NetApp's Flinders on how impending new programme will affect partner tiers

Jenni Flinders says NetApp is shifting away from specialisations to solution competencies

NetApp' SVP of the worldwide partner group has said switching its new partner programme to focus on solution competency and services validation is a "big" change for the vendor's channel strategy.

Jenni Flinders says NetApp is shifting away from specialisations in its new PartnerSphere programme is geared towards trying to attract what it calls "high quality customer outcomes".

"That's going to be a big change for us," she said.

"Partners will over the next couple of months be able to see how they can transition from the specialisations over to the solution competencies," Flinders told CRN.

"We are going to complement the solution competencies with services certification, where partners can lead with services, which is going to be a crucial part of our focus going forward within the programme."

What can partners expect?

The new cloud-focused and services-led NetApp Partner Sphere will also consolidates its current multiple programmes into one that includes all partner types, business models and routes to market.

Flinders said partners can expect a simplified framework as well as NetApp expanding its training tools and support.

"It gives us more of an opportunity to broaden our engagement with our partners from the traditional sort of on premises storage, now offering all these hybrid cloud solutions and taking a much deeper approach into data, not only from a protection standpoint, but the analytics side," she said.

As part of the new programme, there is a new tiering system with criteria that partners can follow across objective thresholds.

The tiers range from ‘Approved' and ‘Preferred' to ‘Prestige', and ‘Prestige Plus'.

NetApp said an 'Approved' status would be where newer developing partners would come in the door, while a 'Preferred' status would include more experienced partners that are more likely have cloud focused solutions or services.

Meanwhile, the business says 'Prestige' status would include more strategic partners that are "very committed and invested" with integrated multi cloud or multi vendor cloud solutions and services.

And it claims 'Prestige Plus' status would be no more than 15 "really strategic partners".

"The tiering system is going to be an additional value add for our partners," Flinders added.

"If you look at progressing through the tiers, we want to maximise the partner return on investment there as well."

NetApp Partner Sphere will launch during the vendor's fiscal year 2024 as an evolved version of its Unified Partner Programme.