not just support. I helped a healthcare customer migrate with minimal downtime, saving costs, and building trust.”
CSMs also play a critical role in uncovering hidden value. For example, Ankit Gulia describes how he helped a customer replace a complex reporting setup with Axway Sentinel, giving them real-time visibility and audit readiness — a game-changer for their compliance team.
Looking ahead: the future of customer success
Across the board, Axway CSMs we interviewed are excited about the potential of AI and data-driven insights to make their work even more impactful. “AI will help us anticipate risks, streamline collaboration, and unlock value faster — all with less manual effort,” says Ankit.
Cymantia adds that she’s also excited about “Customer Success growing and gaining the attention it deserves.”
Customer success at Axway is more than a role — it’s a mindset. Whether it’s guiding a customer through a migration, surfacing new value, or simply being a trusted voice in the room, our CSMs are committed to helping customers succeed; not just with the product, but in their business.
Watch our on-demand webinar “Beyond the software: Why a trusted support partner is key to success”