Channel Chief In Indian Tech Industry - Think Big
Channel Partner programs is designed to enable, support, and encourage partners is a multi-billion Dollar business opportunity and designing the partner programme is not an easy task and it harder to execute the programme. Channel partners are responsible for so much of a technology company’s revenue, and the substantial sum that technology companies invest to manage their channel relationships, having a high-performing channel is a business necessity.
For most technology companies, the indirect channel has been and remains a vital part of their business. Some companies even generate upwards of 90 percent or more of their revenue through channel partners. Creating a successful partner programs isn't a piece of cake. it takes a huge efforts ,time and after it requires team work with strategic planning and implementation. The channel chief is responsible for establishing the Partner Program , with a clear strategy to motivate and engage channel partners to create more value for customers.
In continuous of the article, Lets see on how the Channel chiefs has formularised the better partner programme in their respective organisations to influence the Influential.
To help all partners successfully stand out in the market is Poly’s goal
Raghavendra Jeevannavar
Head of Channel Business- India and SAARC,
Poly
Need of a Partner Programme
Having a good partner program is extremely crucial as it provides continuous enablement and engagement with partners which motivates them to deliver to the best of their abilities and helps us mutually drive our business. At Poly, we believe that partners are our extended arms and our biggest strengths and only together, we can win this market.
Importance of a Partner Programme
We have recently launched a new Poly partner program - we’ve reimagined our program to encourage participation from a broad range of partners and made it more beneficial to partner with Poly. Our partners consistently tell us that their success depends on their ability to differentiate based on reputation, service delivery capability, and complementary skills.Our goal is to help all partners successfully stand out in the market.
Main Concerns to Address:
The Poly partner program shifts the evaluation of partner levels from a focus on revenue to an emphasis on involvement with Poly to support innovation and mutual growth. The model is built around three Cs-:
• Capabilities, ensuring a deep knowledge base through training and enablement;
• Commitment, a demonstrated focus and investment in Poly; and
• Contribution, which expands beyond just revenue and provides opportunities for bonuses for our partners. Additional benefits include a single instance of deal registration, performance dashboards, and a real-time scorecard to make it easier to track partner standing
Channel partners are the true change agents for end customers
Subodh Anchan
Co-founder and VP – Alliance, iValue InfoSolutions
Need of a Partner Programme
We have always believed that our channel partners are the true change agents for end customers and have constantly engaged with them to ensure they help address the dynamic needs of their customers by constantly upskilling them to stay relevant. Our partner programs are specifically designed to help them leverage our vast product base to help end-users get more value out of their technology investments. Using these programs, partners are able to span the breadth and width of multiple business model types with the best of technology offerings. This helps create a completely customisable end-to-end solution repository for our customers and indirectly builds up channel partner competency.
Importance of a Partner Programme:
Every year iValue invests to bring forth innovative programs, designed by our dedicated team of security professionals in consultation with leading industry experts, by adopting necessary changes in line with global technology trends, demands, best practises guidelines and benchmarks. Due to the pandemic, our current programs are focussed more on delivering comprehensive training relevant to each business and delivery model, through virtual webinars, SPIFFs and social media presence. Our programs are designed to help partners shorten their sales cycle with better margins helping them reach their business goals faster. All this is possible only due to the year-on-year investments made to make innovative and value driven partner programs.
Main Concerns to Address:
iValue’s approach to partners is unique. Right from joint marketing efforts with partners to develop business to understanding customer needs to ensuring our partners are geared up to handle these needs, our measure is not on quantity of partners we work with but on how many customers we were able to help with our unique bouquet of solutions. Presently we work with a healthy partner ecosystem of 700+ global, national and regional partners that have found resonance with our philosophy of excelling with our technology partnerships along with our unwavering commitment to them. We believe in working together to grow together.
We engage with our partners frequently to foster a sense of community
Jyotil Mankad
Director & Head of Cloud business, Ingram Micro India
Need of a Partner Programme
Partnership Programmes are a powerful way to amplify an organization’s sales and marketing efforts and expand distribution channels. B2B organizations partner with other companies to enhance their brand, extend their sales footprint and grow their customer base.
At Ingram Micro Cloud, technology partners & service partners play an integral role by augmenting the efforts of sales teams, broadening reach and providing customers with pre-sales support, implementation and consulting services. Our partner programmes drive multiple objectives and are designed to help partners boost sales and profitability. We also conduct product training sessions and offer certifications to help partners enhance their technical proficiency.
Importance of a Partner Programme
In a competitive marketplace, organizations that launch innovative partner programmes are able to keep channel sales teams engaged and incentivized to sell their products over other brands.While this requires investment in terms of resources, funds, processes and thought capital, it can be an effective way for a brand to grow their sales channels and stay top-of-mind.
Main Concerns to Address:
We develop partner programmes keeping in mind the evolving market needs. For instance, to cater to the increased demand for work from home solutions during the pandemic, we launched a remote working kit that included solutions from our Cloud portfolio featuring collaboration, MDM, virtual desktops, digital signatures, remote support and cyber security tools. This helped partners enhance their product mix and implement these solutions for their customers swiftly.
We engage with our partners frequently to foster a sense of community. Our programmes include comprehensive go-to-market support including press releases, partner roundtables, sales collaterals, SPIFs (sales performance incentive fund) and co-marketing plans.
Launching a new Channel Program every year helps to modify according to business needs
Debasish Mukherjee
VP – Regional Sales,
APAC, SonicWall
Need of a Partner Programme
SonicWall, is a hundred percent channel organization that considers channel partners to be an integral part of our business. Being a very lean team, it is important for us to maintain a broader channel outreach in order to connect with multiple customers spread across different regions. So it is important that we have a channel program, align our messaging, that is communicated with the customer. Our relationship with the channel is important for furthering our business interests and the partners.
SonicWall University is a sophisticated online partner enablement platform created to keep SecureFirst Partner Sales Representatives, Pre-Sales and Support Engineers at the forefront of selling today’s cyber security solutions. The platform offers free training with pathways for partners to earn their SecureFirst Sales, Technical and Support Accreditations.
Importance of a Partner Programme
At SonicWall, we believe in fine-tuning and developing our SecureFirst Partner program by analysing the feedback that we receive from our partners. We interact with our top partners across regions on a regular basis. Our program rests on three pillars: frontend performance, backend development and investment. We recently modified our acceleration program into a very straightforward calculation for businesses to run efficiently without any added confusion due to complex calculations. Instead of launching a new channel program every year, it makes more sense to mold the existing program according to the needs of a business and keep modifying it as we go along.
Main Concerns to Address
Our SonicWall Partner Program is rests on three pillars, with a frontend reward, a backend reward, and investment. Another key feature would entail our communication with the partner in terms of product training, product update, and what our priorities are and USP. The third aspect is development of partners which is one of the most critical components in our business as there is a huge gap in the skillsets. We believe in working on developing the skills of our partners and ensuring that they are up to the mark in offering consultation to their customers.
The principle of mutual success played a key role in our growth as a global brand
Parvinder Walia
President of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), ESET
Need of a Partner Programme
At ESET, we believe collaboration creates synergy. With over 10,000 channel partners across the APAC region, we are a channel-focused business where our partners are an extension of our team. This has allowed us to better understand the market opportunities in the region, customise our offerings accordingly as well as make available our cybersecurity solutions to a large customer base. India is an important market for ESET, with massive potential in the technology sector, including cybersecurity. Over the past two years, we have partnered with local distributors with extensive networks of resellers, namely Technobind Solutions and Amity Infosoft, to strengthen our go-to-market strategy.
Importance of a Partner Programme:
We continually invest in our channel ecosystem and are always looking for ways to improve and optimise, so our partners can grow their business with us.
This year, we are focusing our attention on partner training, education and certification. This has enabled our partners to unlock a new revenue stream by offering our new cloud-based SMB solutions for remote workforce and EDR solutions catering for enterprises using the MSP platform.
Main Concerns to Address:
ESET's principle of building mutual success with our partners has played a significant role in our growth into a global brand with over 110 million users in 202 countries and territories. We listen to our partners and incorporate their feedback into the products that we offer and how we position them. This is why we have designed our partner programme to be easy, flexible and profitable for our partners. We provide great incentives and healthy margins, so our partners enjoy a win-win relationship. Our licensing model is flexible and fit to suit companies of all sizes and needs. Also, our partner programme is backed by award-winning products that have been consistently rated highly by independent test laboratories and analysts, making them extremely easy for our partners to sell. We also support our partners through generous co-marketing funds, cybersecurity training and strong pre-sales and aftersales support.
Our Partners are the driving force behind our success and Customer engagement
Faiz Rehman
National Business Head - India & SAARC, Collaboration, Barco
Need of a Partner Programme
Channel partners drive business growth for organizations and ensure that their specialized products and solutions are delivered to the end consumer in the most effective and efficient manner possible. This is especially true when it comes to B2B organizations such as Barco. Our partners are the driving force behind our success and customer engagement. Businesses receive a marked edge from the unique and value-focused approach followed by partners.
Importance of a Partner Programme:
Barco India is focused on enabling bright outcomes across the segments we cater to – entertainment, enterprise, and healthcare. In keeping with this aim, we invest in, and consistently strive towards creating value through innovative partner programs. We are a partner-centric organization and, we have been exploring partnership pathways beyond traditional methods by adding more associates, across verticals. Each of these verticals has turned to innovative and digital solutions, considering the disruption caused by Covid-19, and we have worked towards being a part of this digital transformation journey. We have invested strongly in innovative partner programs as well as doubling our channel partners in tier-2 and -3 cities, to drive better uptake for Barco’s solutions.
Main Concerns to Address:
Since partners are the ones who take our technology to the end customer,it is crucial that they understand the real pain of the customer and position the right set of product/solution to address the customer’s pain. To ensure that our partners are well-equipped to support us, Barco has designed a program to promote our products and services, augment their expertise and resources, and enhance the satisfaction of our end-users. We invest heavily in training, certification, and marketing support programmes for our partners.
Another key feature of our partner programme is that we train and empower partners by bringing them on a common platform and enabling them to learn about technology trends, high growth areas and other necessary details through online training and webinars.
partners are our extended arms to help us drive “customer for life” philosophy
Manish Alshi
Director – Channels & Alliances, VMware India
Need of a Partner Programme
At VMware, we deeply appreciate and recognize the importance of working together with our esteemed partners, to serve our customers better. The Partner ecosystem has been an integral part of our growth story & continues to give us much required strategic leverage, to pursue our vision and deliver new solutions to our customers. Our partners are our extended arms that help us drive our “customer for life” philosophy. A robust partner program is an absolute necessity, not just to encourage and incentivise partners, but to provide them a framework to plan their investments & go to market strategy in this long standing relationship.
Importance of a Partner Programme
The Partner Connect program delivers simplified engagement with VMware. It is built on three key elements:
• How we enable, engage & incentivize our partners to identify their customer’s strategic IT priorities & map it back to our solution platforms
• Extend the success of our Master Services Competencies, which validates and rewards partners who have high levels of service delivery capability
• Eliminate silos across our partners’ most common business models: resell, professional services, cloud hosting and managed services
Main Concerns to Address
VMware Partner Connect reimagines the way we do business with our partners. It is designed to deliver simplicity, choice and innovation to our partners, in their overall engagement with VMware.
One of the key considerations is that the program should support the business economics for our partners, so that they are not only able to sustain their VMware business practice, but also make it consistently profitable. In addition, the program rewards partners for growing their VMware business, achieving competencies and progressing to higher partnership tiers, thereby acknowledging incremental investments in their VMware business portfolio.
Array works with handpicked partners, helps them to create a profitable business model
Shibu Paul
Vice President-International Sales, Array Networks
Need of a Partner Programme
Array A-Team is a comprehensive partner program from Array which enables select partners to generate new business opportunities and increased profits within the high-growth network function virtualization and application delivery markets. The channel partner ecosystem is what helps Array Networks or any organization thrive in matters of business. The organization and its partners are codependent to achieve success and to gain this success we need a strong partner program. To help the partner ecosystem they need to familiarize themselves with the products and solutions offered by the organization because, only with this can the partners benefit and in turn help the organization in taking its business one step ahead.
Importance of a Partner Programme:
Innovative partner programs are what help our channel partners to be relevant in the market that often sees substantial changes, example the current Covid-19 situation. Every year we invest in bringing forth many of such innovative partner programs through seminars, conferences, trade shows, awards and recognition, and also with our online presence on various social media platforms. In the current pandemic situation we have resorted to virtual programs like webinars that help our channel partner ecosystem.
Main Concerns to Address:
Array’s mantra is to work with handpicked channel partners, train them and help them to create sustainable and profitable business models. We have designed our channel program in such a way that partners get protected margins as well as a wide degree of space in pricing to their customers. With the help of our dedicated channel ecosystem, we are focused on developing a skilled pool of resources. Moreover we invest in training and certifying our partners as well as joining customer engagement programs. In order to ensure that channel partners are rewarded for all their efforts, we assure maximum margins in all Array deals.
Ease of doing business is our moto and we follow it while working with our partners
Sanjoy Bhattacharya
IT Head, ViewSonic India
Need of a Partner Programme
Partner Programme is not only a business strategy but also an ecosystem of businesses that offer sales, marketing, implementation of services etc. I believe that partner has bigger spectrum than the so called sales partners. Starting from logistic Partners who are the backbone, creative partners who are in demand generation and Distribution partners who are giving after sales service to Partners - ViewSonic India is committed to all its partners for their development. We have been constantly working on carefully designed and well-run incentive programsto rouse sales force, motivate marketing staff, or reinvigorate our channel network. Partner programs allow us to expand distribution channels, improve industry knowledge, support marketing efforts,increase lead generation, and deliver a 360-degree solution.
Importance of a Partner Programme
In the ever-changing business environment, it's essential that we keep focusing on innovation to deliver customers a better experience and product. “Knowledge is the Key”& “Customer is the God”. Keeping this mantra in the neo-normal age, we at ViewSonic have long term Sustainable investment to grow our brand where we invest to marketing partners. We do have tactical investment for geo specific region through certain set of retailers, e-commerce, and omni channel partners.Hence, we make strategic investments across different verticals including sales, distribution, and R&D so that we can better understand the customer needs and provide our partners with the right kind of skills and knowledge to bridge the gap. Growth in skillset of our partners directly helps us in exponential ways.
Main Concerns to Address
We at ViewSonic India, always try to ensure simplified and transparent process to build trust and credibility amongst our vendors and partners. “Ease of doing business” is our motto and we follow the same while working with our partners. The epicentre of the problems is the issues that start from overestimating the market and no dump stock. So, while we make any program, we ensure the right proportion for everyone & balance of interest by quick conflict management. ViewSonic is committed to Indian partners for sustainable, long term & transparent working.
Our Partner Program is designed to provide an expanded set of benefits to Partners
Jitendra Ghughal
Director Channels, India & SAARC, Fortinet
Need of a Partner Programme
In today’s rapidly expanding and evolving networks, security plays a more critical role than ever. Naturally, this means that how partners position security to their customers also needs to evolve. New network ecosystems, such as multi-cloud environments and next-gen branch offices, require specialized sales and technology skills that can overwhelm sales teams trained in traditional security strategies. Partners who want to support DevOps require knowledge of cloud networks, application development, and container environments – concepts that may be new to many security sales teams. Our partner program plays the role of a business enabler as partners are able to pick Fortinet solutions that fit into their domain of expertise to extend more value to customers.
Importance of a Partner Programme:
Fortinet has launched a new partner program called Fortinet Engage this year designed to better prepare partners to effectively engage and succeed in today’s new security environment, this program is based on three basic concepts:
ENGAGEMENT-Partners have the flexibility of determining their level of engagement with Fortinet. By selecting the kinds of expertise they want to develop, the benefits they want to enjoy, and the revenue stream they want to develop, partners have more control than ever over their success with Fortinet. BUSINESS MODEL- Partners will also find that their Fortinet support can be customized to their unique business model.SPECIALIZATION- In addition to the level of engagement and business model, partners are able to select an area of specialization to receive additional support and benefits. These specialization areas include Dynamic Cloud, Secure Access and Branch, Secure SD-WAN, and Data Center. Customized training, certifications, and programs are available for each of these specializations, with new specializations, such as OT, Zero Trust Network Access, and Security Operations slated for release over the coming quarters.
Main Concerns to Address:
Our partner program is designed to provide an expanded set of benefits to partners. This not only enables them to better meet the dynamic and expanding needs of their customers – it also enhances partner’s ability to “land and expand.”
With Partner programs it becomes more feasible to venture into new horizons
Sanjay Zadoo
Country Manager Channel, Vertiv India
Need of a Partner Programme
For a Business to Business (B2B) company like Vertiv, channel partners play a crucial role in connecting us to our customers. Our channel partners are the first point of contact for the customer- be it about product or solution enquiries, maintenance or any troubleshoot requirements. Since they are key drivers of business growth for us, we believe it’s important to continuously keep them informed about our entire gamut of products and solutions. Our Vertiv Partner Portal offers our partners dedicated sales support, sales selectors and configurators, marketing resources, demo programs, online partner training, content syndication, and deal registration and incentive programs.
Importance of a Partner Programme
At Vertiv, we constantly innovate our partner programs to engage effectively with partners and reach out to customers. We keep analyzing the white spaces and emerging technology needs of the market, to evolve partner programs enabling partners to focus on these opportunities and unleash business potential. Our partner programs are designed to have a collaborative effort of approaching markets and explore opportunities that haven’t been addressed. As a result, engaging with new customers with different applications becomes one of the main focus areas in expanding our market reach. With these programs, it becomes much more feasible to venture into new horizons thereby reaching out to a larger customer base with completely new applications.
Main Concerns to Address:
We believe that for partnerships to be successful, there should be a mutual understanding, keeping in mind the needs, objectives, and goals of both the parties. We explore numerous opportunities in different markets with our partners which enable us to grow our businesses together. This keeps both of us motivated to understand and keep a track of market perceptions and accordingly deliver suitable solutions. Another important aspect to keep in mind is that of transparency between us and our partners. Right from engagement with the customer to execution, the entire process is aligned to build mutual trust.
OUR PARTNERS ARE THE CORE OF EVERYTHING WE DO AND EXTREMEly CRITICAL PART OF F5'S OVERALL GROWTH STARTEGY
Edgar Dias
Regional Vice President of Channel and
Partnerships Asia Pacific- F5
Need of a Partner Programme
Enterprises are rapidly intensifying and expanding their networks to keep up with the digital economy. As organizations transform their networks, security plays an integral role and needs to develop to keep up with new business demands. Today, Partner programs are popular business strategies that vendors use to grow their sales footprint and diversify their network of users. Not only can they bring in revenue, but they can also be important links between vendors and customers.
IMPORTANCE OF A PARTNER PROGRAMME
For F5, our partners are the core of everything we do and an extremely critical part of F5’s overall growth strategy. To drive a comprehensive engagement program, F5 has named its partner program Unity +.Unity+ is an innovative channel program designed to create long-term profitable partner growth, thereby enhancing partner opportunities and incentives, captures new revenue streams, and drives tighter collaboration to help customers through technology transformation. Recognizing the importance of partners to F5’s growth strategy, the program focuses on the long-term success of our partners by offering them new routes to accelerated profitability with greater flexibility through joint go-to-market activities. The program aims to drive increased partner profitability, expanding beyond traditional booked revenue incentives and rewarding partners for investing in new strategic focus areas.
MAIN CONCERNS TO ADDRESS
Investing in new partner program every year is not a necessity as long as the company has a strong partner program that can help partners succeed and become part of customer’s success stories. At F5, we are focused on facilitating customers and partners maintain business continuity, financial health and expand solutions to meet immediate challenges and unanticipated request. With a large installed base, that is typically refreshed every 3-4 years due to the ever-increasing number of applications deployed in the enterprise that need availability and security.
We design our programs keeping in mind our ethos of enabling everyone to RISE
Vivek Agarwal
Global Head, Enterprise Verticals Solutions & Portfolio Companies- TechMahindra
Need of a Partner Programme
Partner programs are an effective business strategy to help expand client base and diversify offering and user network. Partners are an important part of the company ecosystem and can have huge impact on the sales, market share, innovation, brand recognition thus driving the overall success of the business. With a powerful alliance ecosystem of leading technology firms and disruptive start-ups, Tech Mahindra empower business capabilities to deliver a comprehensive and customized solution package to the market. We, at Tech Mahindra strive to create opportunities for our partners to enable them to ‘Rise’ above limiting circumstances and thrive in a constantly changing world. Tech Mahindra partner ecosystem consists of leading technology providers, system integrator, IT and management consultants, and cloud providers. Our global ecosystem of partners enables us to deliver industry-leading value to our clients; while also promoting a culture of digital responsibility.
Importance of a Partner Programme:
At Tech Mahindra, our holistic solutions simplify digital transformation and ensure agile service delivery. TechMNxt is Tech Mahindra’s response to the future. A program rolled out globally and designed by pre-empting and anticipating of our customer’s evolving and dynamic needs. It is all about enabling our long-term growth in collaboration with start-ups, co-innovation with academia and partners. As a step in this direction, we have collaborated with some of the finest start-ups, we are working with academia, drawing from the millennial workforce, and jointly creating cutting-edge technology solutions with our partners.
Main Concerns to Address:
We design our programs keeping in mind our ethos of enabling everyone to RISE. The Tech Mahindra culture draws heritage from the core purpose and values that drive the Mahindra Group as a whole. It remains rooted in the business and social ethos that the three Mahindra Rise tenets – accepting no limits, alternative thinking, and driving positive change – instil in every member of the Mahindra family. At Tech Mahindra, our partnership programmes are designed keeping in mind the culture of driving positive change, celebrating each moment, and empowering all to Rise drives us to dream, do, and become more.
Our Channel Program has been designed to encourage VARs to expand into the edge computing sector
Brian Grainger
Chief Revenue Officer- StorMagic
Need of a Partner Programme
Introduced in 2019, the StorMagic Channel Program (SCP) is designed for partners who sell products into small datacenters and edge computing environments. SvSAN enables hyperconverged, highly available, high performance compute and storage infrastructure on industry standard servers. SvKMS is an enterprise key management solution that can help secure digital assets from the edge to the core or cloud. StorMagic Channel Partners benefit from working with a company whose revenue model is 100 percent from the channel, making its Channel Partner Program essential to StorMagic’s business.
Importance of a Partner Programme
The StorMagic Channel Program has been designed to encourage VARs to expand into the edge computing sector by promoting lightweight, cost-effective software that delivers enterprise-grade features for the fraction of the cost of datacenter-class solutions. StorMagic has found that most of our competitors offer products that are not suited for the constraints faced by edge organizations and small-to-medium enterprises. This is supported by generous margins and a simple and flexible method of working that gives the VAR easy access to key decision makers within StorMagic.
Main Concerns to Address
StorMagic resellers can meet customer demands for high availability at a very low price point because the product is a proven alternative to expensive appliance-based hyperconverged products. Our VARs can build a hyperconverged solution using any server, any disk drive combination and any of the three leading hypervisors (vSphere, Hyper-V and KVM). With SvKMS, VARs can offer a single key manager that can centralize all of their clients’ encryption use cases. Our VARs can drive significant incremental revenue through generous margins with a solution perfect for unlocking the edge and SME market. StorMagic’s Channel Partner Program is simple to join and SvSAN and SvKMS are simple products to learn and install, all from an organization that is simple to work with.
At NxtGen, the key to success of a partner programme is enablement
Ranjit Metrani
Head – Sales & Solutions - NXTGEN
Need of a Partner Programme
India is a very vast market for all businesses. There are 718 districts and 19100 pin codes in India that can be serviced. This makes it complex to reach every part of the country. For business to expand, reach is very important and that is where the partner ecosystem becomes critical. With ICT spending expected to reach 144B$ in 2023, No single company can address this spend without a strategy to include partners in their business which also enables coverage with the right opex optimization.
Importance of a Partner Programme
At NxtGen, the key to a success of a partner programme is enablement. Every company has to invest in first enablement of partners as many partners are still moving up the value chain of technologies. Second, every partner is keen on keeping the cost of sale low and hence companies have to bring innovation in enabling a partner with the right portfolio that addresses his market. Lastly, cash flow is critical to a partner business, companies need to work on opex model offerings to make partners excited to invest in business. Cloud has seen the highest adoption in ICT due to the benefits it brings to customers and hence we are seeing partners investing resources in adopting this business to sell. At NxtGen, our business model enables partners to position our offerings because of our ability to address the growth needs of our partners.
Main Concerns to Address
At NxtGen, our partner programme has 3 critical features. One is enablement and training of the partner to address the relevant technologies that is in sync with his business. Second, an incentive program to help them achieve their business objectives. Lastly a joint business plan and vision that builds the loyalty of the partner to continue with the company. With the current pandemic, we have implemented program that enables partners to position our unique offering Multiverse which addresses the specific concerns of organizations related to covid.
HPE’s edge-to-cloud platform as-a-service vision to ensure our partners to get prepared to incorporate an as-a-Service model by 2022
AMER WARSI, India Channels and Ecosystem Sales Leader, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Need of a Partner Programme
We strongly believe in leading through collaboration and inclusion by building positive relationships and inviting ideas and perspectives to achieve goals and objectives. Our Partner Ready Program is one of the strongest in the industry, more than 30 years old with 8,000+ partners globally. Over 70% of HPE sales go through the channel, therefore our channel partners are at the forefront of HPE’s innovations. We are constantly evolving the partner program to align with HPE’s edge-to-cloud platform as-a-service vision to ensure our partners can be successful today and are prepared to incorporate an as-a-Service model by 2022.
Importance of a Partner Programme
Our partners are an important extension of our own sales and technical teams, and they are a powerful force in driving growth. As we advance along our journey to becoming an edge-to-cloud platform-as-a-service company, we see an opportunity to bring our partners on that journey and ensure they have the resources and tools to deliver the outcome-based solutions our customers need to innovate and take their business to the next level. We continuously invest in evolving our Partner Ready Program and we listen and consistently develop new initiatives in the HPE Pro Series. This helps our partners create differentiation in increasingly competitive markets and enhance their skills. Additionally, we are consistently adding new initiatives to maximize profitability for our partners and to respond to partner feedback.
Main Concerns to Address
HPE asserts its Partner Ready Program leadership by continually listening to partners, delivering on our commitments and responding to their requests. In designing the HPE Partner Ready Program, HPE considers a number of things – how to align the program with the HPE vision, how we can work together to meet the needs of our customers, and how to ensure our partners remain profitable. Moreover, we have personalized the partner journey to as-a-Service, and have enhanced the Partner Ready Program to ensure profitability, industry recognition and differentiation for partners as well as the support they need to evolve their business at their own pace.
Cadyce’s partners play an important role to develop the brand presence
Gautam A Shah
Founder and President,
CADYCE
Need of a Partner Programme
Cadyce believes that partners across the globe play an important role to place the products in various verticals and also help us to develop the brand presence. We conduct training programs for the partners; make awareness of the current technology as well new technology and highlight the roadmap for the current year with the launch of new innovative products with the latest technology. This helps partners to think in a different way for CADYCE so that they can focus in new verticals and can make good money in our business. Various sales schemes, demo policy for the new products, service policy and user friendly RMA policy help us to increase our presence in the market.
Importance of a Partner Programme
We invest a lot of money in latest technology , innovations , work closely with all big IC companies , understand the latest trend in the new technology , which help us to make innovative products with new styles of design , plug and play , compact and light weight models. Due to which , we have to invest money to share all the information to our partners , customers through various channels like media , ad campaigns , PR programs , social media campaigns , eblast , virtual training sessions , awareness of the brand/products/technology etc. SEO on the google platform, google adwords , retargeting to our website , videos.
Main Concerns to Address
When we design any program for our partner –the key factor that we always consider is-- it must be user friendly , easy to understand , easy to access all the details , information about the brand , specs , easy navigation to our website , excellent communication , support via toll free , chat module , online support etc. We have made user friendly videos for every Cadyce product with the application to understand our partner and customers very easily. This helps us to build the confidence in our partner as well as customers for CADYCE BRAND.
Palo Alto Networks invests lot of time listening to its partner's feedback and understands their needs
Harpreet Bhatia
Director, Channels & Strategic Alliances – India & SAARC at Palo Alto Networks
Need of a Partner Programme
A robust partner program will focus on providing ample learning and earning opportunities to partners so that they can expand market coverage and in the process, enhance their own capability and capacity to fuel further growth. As an organization comes out with innovative solutions to meet customers’ business needs, they depend more and more on partners to take these innovations to their customers, with speed and agility. The organization also needs to take into account that the solutions built by them are deployed, implemented and integrated in the customer’s infrastructure in exactly the same way as the use case they were envisaged to solve.
Importance of a Partner Programme
Palo Alto Networks invests a lot of time listening to our partner’s feedback and understanding their needs. Partner voice is captured by participation in internal as well as external industry surveys, multiple partner leadership platforms and Partner Advisory Councils across the territories we operate in.
While our industry leading partner program called the Nextwave partner program remains the same, we try and bring innovation and enhancements to the program every year, depending on the changing technology trends, consumption patterns and addition of new routes to market. Our Nextwave partner program acknowledges and rewards partners for their investment with us and gives a greater ROI as you enhance the partner tier levels.
Main Concerns to Address:
There are 3 pillars that we focus on in our Partner Program Design:
INCREASING Profitability Initiatives: some examples of what we have introduced are New Partner Value Incentives, Referral and Rebate Programs.
ENABLING New Services Opportunities: we have introduced QuickStart Service SKUs, Transformational Services Practice and a Dedicated Managed Services Program.
OPTIMIZING Processes & Systems: we have introduced Deal Approval Automation, Deal Quoting Automation and Order Placement Automation.
While designing Partner Programmes, relevance of programmes to Partners’ needs is important
Ramesh Natarajan
CEO -
Redington Distribution
Need of a Partner Programme
The cornerstone of Redington’s business has been our strong relationship with the Partner community. This has given us a keen sense of the diverse needs of the Partner community. Our approach is to work in alignment with Vendors to design programmes that support partners in :
(a) identifying and tapping opportunities in new technologies for their customers
(b) improving their earnings potential
(c) gaining skill sets and certifications to equip them in new technologies
The imperative is to build on the strong foundation that an established partner community provides, in terms of skills, customer engagement and execution ability among others. This makes Partner Programmes an indispensable element of our engagement.
Importance of a Partner Programme
At Redington we constantly learn and evolve our Partner programmes based on the inputs we get from the Partner community. We invest in programmes with a focus on delivery of program benefits to Partners. We work with Vendors to offer partner programs for multiple verticals, depending on seasonality e.g. BTS, SMB programs, Affordability etc.
The idea is to provide customized support, specific to the context in which the Partner needs it (Technologies, Product categories, geographies, periods etc.).
This year we are seeking to scale up our drive on Partner programmes as we support them in the post-pandemic economy.
Main Concerns to Address
Relevance of programmes to Partners’ needs, building Partners’ ability to offer customized technology solutions for their customers’ needs, effective execution and delivery of programme benefits to Partners, speed of execution and clarity of communication are some of the features that we consider very important in designing Partner Programmes.
As a partner-centric company we constantly look at ways to keep our partners motivated & engaged
Sachin Relwani
Channel Head, Kaspersky (South Asia)
Need of a Partner Programme
As a 100% partner centric company, our partners are a very important part of our growth globally. It is with the help of our partners that we at Kaspersky are able to reach out to our target audiences and expand in various markets.
Kaspersky United program is one of our most popular partner programs that not only assure great marginal benefits to our partners but also help them to specialize in their fields of interest, acquire the required skill sets and learn from experts at Kaspersky on subjects that they feel most confident about. Partners constantly help companies like us to reach out to customers present in the remotest areas and understand their pain points that help us further in providing solutions for them accordingly.
Importance of a Partner Programme
As a partner centric company we constantly look at ways to keep our partners motivated and engaged through our various partner programs and incentives that we plan for our partners every quarter. A significant part of our investments are allocated every year for our innovative partner programs on both global and regional levels.
We believe that these investments in executing partner programs are essential for strengthening our partner network as well as achieving the desired goals set by our company. Every quarter we try to have at least one ongoing partner rewards scheme as we understand that it is an important tool to gain their trust as well as keep the partners motivated.
Main Concerns to Address
The partner programs designed by us are very specific and extremely thought through while taking into consideration the expectations a partner may have from us. We try to accomplish these expectations through our partner programs and other incentive programs. Some of our programs are incentive based that help us keep the partners motivated, making sure our partners are profitable at the end of the day.m.
Veeam's partner programs are designed to provide protection, drive profitability and enable partner’s business to grow
Amarish Karnik,
Director – Channel Sales, Alliance (India & SAARC), Veeam Software
NEED OF A PARTNER PROGRAMME
A strategic partner program is the key to a business’ success and can help drive critical business benefits such as revenue increase, brand awareness, and customer retention. To drive revenue growth, companies must wisely choose their partners based on desired business results and target audience. Vendors and partners must increasingly focus on developing knowledge-based partnership through sustained engagements. We at Veeam believe in “disruption” by bringing innovation to our product portfolio. We have seen a change in the market dynamics & hence our partner programs are always innovative & relevant.
IMPORTANCE OF A PARTNER PROGRAMME
Veeam is a 100% channel-driven company, and this model firmly puts Veeam’s partners at the center of the ecosystem. We rely on the commitment and knowledge of our partner networks to scale the delivery of Veeam’s services, and attain mutual business profitability. Our partner programs are committed to driving predictable profit through multiple routes to market based on our partners’ business models. Early this year Veeam announced the PartnerPerks program to increase partner engagement, reward them and encourage focused solutions adoption. This year Veeam launched the enhanced Veeam Accredited Services Partner (VASP) program to strengthen partners’ capabilities to sell, deploy and support Veeam solutions, and ensure customer satisfaction.
MAIN CONCERNS TO ADDRESS
While designing a partner program we follow a customer & partner centric approach. Veeam’s partner programs are simple, flexible & reliable, just like Veeam solutions. We also keep in mind how our programs can help partners in engaging with customers better. Right from the opportunity generation, to doing proof of concept and deal closures, our partner programs help partners build extensive profitable portfolio by enabling competencies at partner place. As a leader in Cloud Data Management, we understand the challenges faced by customers and as a 100% channel-driven company, we’re always there to help our partners. Our commitment to innovation and market leadership has made Veeam the preferred solution for 83% of the Fortune 500.
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