An Impactful Partner Program Unleashes Growth and Success

A partner programme can significantly affect a company's operations by facilitating the entry into new markets, boosting sales, and enhancing the general customer experience. Partner programmes build the greatest network of partners in a variety of industries, including physical security, cyber security, cloud computing, IT operations, and risk management. This increases the value of current infrastructure investments and shortens the time to value. Corporate organisations understand how crucial partner programmes are to assisting partners in expanding their operations and prospering in the IT sector. These programmes give partners access to important tools, knowledge, and assistance that are vital to their success.

Programmes for channel partners also act as tools for inspiring and involving partners, enhancing the value for customers. As the cloud and data centre markets gain popularity, impactful partner initiatives launched by hyperscalers and top cloud computing platforms provide companies with the tools and assistance they need to flourish in the cloud. In order to scale a partner programme effectively, it is also essential to comprehend regional similarities and variations. A well-designed partner programme can boost brand recognition by partnering with trusted brands and aiding businesses in achieving their objectives. On this backdrop, let’s hear from the corporate behemoths.

Western Digital fosters a collaborative ecosystem with its Partner Program  

Importance of the Partner Program  
At Western Digital, our channel partners, are strategic assets to us. They serve as a cornerstone of our business strategy, enabling us to expand our reach, strengthen our market presence, and drive mutual growth with our valued partners. Through this program, we foster a collaborative ecosystem where we provide our partners with the necessary tools, resources, and support to effectively promote and sell our cutting-edge solutions. By leveraging their expertise and market knowledge, we can tap into new customer segments, enhance customer experiences, and deliver innovative storage solutions that cater to evolving market demands. The Partner program truly embodies our commitment to mutual success and cements our position as a trusted leader in the storage industry. 

Channel Contribution 
By collaborating with our valued channel partners, we aim to expand our market reach, enhance customer engagement, and drive mutual growth. Through our joint efforts, we expect to deliver innovative storage solutions and superior customer experiences, cementing our position as a trusted leader in the industry. 

Expectations from Partner Program 
Through our channel program, we harness the marketing expertise and expansive network of our channel partners. By offering co-marketing funds, marketing materials, and campaign assistance, we empower our partners to effectively promote our products to their existing customers and target markets. This collaborative approach not only helps us reduce marketing expenses but also extends the visibility of our brand. 

Advantages of Channel Programme  
Our channel program includes comprehensive training and certification programs for our partners, ensuring that they are equipped to provide high-quality customer support. By empowering our partners to handle technical queries, troubleshooting, and post-sales support, we can reduce the burden on our customer support teams. This approach not only saves costs but also improves response times and customer satisfaction. 

Khalid Wani  
Senior Director - Sales, India, Western Digital 

Dell Technologies' partner program providing simplicity, predictability, and profitability for partners 

Importance of the Partner Program  
Channel partners are integral to Dell Technologies’ overall success to deliver excellent customer experiences. They have always been the driving force behind Dell Technologies’ business growth, and we are committed to strengthening this ecosystem, with renewed focus and ample growth opportunities. 

A good partner program is as important for a partner as for a company. It helps them define profitability, training, enablement options for their team, access to special benefits, demo units and a lot more. By leveraging the partner program effectively, partners can grow their revenues, margins and capabilities of their talent pool and, in turn improve relationship with their customers. For Dell Technologies, one of the key benefits of a partner program is to be able to extend its network and improve its reach within the target segments. These results in increased revenue, enhanced product portfolio and creates a customer feedback loop with an additional connection to customers. Partner program also creates significant growth in sales and distribution of a product or a service. 

Expectations from Partner Program 
The Channel ecosystem has played a pivotal role in expanding our footprint. We aim to grow this further by enhancing partner experience levels and building services led go-to-market strategies, aided by new incentives and distribution support. 

We launched our 2023 Partner Program in February with a renewed focus - Together, We Stop at Nothing. This celebrates the sixth anniversary of the program and its continued success with the partner community. We are building upon a position of partner strength. In Q3 of 2022, partners delivered approximately 50% of our overall net revenue, accelerated double digit storage growth, and helped us secure #1 position in the majority of the industry’s critical IT infrastructure categories. Dell is focused on fulfilling its customers' evolving needs as well as their broader digital transformation ambitions with new innovations and solutions. 

Advantages of Channel Programme  
Dell Technologies’ partner program has been rated as one of the best in the industry. With the partner feedback process we have in place, we have found that even our partners view our program as simple, predicable and profitable. We are focused on keeping our program structure and engagement with partners consistent while we continue to invest in key focus areas. We design our rules of engagement (ROE) around deal registration and to govern our internal sales team behaviour in a way that promotes customer choice while protecting the integrity of our partner program principles. We make sure that partners are engaged and understand all the capabilities that we have. We listen to our partner’s feedback, and we will continue to review our operational model to ensure we’re optimizing and simplifying our engagement with partners. 

Anil Sethi  
Vice President & General Manager, Channels- India, Dell Technologies

Check Point committed to empower India's cybersecurity landscape through its growth-oriented program 

Importance of the Partner Program  
At Check Point Software, we firmly believe that the partner ecosystem is critical to scaling our business and view our partners in India as an extension of our team. Check Point is a 100% channel-led organization, and sells all of our solutions and services through our global network of partners, and as such, we are constantly expanding our partner community to support customers in various sectors in need of prevention-first security. 

Our Partner Program was crafted to ensure it should be simple, easy to adopt, transparent, and focused on a ‘win-win’ partnership. We have been focusing on delivering the best growth opportunities and rewards in the industry to help our partners be more successful and profitable. This Partner Growth Program was developed in close consultation with Check Point partners worldwide, with the program giving access to expert support and resources to speed up customer sales cycles. 

Check Point has literally doubled down its investment in India, from a channel coverage and channel development perspective. Our partner team size has doubled and so have our investments in our joint GTM strategy with our partners. Check Point facilitates COOP funds as well as Market Development funds to its partners, which can be utilized through various vehicles aimed at demand generation. This year, we intend to invest 35% more as compared to the last year. 

Expectations from Partner Program 
For close to 30 years, enterprises have relied on Check Point industry-leading solutions to protect their brand, assets, and data from cyberattacks, enabling them to safely and productively accelerate their businesses. With the largest security technology portfolio in the industry, Check Point Software’s single-architecture, integrated, intelligence-driven solutions protect customers from the data center to the cloud and all points in between. This gives customers the freedom to create, grow and transform their businesses securely by protecting them against current and potential attacks across all their networks, virtual, cloud, remote office, and mobile environments. In 2023, we expect Check Point India to have one of the largest & most diverse partner ecosystems across the country that will help us serve our customers better across all regions & segments. 

Advantages of Channel Programme  
Our current Partner Program is centered on activity-based tier criteria that reward partners for taking actions that strengthen their bond with customers. To ensure consistent growth of our partners, Check Point has announced four major initiatives in its global Check Point Partner Growth Program. The new initiatives are designed to increase partners’ revenues and profitability throughout the entire sales cycle and include extra discounts for deal registration and new technology sales, a new professional services certification program, pre-packaged lead generation campaigns, and the Enhanced ‘White Space’ program.   

Manish Alshi  
Head of Channels and Growth Technologies - India & SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies 
 

The R&M Qualified Partner Program Empowering Success in the IT Infrastructure Industry  

Importance of the Partner Program  
The R&M Qualified Partner Program (QPP) is meticulously designed to offer exclusive advantages for installers, planners and users of R&M product and solution range. With this Qualified Partner Program, R&M supports and encourages professionals in network technology and structured cabling by which they will increase their expertise and the quality of their projects. The R&M Partner Program establishes specific criteria and standards that partners must meet to qualify. This ensures that partners possess the requisite skills, expertise, and resources to deliver solutions and services of the highest quality. The R&M Qualified Partner Program is a valuable resource for partners seeking success in the IT infrastructure industry. The program offers a wide range of benefits, including comprehensive training and certification, robust support services, a steadfast commitment to quality, and a strong focus on innovation. By participating in this program, partners position themselves favourably in the competitive realm of IT infrastructure. 

Channel Contribution 
Collaboration and innovation are closely intertwined, and for R&M feedback from partners plays a pivotal role in the development and enhancement of innovative products and solutions. R&M typically establishes various channels through which partners can provide suggestions. These channels may include online feedback forms, dedicated email addresses, and direct communication with R&M representatives. 

The company conducts periodic surveys to get input from partners. R&M organize partner meetings or events where partners have the opportunity to share their view directly with R&M representatives. Account managers or relationship managers are assigned to partner accounts. These individuals serve as points of contact for partners and can proactively seek feedback during regular interactions.  

Advantages of Channel Programme  
R&M's approach towards designing a fair and transparent partnership model involves clear guidelines, objective evaluation processes, defined benefits, open communication, collaborative decision-making, and performance evaluation mechanisms. These steps aim to create an environment where partners can thrive, and understand their role, and the expectations while ensuring equitable treatment and opportunities for success.  The company also sets objective qualification criteria for partners to ensure a fair and consistent evaluation process. These criteria may include factors such as expertise, skills, experience, resources, and business capabilities. R&M clearly defines the benefits offered to partners within the partnership model. These benefits consist of training and certification opportunities, marketing support, technical assistance, access to resources, and co-marketing initiatives.  

Shajan George 
Sr. Director Sales - Private Network, R&M

Tenable aiding its technology partners by eliminating barriers 

Importance of the Partner Program  
Tenable is a channel-first company and our partners are an extension of our business in India and globally. Channel partners play a pivotal role in our business growth by reducing time-to-market, facilitating access to new competitive markets, establishing direct sales channels, and providing training. Their support in growing our business is important to us, especially amidst economic uncertainty across the world. 
In a challenging macroeconomic environment, we rely on our channel partners to be more strategic. Our partners have a real opportunity to engage with customers and act as trusted advisors to help them translate raw security intelligence into actionable, risk-based, metrics-driven cybersecurity programs. Channel partners play an important role in framing cybersecurity solutions within the context of specific business needs, which is necessary for customers who want to reduce cyber risk. 

Channel Contribution 
Tenable is a 100% channel-driven business, which is why we are committed to ensuring our partners have the right resources to work with. Our certification program for channel partners helps MSSPs and resellers with a wide range of sales and technical training content. These come in easy-to-understand educational videos that help our partners design and deploy effective risk-based exposure management solutions. 

Expectations from Partner Program 
Tenable is now focused on exposure management and with the help of our channel partners we aim to help organisations gain a complete view of their attack surface, identify and mitigate vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, fix identity access management issues, enable them to plug security gaps in the cloud or web apps, identify attack pathways and secure internet-facing assets - all in a unified space. With our channel partners, our goal is to help organisations eliminate data silos. By harnessing the power of extensive security-related intelligence on our platform and the data they generate, Tenable aims to help organisations see through the lens of an attacker, prioritise and eliminate risks and reduce overall cyber exposure. 

Advantages of Channel Programme 
Tenable's Technology Ecosystem Program offers a range of benefits to empower partners in their go-to-market strategies. These include social media support, collaborative webinar opportunities, chances to contribute thought leadership blogs, logo listing on the Tenable Technology Partner site, access to the Tenable Assure referral program, and more. Moreover, Tenable has always provided its technology partners with complimentary access to its APIs, removing any financial constraints or complications. Additionally, Tenable equips partners with developer quick-start guides, development tools, and support, along with free developer access. They also provide a well-defined validation process, enabling engineering teams to efficiently and effectively create integrations that meet the demands of the market. 

Kartik Shahani  
Country Manager Tenable India 

Kaspersky Fostering Success through its Partner Program 

Importance of the Partner Program  
Kaspersky has unveiled a revamped Kaspersky United Partner Program that is designed to bring a unique differentiation for the brand by providing a range of benefits to its partners, including: 
1. Access to Kaspersky's world-class security solutions: Partners have access to Kaspersky's range of cybersecurity solutions, including endpoint protection, threat intelligence, and security management. 
2. Training and certification: Kaspersky provides training and certification programs to its partners, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to sell and support its products effectively. 
3. Sales and marketing support: Kaspersky offers its partners a range of sales and marketing support, including co-marketing initiatives, financial rebate programs and access to a dedicated partner portal. 
4. Competitive margins: Kaspersky offers its partners competitive margins and discounts, ensuring they can offer its products at an attractive price. 
5. Technical support: Kaspersky provides technical support to its partners, ensuring their capability to quickly and effectively resolve any issues their customers may encounter. 

Advantages of Channel Programme  
Kaspersky's partnership allows partner to engage with the company in a mutually beneficial way by providing clear expectations, consistent benefits, and transparent metrics. This allows Kaspersky to maintain a solid and collaborative relationship with its partners, helping to drive the success of both parties. 

Kaspersky has taken several key steps to design a fair and transparent partnership model, including: 
1. Clearly defined partner requirements: Kaspersky has defined partner requirements, which outline the criteria that partners must meet to be eligible for the program. These requirements are transparent and easy to understand, ensuring that partners know the expectations from the outset. 
2. Consistent partner benefits: Kaspersky offers consistent partner benefits, such as access to training and certification programs, sales and marketing support, and technical assistance.  
3. Competitive margins and pricing: Kaspersky offers competitive margins and pricing to its partners, ensuring they can offer its products at an attractive price point. It helps to ensure that partners can generate revenue from selling Kaspersky's products and compete effectively in the marketplace. 
4. Regular partner communication: Kaspersky maintains regular contact with its partners, providing them with updates on the company's products, services, and partner programs.  
5. Transparent program performance metrics: Kaspersky provides partners with transparent program performance metrics, which allow them to track their progress and performance within the program.

Ernest Chai  
Head of Channel for Asia Pacific, Kaspersky 

Unlocking Success through Pure Storage’s Comprehensive Partner Program 

Importance of the Partner Program  
We believe that providing a world class partner program is critical because with our partners’ help and our wide range of expertise, we can assist our customers in meeting their business and technology needs in the easiest way possible. We also regularly update our partner program to ensure we’re delivering continuous improvements, aligning with partner feedback, customer needs, and our company strategy, to help partners drive faster, smarter, and more innovative business. With the partners that we have signed up with and with the new age partners who want to sign up with us, we believe that the success of our customers and partners is also our success. By partnering with leading hardware, software, and multi-cloud vendors, we ensure fast and reliable solutions along with giving lasting value to their business.  

Channel Contribution 
Pure continues to be 100% channel led, and is the only storage vendor delivering subscriptions fully through the channel. 

Expectations from Partner Program 
We expect to drive our customers to great success by giving best-in-class storage solutions and highly skilled expertise. To deliver better business outcomes with innovation and simplicity is our ultimate goal.  Through our partner program, we expect to achieve results that were previously unimaginable.  

Advantages of Channel Programme  
Implementing well-designed partner programmes has helped us reduce our marketing, sales, and customer support spends. 
Our channel partners have a robust customer base and market presence. This allows us to tap into their networks and expand our reach. We collaborate closely with our partners to cross promote our products and services through their marketing channels.   

Pure Storage always ensures that it does a careful partner selection with effective training and support. Maintaining strong relationships with our partners is also crucial to us for their continued engagement and performance. We deliver the ultimate in simplicity and flexibility - not only in our products but also in the way we enable our partners. Our partners tell us that our program is the most straightforward and is designed to accelerate their business. 

Jithesh Chembil 
Head of Channels, India, Pure Storage 
 

NetApp empowering Growth and Collaboration with its Partner Program 

Importance of the Partner Program  
Our growth and success are driven by our partners, who are the backbone of our business. Our strategic partner program provides a unified framework, simplifying processes for partners of all types and aligning with their go-to-market strategies. It can be seen as a strategic enabler, fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and delivering value to both customers and partners. The program helps us to continually deliver on customer expectations and satisfaction through collaboration and partner feedback for which we have regular meetings and an advisory board.  

Expectations from Partner Program 
The launch of our NetApp Partner Sphere Program reiterates our commitment to building a stronger partner network to drive accelerated digital transformation in FY24. Our program provides plenty of avenues to support and enable our partners to thrive in the hybrid multicloud market and seize new opportunities for success. 
We are confident that through this program, we will be able to drive increased revenue and profitability for both NetApp and our partners. By leveraging a structured approach to business planning, performance metrics, and incentives, we will align our goals to operate in a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

Advantages of Channel Programme  
NetApp's channel program plays a vital role in streamlining spends on marketing, sales, and customer support through various initiatives and benefits. Offerings of the program in this regard include co-marketing funds, sales enablement resources, technical support and training, deal registration and other incentives. Through our channel partner program, we aim to empower our partners by providing them with the necessary resources, support, and incentives to effectively market, sell, and support NetApp's solutions. 

Our evolved NetApp Partner Sphere Program offers a flexible path for partner sales motions, with a focus on cloud solutions and services. Some of the key features of our channel partner strategy include: 
A simple framework supporting each partners’ unique go-to-market strategy, providing flexibility and automation to ease partner processes, and consistency Transformative training, tools and support to activate work in a hybrid multi-cloud market, enabling and building partner services and solutions competencies.  A distinction between partners, highlighted and endorsed by their solution competencies and services on NetApp Partner Connect to promote each partners’ go-to-market approach. Accelerated cloud growth leveraging NetApp’s on-demand portfolio to fuel opportunities for value-add partner-led services and co-innovation, improving profitability and maximising partner ROI 
Through our various partner focused initiatives, we are confident that they will continue to support NetApp and scale our business to new heights.  

Ganesan Arumugam  
Director - Channel Partners, NetApp India

The New Relic Partner Program Empowering Customers and Accelerating Business in India and Beyond 

Importance of the Partner Program  
Our partner program is exceptionally important to New Relic and has been crucial to our success in India and beyond. Some of the largest New Relic customers in the Asia-Pacific region have come through our channel network and these partners are making a significant contribution to our business while delivering great value to our customers. 
Our partner program comprises a range of channel partners including: value-added resellers (VARs), managed-service providers (MSPs), system integrators (SIs), and technology partners, all of which play a vital role in accelerating our growth and better serving the needs of our customers. 

Expectations from Partner Program 
The aim of our program is to empower our partners to activate customers by communicating and demonstrating the benefits of our all-in-one observability platform. By doing this, our partners are able to unlock new revenue streams that grow incremental revenue, and their customers benefit from our industry-leading platform so their engineers can monitor, debug, and improve their entire tech stack. With a robust partner program inclusive of enablement with comprehensive training, ongoing support, as well as sales and marketing resources and toolkits, our partners will be able to help their customers’ gain more value with broader and deeper platform adoption and consumption, and New Relic will deliver on its promise. 

Advantages of Channel Programme 
Working with channel partners in the region makes fiscal sense from a sales, marketing and support perspective, but beyond that, it enables us to extend our reach by tapping into new verticals and fast-tracking enablement on our all-in-one observability platform. India is a vibrant and diverse country. Our channel partners deeply understand the needs of the Indian market and their local expertise coupled with our industry leading product provides a win-win for customers. We recently announced significant investments in our APAC channel partner strategy via a dedicated partner marketing function that helps to drive real pipeline through co-branded activations and campaigns. We’ve also invested in our business development managers and technical specialists to best support our incredible partners in India and across APAC more broadly.  In addition, our latest channel strategy includes the launch of PartnerCast, a monthly webinar series that comprises enablement tips, upcoming product launches and product update information. We also offer ongoing accreditation and training programs to ensure that our partners are confident with our platform and best equipped to communicate the benefits of New Relic to their customers.  

Stewart Cochrane  
Senior Director of Alliances and Channels- APJ, New Relic