A channel re-focus: All the partner programme updates of January 2024
The new year has come with several updates to vendor partner programmes, here’s a rundown of the main news
Several vendors have set off in 2024 by bringing partner programme updates, aiming to further improve their relationship with the channel.
This year more than ever, it seems specialisation and enablement are taking centre stage - particularly with the introduction of AI to many partner portfolios.
New partner programmes are encouraging or requiring partners to develop expertise and providing more value-added services.
Vendors are also putting forward more training, resources, and access to tools to help partners build skills and capabilities. These include demo environments, workshops, and certifications.
Simplifying processes, requirements, and pricing structures have also become a priority for vendors as a way of making collaboration with partners easier. Improving deal registration and quoting efficiencies are heavily featured.
The channel-focus seems to be strengthening once again in 2024, with vendors promoting a joint-go-to-market approach, enhancing incumbency protection and introducing measures to safeguard existing partner business.
Here are all the updates we have seen thus far:
Red Hat
Red Hat got the ball rolling in 2024 with an update to its partner programme to provide more simplicity, choice and flexibility.
As IDC predicted most vendors will take a customer-led ecosystem approach by 2025, so Red Hat set out to better align with partners to meet changing customer demands.
The revamped programme focuses on sustainable cloud growth, expanding partner skills, and integrated offerings.
Goals include building an open ecosystem, streamlining engagement, co-creating solutions, and accelerating partner growth.
The Partner Practice Accelerator Programme aims to enable, validate and incentivise partners working with commercial customers using Red Hat's Ansible and OpenShift platforms.
Red Hat is investing to make expertise and solutions more accessible to partners through an on-demand demo platform.
The updated model and programming will fully roll out in late 2024.
The Accelerator Program is invite-only for eligible global partners and the demo platform will be available in May 2024.
Red Hat partners seem excited about the programme's value in identifying experienced partners to deliver business and technology value with OpenShift and Ansible. It also aligns with their service excellence commitments and establishes them as experts in digital transformation using the vendor's platform.
Read on to learn about Veeam's improved deal registration processes.
A channel re-focus: All the partner programme updates of January 2024
The new year has come with several updates to vendor partner programmes, here’s a rundown of the main news
Veeam
Veeam followed with the announcement of updates to its Veeam ProPartner Network programme to help global partners benefit from growing Veeam adoption.
The updates aim to support partner profitability more predictably while safeguarding their Veeam business.
The changes were driven by direct partner feedback on how Veeam can better support them.
A key enhancement is around deal registration - now if a partner registers a deal, the original margin will be maintained even if special pricing is needed, providing improved predictability.
Previously the margin would drop off.
Enablement is also shifting to focus on business use cases vs just product features, with tracks like ransomware and cyber resilience.
Additionally, competencies and certifications across Veeam's portfolio are being refreshed so partners can differentiate themselves.
Microsoft has added three new partner benefits packages, find out what they are in the next page.
A channel re-focus: All the partner programme updates of January 2024
The new year has come with several updates to vendor partner programmes, here’s a rundown of the main news
Microsoft
Microsoft didn't quite update the whole partner programme, but instead rolled out three new partner benefits packages - Partner Launch Benefits, Partner Success Core Benefits, and Partner Success Expanded Benefits - aimed at solution providers at different growth stages.
The packages include access to Microsoft Sales Copilot, product licenses, Azure credits, and more.
They complement existing partner benefits and can also help partners work toward designations.
Launch Benefits focuses on product testing, Core Benefits has more robust tools/support, and Expanded Benefits aids larger scaling.
Key elements include Sales Copilot, product licenses, Azure credits, Visual Studio subscriptions, Dynamics 365 seats, technical consultation, and Signature Cloud Support incidents.
An update to Signature Cloud Support means incidents will now be limited to 50 per partner annually starting in July.
Additionally, more partners are now allowed to sell Copilot for Microsoft 365 in the Cloud Solution Provider programme without a 300-seat minimum.
The packages support partners in adopting AI offerings like Copilot.
Microsoft advises looking at AI resources like the transformation playbook. Demonstrable 12-month ROI use cases can help in pitching Copilot to customers.
The goal is providing relevant partner benefits to support growth and customer success.
There's a whole new tier in the 8x8 partner programme - what benefits does that bring?
A channel re-focus: All the partner programme updates of January 2024
The new year has come with several updates to vendor partner programmes, here’s a rundown of the main news
8x8
Cloud communications platform provider 8x8 launched in January a new SellWith8 tier in its partner ecosystem to help technology partners solve customer business use cases.
The tier enables partners to sell directly with 8x8, increase go-to-market efforts, improve integration depth, and jointly address customer pain points.
Partners gain direct access to 8x8's product team for roadmap alignment, joint go-to-market plans, and are carefully selected for relevant use cases, capabilities and security.
8x8 said it would focus on three criteria for selecting partners: relevance to the customer profile for mass adoption, significant joint commitment for extensive collaboration, and being non-competitive to avoid overlap.
SellWith8 partners will benefit from expanded marketing to raise awareness and drive leads, like joint case studies, webinars, and more.
Initial member Awaken Intelligence noted the ecosystem's early success in meeting customer needs, allowing expanded use cases and attracting new customers.
The tier provides adaptability, flexibility and deeper, frictionless integrations for better user experiences.
It enables a more vibrant, exclusive ecosystem focused on integration depth versus breadth alone.
The goal is generating value for partners and customers. 8x8 has undergone recent leadership changes, appointing a new CEO, CFO and CRO in 2023 to continue evolving the partner programme.
While Check Point has launched an entirely new partner programme to accelerate growth...
A channel re-focus: All the partner programme updates of January 2024
The new year has come with several updates to vendor partner programmes, here’s a rundown of the main news
Check Point
Check Point launched an entirely new partner programme to strengthen partner capabilities and accelerate growth.
The programme aims to maximise joint opportunities by boosting deal closure rates to drive business growth and streamlining quoting for quicker customer response.
It encourages partners to develop specialised expertise to add value to services and provides easier access to essential tools and resources to improve efficiency.
The programme aligns with Check Point's end-to-end, AI-powered security platform to enable effective cross-sell and upsell of advanced solutions across SASE, cloud, SD-WAN and more.
A consolidated tiering model increases participation at all levels with status based on business opportunity size.
Like in the case of Veeam, Check Points has brough an enhanced deal registration and customer-focused pricing to improve the deal process.
Additional training and certification was also introduced as well as discounts of up to 20 per cent for specialization.
Resources like CheckMates collaboration forums, demo licensing, sales tools, and early access to innovations are included.
Check Point engaged partners early for feedback and benchmarked competitive programmes for best practices.
Partners have welcomed complimentary training, MSSP offerings, early availability, improved tiers and transparency.