The shifting dynamics of the channel ecosystem demands for a Robust Partner Program

In an era of massive digital transformation, where technology is the key force behind every business, corporates are always on the lookout to expand their partner base regardless of the industry or geography. The Channel is responsible for increasing revenue and growing market share without the vendor having to hire and train more employees, and invest in office space, tools, and equipment to support those employees. A report from IDC suggests that 76% of B2B customers want partners to take up more day-to-day administrative and operational responsibilities for infrastructure so that the internal IT staff can focus more on their business.

It is also true that partners are going through major shifts in the market today. And this is because rather than simply supplying specific components of infrastructure, customers want partners that understand their business and deliver and manage full solutions that help them solve specific challenges and achieve key business outcomes with measurable results. Instead of capital expenditure (CapEx) focused approaches, customers now demand operating expenditure (OpEx) arrangements, where partners provide easy to use as-a-service solutions that allow them to pay for only what they need or use. Corporate Partner programs are designed in a way that expects its partners to be innovative and to have the capabilities for innovating business models extending across geographies. The whole objective is to win partner mindshare and future growth.

Partner programs may vary from company to company based on their size, volume and expertise. But it is becoming very important for organizations to invest in a flexible partner program to meet the respective demands of their customers. More than ever, customers seek reliable, full-service partners that deliver comprehensive, ongoing support that is tailored to their unique needs and business objectives. But like most of the vendors and OEMs that VARINDIA have spoken to agree, it is just not enough to simply have a partner program; but it must be efficient, transparent and must provide the partner ecosystem with enormous growth prospects. 

This article tries to explore on how some of the channel friendly IT Corporates have directed their focus on preparing a robust PARTNER PROGRAMME that are no doubt partner friendly, and which in turn will set a Benchmark in the industry for fostering business growth of partners -

NetApp tries to identify the right partners for the right customer opportunities      

"We live in a digital, and data-driven world where harnessing the cloud is a constant challenge faced by enterprises. Having a robust partner ecosystem that is well-versed with the cloud and its applications will play a vital role in aiding enterprises to derive maximum business impact from their digital transformation journeys.

We have recently announced our intent to launch NetApp Sphere - an evolution of our industry-leading Unified Partner Program in fiscal year 2024 (FY'24). The new cloud-focused and services-led NetApp Partner Sphere delivers a flexible path to advancement and growth for all partner sales motions. NetApp Sphere offers robust training and support to help partners capture cloud market share. It brings new validation, recognition and rewards for partners’ investments in competencies and services, and the accelerated growth structure allows partners to provide transformational value to customers. When designing our partner program, we are mindful of offering simplified, flexible, progressive tiering with clear criteria that partners can follow across objective thresholds. The program’s tiers range from approved, to preferred, to prestige, to prestige plus - assessing, validating and recognising partners based on values and competencies, in order to identify the right partners for the right customer opportunities. The benefits and support that we offer will grow as partners ascend tiers, generating the most impact seeing the most customized benefits, including solution specific marketing campaigns, proposal- based market development funds, and preferred value-based incentives.”       

Ganesan Arumugam, Director - Channel Sales, NetApp India

Fortinet works with partners closely to ensure their margins are secured 

“In a competitive market, Fortinet partners build out offerings that help differentiate them from their competitors. Fortinet provides additional enablement at the technical level, including channel sales engineers (SEs) who are responsible for technical enablement with our partners, with the goal of helping them maximize opportunities and building revenue-generating solutions.

We work with partners closely to ensure their margins are secured in any business deal. Fortinet’s partner program is designed to better prepare partners to effectively engage and succeed in today’s security market, this program is based on three basic concepts - Engagement, Business model and Specialisation.  Our Partner Programs mission is to help partners at any level to build a profitable practice through technology and service differentiation that leverages the industry’s best solutions. The Fortinet Engage Partner Program helps partners develop the expertise needed to deliver digital transformation through customizable programs with business opportunity as well as the infrastructure in place to accelerate their growth. Partners are provided flexibility to engage on three business levels - Integrator, MSSP, or Cloud, which provides multiple opportunities to grow different segments of their business, as well as multiple ways to differentiate their offerings with specializations. For those partners with a mature and established professional services practice, the Engage Preferred Services Partner (EPSP) program provides direct vendor support and additional accreditation to increase service sales and delivery excellence.” 

Vishak Raman, Vice President of Sales, India, SAARC and Southeast Asia - Fortinet

HPE partners help in its mission to advance the way people live and work 

“HPE consistently works towards making our partners’ experience better and enables them to succeed with their customers. HPE Partner Ready Vantage addresses these market changes and gives partners the choices they need to meet their customers’ evolving requirements. The program provides flexibility for partners to identify and pursue new opportunities, strengthen customer relationships, expand their market reach, and provide comprehensive solutions that deliver quantifiable business outcomes for customers. In short, HPE Partner Ready Vantage allows partners to deliver the solutions their customers want, in the ways that best meet their own business goals. With channel being the strongest route to HPE India market, majority of our sales goes through the channel partners. Through our program, partners can leverage our expansive portfolio of leading products, solutions, and services combined with their differentiated value to help their customers increase business performance while providing a consistent experience from edge to cloud. The HPE Partner Ready Program allows partners to capitalize on opportunities and innovation. It continues as the traditional partner program with HPE Partner Ready Vantage offering as-a-Service focused partners with a program designed for how they go to market. 

We have consistently been rated being the most partner-oriented organization in the industry year after year. This is an outcome of having a very robust partner program that is mature and is continuously improvised to incorporate all the market shifts and trends.” 

Amer Warsi, Director Channel, SMB & Ecosystem, HPE India

Dell is committed to investing in its partner’s end-to-end experience with the brand  

“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. Dell Technologies is committed to enhancing partner experience levels and build services led go-to-market strategies, aided by new incentives and distribution support. We continue to raise the bar on partner experience, offering new digital enhancements like incentive centres, new quoting tools in OSC and APEX. Our brand-new Incentives Center gave our partners an increased visibility and insight across all their program incentives in one centralized location - for Rebates, MDF (Marketing Development Funds), and MyRewards (incentive for partner sales specialists).

We launched our 2022 Dell Technologies Partner Program at the beginning of the year with a renewed focus - Together, We Stop at Nothing. In the span of five years, the Dell Technologies APJ Channel has achieved 70% growth. The program and strategy have been working hard for partners: Rebates payout has grown 80% and earned Marketing Development Funds (MDF) has increased by 95%. With the partner feedback process we have in place, we have found that even our partners view our program as simple, predictable and profitable. We design our rules of engagement (ROE) around deal registration and to govern our internal sales team behavior in a way that promotes customer choice while protecting the integrity of our partner program principles.”    

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

Sophos designs its solutions keeping its partners in mind   

“Sophos is a channel first company, which means we do business only through our channel partners. For us ‘Sophos Global Partner Program’ is a core foundation of our channel strategy. A comprehensive, easy to understand, trackable and growth-oriented Partner Program, which is designed for a practical world, is always going to be beneficial for all. Sophos Global Partner Program is a well-structured program, which is designed to make our partners increase their cybersecurity revenue, maintain their profitability and enable them to be security consultants to their customers.

A well-designed business model around channel partners is the first thing that is needed for making a channel ecosystem work for all. For example, at Sophos, we even design our solutions by keeping our partners in mind. There are features designed specifically for partners, such as the Sophos Central-Partner dashboard that allows partners to centrally manage their customer endpoints and firewalls from a single dashboard. Partners also have clear upsell and cross-sell opportunities with their existing customers, due to the broad portfolio of Sophos products that are available within Sophos Central.

Second is the communication channel between the vendor and partners; partners should be well aware of enablement tools, training and their growth path with the vendors they work for. Third is to make your channel and partners team as One Team to make the partner ecosystem a growth-oriented platform for all the stakeholders.”  

 
Sunil Sharma 
Managing Director of sales, India and SAARC - Sophos

Juniper looks forward to working with its trusted partners to achieve hypergrowth  

“In today’s industry, technology is expected to deliver business value while also providing agility and flexibility. A structured framework of engagement is essential for both IT Vendors & Partners to work together in delivering IT Solutions so that our customers are able to derive utmost business value from their investments.

At Juniper Networks, we are a partner-centric company and we fulfill our commitment through Juniper Partner Advantage Program (JPA). Beginning this year we launched the JPA 2022 program, which includes a slew of new initiatives, rewards, incentives and specializations aimed at driving incremental growth for our partners and providing them with the best possible foundation for success. Our JPA 2022 program also builds on recent investments in Mist Technologies, 128 Technology, Apstra and Netrounds, ensuring that our partners have the most up-to-date knowledge of our latest solutions to offer customers. We also launched Elite Plus, a new top-tier level of the partner program that provides superior support, investment, and rewards, as well as dedicated business development and demand generation resources. In 2022, we elevated some of our most dedicated partners in India, including Black Box, Datacipher and Targus Technology to Elite Plus. Furthermore, we continue to provide a range of incentives for our partners, including Market Development Funds (MDF) to support joint demand generation activities, a 360 dashboard providing partners with key business measurements, training passes, access to Juniper Cloud Labs for demos and more.”   

Harshavardhan Kathaley 
Director, Channel Sales (India & SAARC) - Juniper Networks

Hitachi Vantara takes pride in offering one of the best rebate programs for partners

“Partners are a critical part of every business and implementing well-planned partner programs helps to drive mutual success. Hitachi Vantara and its partners can help organizations keep up, create value, and identify new opportunities using data. At Hitachi Vantara, the partner program is developed around 3 P’s - Predictable, Pioneering and Profitable. Our partnership models of resell, deliver, managed services and co-create are all based on these three pillars. We provide Predictability to the partner business by way of clearly defining the rebate structure (the simulation of the same is available on our partner portal). We pride ourselves in providing one of the best rebate programs in the industry today.

We bring predictability in the way partners buy the goods from us, by defining the promotions on the products and offering Everflex (our as a service offering) purchases to our partners. We help our partners with a clearly defined and measurable MDF budget for lead generation, POC gear, partner enablement, industry sponsorships etc to expand the coverage and skills. We also help partners with incremental resources with defined deliverables and ROI. The mantra is to sell more to earn more, and the cycle continues. The key step is to take the best industry parties in account and help our partners grow their leverage with their customers. As an example, we help our partners align with our OEM alliance partners to leverage on expanding the offering and leveraging the ecosystem.” 

Deepak Sar 
Distribution & Alliance Director - Hitachi Vantara

Western Digital continues to reinvent the way it works with partners 

“For an organization such as Western Digital, channel partners are critical to success. Therefore, partner programs are extremely important. For example, we run one of the strongest and most successful partner programs for storage products in the channel today.

Our channel partners play a crucial role in our success and are a natural extension of our business. We run various channel partner programs to educate and equip our channel partners to leverage diverse market opportunities. We also offer them support to better connect with consumers. For example, our SanDisk League of Heroes (SLH) recognizes and rewards the high-performing channel partners in the consumer segment while our MyWD Partner reward program enables and encourages partners who sell storage drives, NAS and Surveillance/smart video solutions. Over the years, we have been consolidating and segmenting our channel partners for growth in key channel networks ranging from mobile, retail, IT, surveillance, and enterprise channel networks. We have an integrated channel marketing strategy built on three key pillars - education, reward, and engagement. In recent years, we have also aided our partners with digital toolkits, such as TechTalkApp, which helps them adapt to shifts, trends and new technology in today’s digital world. We also offer product collaterals and sales generation resources and connect them with prospects across social platforms.” 

Khalid Wani 
Senior Director - Sales, India, Western Digital

Microsoft’s focus on driving digital transformation creates opportunities for its partners 

“For decades, Microsoft’s partner ecosystem has been at the centre of how we bring technologies and business transformation to customers in markets around the world. Microsoft and our partners share a common goal – to help our customers scale and innovate to deliver new solutions that enable differentiation, drive business success and digital transformation. Microsoft Cloud is the foundation for sustained growth of partners as they build, co-sell and go-to-market with Microsoft. In India, we have a strong ecosystem of over 17,000 partners, inclusive of all partner business types - ISV, an IoT solution provider, systems integrator, advisory partner, OEM or reseller. Microsoft ensures that our programs and offers are designed to help partners quickly bring their innovative solutions to market, scale, grow their business and connect with more customers to solve unique needs. We are committed to investing in tools and services that partners require to expand their reach, help customers unlock growth potential, and grow their businesses for customers across organizations and industries. Through a variety of global programs, local offers to support market needs, and opportunities for reinvestment, Microsoft empowers partners to build and grow their business opportunities and profitability. As part of our investment in the cloud as a strategic lever for innovation and growth, and as a reflection of our continued commitment to partners, this month (October 2022), we changed the name of our partner program from “Microsoft Partner Network” to the ‘Microsoft Cloud Partner Program’.”

Venkat Krishnan 
Executive Director - Global Partner Solutions, Microsoft India

Partner programs help Trellix with increased revenue growth and faster growth 

“Partners are a crucial and critical part of our business ecosystem. In our country, partners provide us with scale, reach, agility and speed. With their pan India teams, a vast network, and technical expertise, not only do they help us in a faster go-to-market, but also support us with a good customer experience. They also circle back with business intelligence which helps us develop and deploy new and updated products in line with the market needs and demands.

Trellix's upcoming partner program Xtend is designed to provide a premium partner experience focusing on partner enablement and profitability that allows us to improve customer experience. It has various partnership levels, with each level providing various tier benefits such as market development funds, training credits, rebate calculation, and more. Our partner program thus focuses on the idea that long-term customer success is best achieved through the channel, and we appreciate their willingness to collaborate in ways that directly benefit our customers.
Trellix Xtend, which will debut in early 2023, is made to put the partner first. The program produces better customer outcomes since it can be customized to the business model and target market of each partner. It is designed to increase the profitability, engagement, and growth of the business. The key elements of our program include - Partner Enablement, Demand Creation, Partner Support and Professional Services.”  

Rahul Arora  
Managing Director, India & South Asia, Trellix

Kaspersky continues to deliver important improvements to its partner program 

“Collaboration and strategic channel partnerships are essential to enhancing business outcomes. Strategic partnerships allow you to leverage their connections to improve reach and drive revenue more quickly than simply expanding your internal sales teams.
Kaspersky United partner program now offers a revised rebate system, extended training courses and more rewards for managed service providers (MSPs). The rebates become more transparent and predictable and cover more Kaspersky products and services. Training updates include new courses for MSPs, sales and technical specialists, and ten new authorized training centres across the globe. MSPs now also receive higher rebates and simpler status progression from registered to platinum. Kaspersky continues to deliver important improvements to its partner program. Within the current update, monetary benefits are more aligned with the reseller’s own goals and they become available for more products, services and premium support included in the Kaspersky price list.
We at Kaspersky are committed to providing training, sales, marketing, and technical support to guarantee our partners get a head start in growing their presence and profits in the security market. We have a generous and transparent reward policy that includes incentives and discounts to ensure consistent and enhanced profit for all our partners. We have a dedicated partner portal integrating all the tools you need to do business with us, including flexible license management for MSPs and MSSPs.”
Dipesh Kaura 
GM - South Asia, Kaspersky 

The reach SentinelOne is unlocking through its partner ecosystem is the real differentiator 

“Channel Partners are an extension of any business entity and are many times the face of the organization.  They play a key role as an influencer driving higher customer conversion rates. Only with a happy partner, can the organization achieve success. It therefore becomes important to leverage partnership ecosystems to unlock parts of the Total Addressable Market (TAM) and provide the much-needed sustainable advantage.
Partners of SentinelOne have the privilege to work with the first next-generation endpoint protection vendor that has the only fully integrated endpoint protection, detection, response, and remediation solution. Our great margins and deal registration provide added value to the partner’s current offering. 
SentinelOne does not compete with our partners by offering the services which are assigned to them.  Our philosophy is based on enabling our incident response partners or managed security service providers (MSSP).  We equip them with industry-leading capabilities like multi-tenancy and open APIs.  The lack of channel conflict and robust multi-tenant capabilities has allowed us to grow annual recurring revenue from MSSPs by 300 percent in 2021 over the previous year. Growing our Channel Partner Community has improved the quality of our leads, where one of our incident response partners helped us win a large airline customer in Asia.” 
Diwakar Dayal 
Managing Director & Country Manager, SentinelOne - India & SAARC

Nutanix re-architects its go-to-market strategy to provide partners more control 

“The partner program is very important to drive business because the IT industry is at an inflection point in how customers want to procure and consume technology.  Nutanix recently announced the next era of Elevate, our global partner program designed to re-define the partner engagement journey. The Elevate program focuses on providing a better experience for the entire partner ecosystem and customers throughout the customer lifecycle, while staying true to the program’s unified framework. In the past year, Nutanix has re-architected its go-to-market strategy, programs, and tools to provide partners more control, insights, and efficiency over sales cycles. The new updates to the Elevate Partner Program include an Enhanced and expanded incentives framework to reward partner ecosystem throughout the customer lifecycle, new incentive for partners that lead sales cycles autonomously and a continued focus on building partner competencies through education and certifications.
With our updates to the Elevate program, we have addressed many of our partners’ needs to engage with customers through their lifecycle - not just selling the technology, but enabling them to adopt, perform, expand and ultimately renew. Elevate now supports and rewards partners along this entire journey through purpose-built benefits and incentives. We took a three-pronged approach - Research and engagement with partners worldwide, Focus on customer centricity and piecing it all together while creating simplicity and flexibility in engagement.”
Harsh Vaishnav 
Head of Channels India & SAARC, Nutanix 

Autodesk tries to meet the needs of its customers through its partner programs 

“A Channel Partner Program is a strategy to motivate and engage channel partners to create more value for our customers. Not only do they bring in revenue, but they are also an important link between us and the customers. Autodesk is continually working to ensure our partners are highly qualified and are able to assist customers to utilize Autodesk products and services. We are investing a lot through CDP (Channel Development Program). The objective of the Autodesk Channel Development Program (CDP) is to support partners ‘marketing and strategic business efforts by providing funding.
We are running two programs -
1.       MDF (marketing development fund) intended to support eligible partners by providing funding for eligible marketing activities.
2.       SIP (Strategic Investment Program) Funds intended to support partners undertaking a significant growth initiative. SIP allows Autodesk to invest in partners who have a commitment to developing a strategic business plan in order to achieve accelerated growth and transformation to a services-oriented solution provider in sales, customer success and consulting practice areas.
The Partner engagement model (PEM) of Autodesk is an important part of our sales strategy and is a key element of the Autodesk Partner Program. The model provides a framework for how Partners may be compensated by Autodesk local entities for driving business with customers and for collaborating with Autodesk on business that Autodesk transacts directly with customers.”
Alok Sharma 
Director – Channels, India & SAARC, Autodesk

Check Point aims to be the most preferred cybersecurity vendor for its partners 

“Channel partnership is at the center of our strategy since we are a 100% channel-driven company. Our company’s mission is to provide the best security while giving possibilities for partners to grow and become more successful. With the new initiatives in the partner program, we are doubling on our commitment to helping our partners earn new business and strengthen relationships with existing clients. The focus for the Partner Growth Program is to grow and reward partners, place clear objectives, and build a robust ecosystem to keep the world safe, and to accelerate our partner’s ability to win early and often. 
Check Point has doubled its investment in India whether it is from a channel coverage or channel development perspective. Our partner team size has doubled and so have our investments in our joint GTM strategy with our partners, for instance, our Check Point Partner MAP is an exclusive Partner Portal designed to provide our partners with centralized access to Partner Program benefits ranging from obtaining quotes on renewals and new product purchases to accessing co-operative marketing funds programs. Our key aim in designing our Partner Program was to ensure that it would be simple, easy to adopt, transparent and focused on a ‘win-win’ partnership. Prior to the launch of our Partner Growth Program in 2020, we reached out to hundreds of partners globally to seek their feedback on building a robust partner program that helped us to construct the program.” 
Manish Alshi 
Head of Channels and Growth Technologies - India & SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies

Securonix constantly co-innovates, co-invests and collaborates with its partners 

“The significance of a partner program cannot be stressed enough, as the right program can provide you with the necessary foothold in the market. It is literally a make or break situation if you don’t have the right partner strategy. Especially in the case of cybersecurity.
Securonix has over the last 12 months onboarded more than 50 new partners and 200+ customers from 12+ additional countries through our various partner programs, in addition to our existing partners. Globally, 50 to 60 percent of our business comes through MSSPs or resellers and we want to reach a stage where about 80-90 percent of our business comes through our channel partners as it is difficult to have feet on the street for a company of our scale.
We are constantly co-innovating, co-investing, and collaborating with our partners to provide them with additional resources and benefits. We aim to make it as simple as possible for our partners to provide solutions, implement them, and manage customers. We strive to provide our partners with 360-degree support in all aspects, from improved threat detection via UEBA to a fully managed SaaS platform that allows them to build and deploy analytics while also supporting data masking and GDPR privacy requirements. Any partnership program that we design essentially has the Partner First ideology, Flexible and customized offerings, Rewards & Benefits and an Easy onboarding process.” 
Tom Cheeran 
Director Channel Sales - India & SAARC, Securonix

Acronis sees partners as independent businesses with their own objectives 

“The Acronis Partner Program supports partners by offering a bunch of great benefits in exchange for their attention and dedication to Acronis. It is a unique and easy to follow program, where we do not have any threshold for Registered, Authorized and Gold Service Providers. In fact there are just 2 main pre-requisites – Acronis Academy certification (which we simplified a lot this year) and #CyberFit Score. Partners who get to the higher level are eligible for new benefits, which they may use to grow their business.

Acronis Partner Program provides multiple benefits to partners, who are willing to do joint business plan with us and are upgrading their level -
•    Rebates for hitting quarterly targets
•    MDF for joint marketing
•    Dedicated Partner Account Manager even for small and medium Service Providers
•    NFR keys of Acronis software for internal usage
•    Access to Acronis Engineers to help sell Acronis solutions
•    Partner Demo Lab – it is a pre-configured on-demand demo environment to play with and check out the most recent version of the product
•    Partner Locator
The Acronis Partner Program is built mainly on trust, focus and efficiency. Our mission is to align with their business objectives, educate and equip them with all necessary tools and motivate their business growth on Acronis Cyber Cloud platform. We reward partners for their focus and willingness to do joint business plans and we invest funds and other resources into our focused partners to help them grow faster.”  
Rustom Hiramaneck 
General Manager - South Asia, Acronis 

Canon looks forward to creating a stronger base in Tier III, IV markets with its partners 

“As Canon’s key stakeholders, channel partners have always played a crucial role in the success of our brand. Our partner ecosystem has been infused with strong fundamentals and with consistent efforts. It has grown to a strong network of 140+ distributors and 4500+ channel partners. While we continue to launch technological innovations in line with industry trends, it is our channel partners who help us to take our products and services to our consumers across all regions in India.
Over the past few years, they have significantly helped us strengthen our position as an industry leader by enabling our entry into many new markets. As they help us establish our foothold in the market, we are constantly doing our bit to ensure their success as well. To further empower our channel partners, we have heavily invested towards building both scale and competencies in new technologies. Keeping in mind the profitability and long-term sustenance for our partners, we have been actively overseeing the distribution and retail structure along with providing our partners with personalized retail coverage and customized campaign support to expand their businesses.
We will continue to focus on expanding our partner ecosystem further with a special emphasis on micro-distribution, regional outreach and exploring new business avenues for our partners. Our primary objective is to increase the availability of Canon products and genuine consumables across India in the foreseeable future with the help of our valued channel partners.” 
C Sukumaran 
 Senior Director, Consumer System Products and Imaging Communication Business, Canon India

Commvault is focused on engaging with its partners responsibly and transparently 

“At Commvault, we are partner obsessed, partner powered. When it comes to the Commvault Partner Advantage Program, our chief goal is to continuously nurture a partner program that evolves with our partners and their needs. As I take the next step in my Commvault journey with the move to India, I am excited to work closely with our partners in India and across Asia Pacific to meet customers wherever they are within their data management strategies – irrespective of their consumption model “on prem, cloud only or multi cloud”.
As a “Partner-First” organization and following the mantra of Simplify, Solve & Evolve, we ensure our partners have a unified end-to-end data offering, gain the ability to scale and grow their profitability, with an opportunity to always level up. Win, growth, and performance rebates, as well as deal registration benefits and seller incentives are on the table for our partners who drive more revenue and profit into their businesses. We recognize and reward partners with back-end rebates for new customers and software revenue.
One of Commvault’s key goals is to be perfectly positioned to help our partners deliver the solutions they need to help their customers. To truly hone in on what our partners are looking for and provide mutual success, we continue to invest across four key pillars: Innovative products that are partner-ready to sell; A partner-to-win, go-to-market strategy and ecosystem; Modern, profitable and predictable programs and a Success made simple approach.” 
Praveen Sahai 
Channels, Alliances & Service Provider - Commvault APJC

Rashi Peripherals tries to keep its focus on the inclusive growth of its partners 

“Partner Programs are important to drive business growth and keep channel partners aligned with the sales targets. Incentive and training programs help partners increase the scale of their business and earn decent margins. It also boosts their confidence and helps them keep up with the changing business dynamics.  
Rashi Peripherals, a leading national distribution partner of global technology brands in India has a network of 50 Branches and 50 Service centres that cater to over 7000+ channel partners in 704 locations across India. Our Partner Programs are focused on the inclusive growth of channel partners. We launch programs such as SI schemes, bundling schemes, and sales targets schemes to help partners liquidate their inventory, up-sell and cross-sell. In 2021, we rolled out the Partner Certification program in which we conferred the Platinum Partner status to over 680 partners across India. These partners are eligible for special incentives and benefits for their long-term association with Rashi Peripherals and contribution to the company’s revenue growth.  
We have a transparent and fair business policy of credit notes wherein the credit benefits are passed on to partners. We utilize a market development fund (MDF) to conduct roadshows and training programs for partners. We are probably the only distributor to organize fun activities for their family members. We regularly organize quiz competitions for spouses and children of partners as part of our channel engagement activities.” 
Rajesh Goenka 
Director, Sales & Marketing - Rashi Peripherals 

For IceWarp, the partner ecosystem is basically a multiplier effect 

“The importance of the IT channel cannot be overstated. The channel will continue to evolve at pace, with new ways to consume and use technology taking precedence. Partners will continue to be trusted advisers to customers, adopting skills to make sure they are still technically ahead of new trends and offer maximum value to their customers and prospects. I expect the channel to include more services in terms of Professional services including integration and migration.
Our marketing development fund allows resellers to accumulate funds to engage in demand-generation initiatives based on a percentage of product sales. We also provide a variety of marketing materials, tools, and resources that partners can use to run campaigns. We also allow partners to register sales leads and offer them lead lock commits to pursue the deal through our partner friendly lead lock system and processes. We focus a lot on training and development and also provide presales and post-sales support to our partners.
The Partner ecosystem is basically a multiplier effect for any OEM. Once you have identified the various objectives of the partnership, you must structure your program to distribute your resources appropriately. If a partner already has an integration with your solution and mutual clients, you might wish to invest time and effort in establishing a tighter relationship based on a meaningful and common use case.”
Anita Kukreja 
Head of Marketing & Channel Sales - IceWarp

Seagate considers partners as the key drivers of its success in India

“At Seagate, our partners are the key drivers of our success in India, and it is imperative for us to empower them by enabling our vendors and distributors with the right combination of knowledge and tools. Our partner programs play a key role by developing incentives around specific sales initiatives and acquiring new customers. We leverage several programs that have been created to accommodate the specific needs of different channel companies.
We aim to support our partners in maximizing their results by offering the most optimal storage solutions and services and have developed the award-winning Seagate SkyHawk Partner App, a first-of-its-kind solution for video and imaging applications that supports our partner community across the Indian market. With the success of the Skyhawk Partner app in India, we have also expanded it to over 10 other countries, including Philippines, United Kingdom, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and more, to support more local partners in the market.
In addition to this, we also have the Seagate Insider partner program to connect with customers and partners in the markets. We continue to conduct comprehensive training sessions, seminars, and co-marketing initiatives to answer any new opportunities. Through our distributors, we conduct several training programs for our channel partners to achieve the set targets, which go streamlined with the latest IT industry trends and channel practices in India. We also organise activities for our partners to address the right audience and customers.” 
Sameer Bhatia 
Director of Asia Pacific Consumer Business Group & Country Manager for India & SAARC, Seagate Technology

HID Global truly values its relationships with its channel partners 

“Channel partners play a critical role in our business operations in India with regards to sales and distribution. Through our HID Global Advantage Partner Program we are able to offer profitable opportunities for partners, while also ensuring customers worldwide have access to HID solutions.
Our Partner Programs are highly beneficial to both manufacturers and channel distributors within the security ecosystem. We truly value our relationships with our Channel Partners and our programs are built to motivate and reward loyalty as well as performance. To ensure accessibility and equal opportunity we have several trainings, assessments and certifications in place. All partners are required to go through a comprehensive program assessment available through HID Academy. These trainings are designed to help partners enhance product knowledge, increase credibility and thereby be able to better solve their customer problems. Annual assessments are undertaken and based on specific criteria we determine tier statuses. Based on performance and competency, we assist partners to move up the three tiers - Silver, Gold and Platinum. Certified partners are then awarded distinctive emblems and badges to reflect their expertise levels when it comes to HID Global’s extensive product range. To ensure healthy competition, we offer loyalty-based incentives to partners building profitable customer relationships. In addition, we provide insights and leads to help partners stay connected and up to date on local market opportunities and emerging trends.” 
Prabhuraj Patil 
Commercial Director, Physical Access Control Solutions, South Asia - HID Global

Forescout hopes to be an attractive proposition to existing and potential partners 

“Partners are a critical Force Multiplier for any vendor who is 100% channel centric. It is therefore important that there is a robust channel program for partners to be able to leverage that allows them to 1) get access to the resources they need to build capability 2) access to funding for them to drive marketing initiatives to help their sales efforts and 3) the incentives to reward them for driving new businesses.

Our Partner Connect portal provides our partners with development resources they need to build competency on our platform. This training is made free of charge to our partners. We have recently streamlined our MDF accrual process so that rather than tie it to one partner, we have pooled it to make it available to more partners in our ecosystem. We are also revamping our rebate program to create a more holistic program that rewards partners for more than just revenue but takes in all the positive elements of the partnership, i.e., investment in certifications, net new logos to name a few.

We have decided that we wanted to build fewer deeper relationships with Focus Partners. As we grow the business in APJ we want our ecosystem to enjoy that growth with us. This key decision, along with making all the partner program benefits freely available and accessible to partners means we hope to be an attractive proposition to existing and potential partners.” 

Colin Garro 
Director - APJ Channel Sales and Alliances, Forescout

 ManageEngine strongly believes in adopting a transparent approach towards partners

“While most organisations do work with a channel ecosystem to acquire customers and drive growth, it's important to structure the partner program with defined objectives, be it in terms of a go-to market strategy, creating demand generation, offering consulting and delivery services, etc. As ManageEngine offers a comprehensive suite of products for enterprises to manage their IT infrastructure, it's important to have our partners deliver value to customers through implementation and consultancy services, which in-turn drives growth through a land-and-expand strategy. With our value-added partners, we take a 360-degree approach to continuous enablement on our products. Along with bringing our domain expertise, we certify partners to offer professional services to our customers. Our dedicated partner development team assists partners with market development funds to create more awareness and, in turn, customer acquisitions. We also work with a lot of transactional and opportunistic partners by engaging together in the customer journey from understanding their IT challenges, to helping with the heavy lifting of technical and implementation requirements and then letting them drive business closure.
We strongly believe in adopting a transparent approach by having an end-to-end inclusiveness though being part of the customer journey right from the beginning, with robust deal registration mechanisms, marketing initiatives, etc. We also onboard and scale our partner ecosystem with varying domain expertise like cybersecurity, ITIL, cloud practices and focusing on specific industry verticals or locations.” 
Arun Kumar J 
Regional Director- Channel & Partner Management, ManageEngine, Zoho Corp.

Genesys India continually investing to build up its partner landscape 

“For Genesys, partners play a significant role as an extended arm to drive business profitability, and they are an extension of the sales function and key to our go-to-market strategy. We are witnessing an industry complexity that is stacked with an ever-evolving partner ecosystem - ranging from traditional Global System Integrators (GSI), Distribution and Services groups, to a new breed of partnerships that include Independent Software Vendors (ISV), Consultants, Technology Co-selling, Telco partnerships, Referrals, etc. With a strong partner ecosystem laying the foundation to scale in the market, govern the space, and ensure equitable opportunity, Genesys has built sustainable partner programs to succeed in the market.  We believe a partner-driven framework that ensures efficient business functioning is absolutely mandatory for every original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Genesys India leads with a partner-first strategy. We have built an ecosystem around Experience as a Service, our vision to help organisations orchestrate seamless experiences through the coordination of technology, interactions and touchpoints across the end-to-end customer journey. We run an advanced and mature partner program called Genesys Ascend which defines the framework for our entire ecosystem of GSI, Telecom, Consultant, Technology, business process outsourcing (BPO), Distribution and Service Partners, for scaling up our business. The objective of this program is to empower partners with differentiation in positioning themselves based on their commitments and investments in the business practice and broaden the commercial path for partner success.” 

Avanti Misra 
 Director Channels and Alliances - Genesys India

CommScope believes in establishing a strong collaboration with partners  

“At CommScope, we believe that a strong collaboration with our partners is the best way to bring essential solutions to the forefront of an evolving Indian market and for a new breed of digitally savvy customers. Our PartnerPRO Network features an exclusive global network of experts designed to help partners discover new revenue opportunities. The network consists of CommScope-authorized local distributors, solution providers, consultants and alliance partners that are trained to provide local insight, which puts our high-performance solutions to work. Extensive guidance and access to resources for partners are also included as part of the PartnerPRO program, to elevate their marketing and technical expertise, and build trusted and mutually profitable relationships.
In 2022 we launched our RUCKUS BIG DOGS Partner Program which includes a new middle tiering that allows a wider range of local partners access to market development funds and unique specializations in our industry-leading wireless networking technologies.
CommScope’s PartnerPro Program also looks to providing extensive resources and training for channel partners to elevate their marketing and technical expertise, to help build a trusted and mutually profitable relationship. CommScope’s partner program and initiatives equip the channel ecosystem with best-in-class technology, robust sales enablement, and marketing support to more than 10,000 partners worldwide, including India. In addition, our program offers partners access to an extensive range of resources such as emerging technology training and education, partner portal and enablement tools.”  
Kalyan Deep Ray 
National Channel Manager, Enterprise Sales, India & SAARC - CommScope

Lookout ensures predictability, profitability and ease of doing business for partners  

“Lookout is a channel-first organization. With our partner program we ensure predictability, profitability and ease of doing business for our partners. With the Lookout Security Platform, our channel partners can enable their customers' digital transformation by empowering them to securely deliver applications to users anywhere they want to work. 
We have recently launched the Lookout Partner Academy giving partners access to exclusive educational content leading to different levels of certifications. Upon completion of the curriculum, the partner will be designated Lookout Qualified. Our NFR program provides partners access to the entire Lookout Security Platform for their own use to protect the data in their organization. Lookout also provides proposal-based marketing development funds to jointly create awareness and generate demand. We have also come out with a refreshed partner portal that provides partners with an easy and transparent way to register and view their opportunities, find the key documents needed to support prospect and customer conversations and stay up to date on the latest news and product updates.
A part of the partner program is a comprehensive Deal Protection Policy with clear guidelines to protect the incumbent partner, both for initial deals as well as for renewals.”   
Surojit Dasgupta 
Country Manager – India & Saarc Region, Lookout 

UiPath directs its efforts in building a fair and transparent partnership model  

“UiPath is a partner-first organization, and over the years we have consistently invested in our partner programs. Our partners have played an instrumental role in helping us go from strength to strength. They have helped guide customers through their automation journeys and accelerate their digital transformation.

As of this year, more than 4,700 partners have joined the UiPath partner program. UiPath's partner program is a global ecosystem of recognized players from the technology domain who are transforming the way humans work by helping organizations make work strategic, valuable, and fulfilling. Through the program, partners get access to the UiPath platform. It is an end-to-end platform, designed to change the way humans work and helps customers leverage AI-enabled computer vision to ramp up innovation and meet their digital transformation objectives faster with greater success.   

In March this year, we introduced a further strengthened partner program the Technology Partner Program. It empowers partners to develop and deliver end-to-end automation applications and solutions built using complementary offerings from other ISVs with UiPath's technology. The program also includes a range of new technical, sales, and marketing offerings for partners to develop, test, and market their applications and provide best-of-breed complementary offerings. The UiPath Business Partner Program is designed to be pro-competitive while helping partners accelerate our customer’s automation journey by improving the distribution of UiPath technology and services.”  

Nitin Kotian 
Director, Partner Ecosystem and GSI, India and South Asia - UiPath

Pure Storage positioned to drive increased portfolio adoption with its partners  

“For Pure Storage, our partner program has absolutely been a critical part of our success. We would not have been able to reach the number of customers that we have on our own. Pure Storage has been, and continues to be, a 100% channels-centric company. We have set the bar in the industry to deliver simplicity, flexibility, and value to our partners and customers so we can continue to grow together. At Pure, we constantly evaluate and enhance our Partner Program to ensure we reward great performance and provide the right training and enablement so that our partners can deliver exceptional results.

We consolidated the Global Partner Organization - including MSPs, GSIs, distribution and resellers - into a single organization to reach all routes to market and leverage partner capabilities more effectively.  This gives our partners the same, complete Pure support whether they are reselling, offering managed services, as-a-service solutions or cloud-native sales motions.  This consolidation is the foundation of our enhanced Partner program. What we established with our partners is trust. Pure never competes with our partners on any deal. And they can count on us to provide them with our full support. We see this as a win-win-win for Pure, our partners and the end-users who get the best deal with the best technology and the best support possible.”   
Jithesh Chembil 
Head Channels, Pure Storage India

Schneider Electric helping partners become more services-oriented  

“When it comes to IT power infrastructure, Schneider Electric evolves partner programs from volume to value. We are consistently working to assist partners in shifting away from traditional hardware sales and yearly contracts towards becoming more services-oriented. Our revamped mySchneider IT Partner Program makes it possible for partners who want to market and sell their own service contracts as well as handle their own upkeep. It gives partners the option to independently monitor the websites of their clients if they choose to act as their own "service bureau." The IT Solution Provider is one of the newest specializations that are made available for our partners. This evolved program now allows the uniqueness of our partners to shine. It provides the flexibility to certify in one or more specializations based on their current capabilities or future aspirations.

The mySchneider IT Partner Program enables partner growth through a simpler, creative, and collaborative approach. The evolved program officially launched in India on 9th June 2022 with the availability of specializations scheduled to roll out over the next 12-18 months through a phased approach including IT Solution Providers, Data Center Solution Providers, and Software and Services Providers. Our commitment to upholding our core promises is a must. While this presents an opportunity to elevate our program to an industry-leading model, honouring our long history felt critical.”   
Swarup Das 
Director – Channel Sales, Secure Power, Schneider Electric, Greater India

Utilisation of strengths and offerings of partners is the prime focus of Yotta’s partner strategy 

“Yotta has always emphasized a ‘partner-first’ approach, and a partner program is a crucial step in this direction. Partners are our extended teams, facing the customers’ first-hand, and it’s important to enable them with the right information, tools, training, and support to build a strong value proposition. Built on the pillars of trust, transparency, and teamwork, our Partner Program endeavors to evolve in line with the industry requirements.

As part of our partner remuneration program, we offer varied percentages of commissions for each product and service, enabling our partners to get the maximum benefits from the program. We have also designed the Yotta Innovators Club (YIC) Program that enables companies that offer AI/ML, IoT and ISV solutions with cloud infrastructure to help them develop and certify their applications on Yotta Enterprise Cloud. Additionally, the registered partners of YIC receive monthly cloud vouchers along with support and access to the Cloud Partner Portal, listing on the Yotta Technology ISV Program Page on the Yotta website, training support, online training for sales and specific programs, and exhibitor opportunities at Yotta conferences and events.

To further enable our partners’ sales teams, we launched the Yotta Horizon certification program, which covers basic to advanced training on data center and cloud services. Yotta's Golden Circle Awards reaffirms our dedication to the partner ecosystem and honour their contributions to technology innovation, leadership, and Yotta's expansion.”

Jollydeep Kaur 
Head- Partnerships, Yotta Infrastructure

Beetel focuses on helping its partners gain more market share  

“Beetel’s key focus is to drive partner enablement for its channel and vendor networks and engage with them through different initiatives. Our partners are one of our biggest strengths, and we have more than 1500 channel partners, present in 400+cities in India, and are growing our footprint in international markets with 19 cities already being serviced by us. The key here is to equip our partners with a better understanding of the new age solutions to pitch to the end clients and customers and service their needs. In the process, Beetel keeps upskilling its partner base to help them win orders and act as consultants to the partners rather than just a distributor partner for them. Beetel in the last year, has conducted more than 500 trainings & webinars along with 450+ certifications and 20 offline events for its partners across India.

We constantly invest and collaborate with our partners to provide them with different incremental resources and benefits. Beetel aims to strengthen its partner base by helping them provide new solutions, implementing them, and managing their customer base. We ensure that our partners have a clear and transparent understanding of our product offerings and help address complex customer challenges at their end. Our objective is to provide our partners with 360-degree support in all aspects, from pre-sales and post-sales to POCs.”

Sanjeev Chhabra 
MD & CEO, Beetel Teletech

The long-term goal of Varonis is to create an effective channel ecosystem  

“Channel partner programs are particularly effective when trying to get a good foothold while tapping into new markets. Combining the vast network and industry knowledge that channel partners hold and a good understanding of the organisation's products, organisations can deliver effective value to their customers. Ever since Varonis entered the Indian market less than a year ago, we have successfully onboarded numerous new channel partners. Our long-term goal is to create an effective channel ecosystem that spreads across India and reaches every potential customer looking for data-centric cybersecurity that protects companies from the inside out.
The Varonis Partner Program (VPP) is an easy way to accelerate sales growth. With phenomenal market acceptance, our solutions are at work in thousands of customer environments across every major industry. We aim to create programs that are simple, easy to implement, and at the same time, manage customer expectations. We create detailed training modules about our products and services and ensure that our customers understand our products thoroughly and guide our customers effectively. Our programs help partners get a 360-degree knowledge of our products so that they can address customers' complex questions.
Once a partner is fully onboarded, we invite them to sign up for our partner portal where they have access to training, deal registration, knowledge bases, and other content that will help equip the partner on their journey to sell Varonis solutions.”   
Maheswaran Shamugasundaram  
Country Manager - India, Varonis

A streamlined framework makes it easier for partners to engage with Oracle   

“There has been an unmatched level of technological advancement in recent times, coupled with customer organisations embracing Digital Transformation as a business imperative. In India especially, there has been a significant shift towards cloud acceptance even in regulated sectors. A dynamic and robust partner ecosystem is therefore critical for helping drive innovation and supporting customer business outcomes.
At Oracle, we believe that our partners are an extension of us, as we continue to build a specialised partner network. Currently we have about 3,000 active partners in the Asia Pacific region, and about 500 partners in India. Our modern Oracle Partner Network (OPN) framework enables partners to achieve Oracle Expertise to gain customer trust and relevancy, extend into new markets and grow their business.  
The three core tenets of the modern OPN program are -
Customer-centricity: with focused recognition in areas of partner expertise - including product, geography and industry - customers can easily identify partners that are ready to deliver value for their specific business needs.
Success-driven: increased investment in tools and resources (“Enablers”) - including cloud environments, technical assistance, and targeted go-to-market resources - designed to build Expertise
Simplified: streamlined framework that makes it easier for partners to engage with Oracle and leverage the breadth of Oracle’s broad, integrated cloud and on-premises portfolio.”    
Siddharth Idnani  
 Alliance & Channels, Oracle India

K7 Computing tries to keep its partnership model fair and transparent 

“K7 Computing’s partner programme is a critical pillar on which our success is built. K7 was the first organisation to adopt the FMCG model for software distribution, ensuring that businesses and end users across the length and breadth of the country have access to our world-class antivirus products and solutions. K7 follows partner-led growth to drive international expansion as well. We now have 30,000 channel partners, actively seek new partners, and incentivise existing partners to improve market access and drive growth in sales revenue.
K7 Computing operates multiple incentive systems to benefit partners based on their performance and the market context within which they function. These systems include inventory discounts, target-linked rebates, and performance-based incentives and blockbuster rewards. We also conduct marketing programmes, such as partner events at various locations in India, that help partners maximise their sales within the regions they serve.

Partners rely on a fair and transparent partnership model to ensure they are well rewarded for all their efforts on behalf of K7 Computing. We ensure this is maintained by using partner app-based activations that are automatically updated in a dedicated website, allowing partners to track their activations and renewal opportunities. K7 also offers activation incentives from the very first activation, eliminating minimum activation requirements, to help partners maximize their earnings.”     

Sucindran (Suchi) Ramachandran 
CEO - K7 Computing

ESDS comprehends the needs of its partners that help them rise to the top

“Driving business is a result of collaboration and collective work. Channel partners are essential to any establishment’s success when it comes to the go-to-market strategy. They are critical to the success of the company and they help with organisation representation there by market share. As the public face of the business, partners have the power to persuade prospective clients to become lifelong clients. They bear full responsibility for leading a business down the effective road.
Partners are ESDS's extension and an inseparable part of our success. In light of this, our partner program is well-organized, extremely rewarding, and keeps investing in the channel's talent development. Our goal is to expand the partners' businesses and make sure they are sustainable in the long run. Partners must be profitable to reinvest in staff training and skill development, enabling them to make a compelling argument to their partners.
To create a compelling and profitable partner Programme, ESDS ensures to understand the exact requirements of the partners. A solid partner Programme should include substantial rebates, deal registration, lead creation, account management, and front-end discounts, to name a few elements. Other factors that should be considered include partner training, skill development, service support, streamlining the onboarding process, providing the appropriate sales and marketing materials, and priming the sales lead pipeline to track and report progress.”
Piyush Somani 
Managing Director and Chairman ESDS Software Solution

Channel Partners work as an extended arm to Anritsu India   

“Partner Program is an important component of an organization's growth journey. Partners work as an extended arm to drive business and contribute to expanding market share. As OEM we need a robust partner who can reach to end users, promote products and work towards brand enhancement, and finally bring more business to the OEM. In this we see growth for each other.  

Channel Partners work as an extended arm to all OEMs. India being a diversified country with many languages and cultures, OEMs like us bank on regional channel partners to get connected with end users. Channel Partners therefore play an important role in this last mile connect. Some of the customers are in remote areas who are not accessible and also not cost effective to explore for new business. In this scenario Channel Partners bring value to OEMs.

We organize time to time product trainings to our channel partners and educate them on technology- product features capability. We also visit customers (end users) with Channel Partners to ensure both of them are well connected and understand the ecosystem well. Presales and post-sales trainings are an integral part of a relationship with partners. The Best Performing Channel Partners are recognised and awarded every financial year. This keeps them motivated to work for OEMs.”  

 
Madhukar Tripathi 
Associate Director - Optical Business & Marketing, Anritsu India

Veeam believes in “disruption” by bringing innovation to its product portfolio   

“We are a 100% channel company; the biggest component to our go to market strategy is that we rely on our partners. Veeam is a firm believer that the success of our partners, in turn, reflects on our success as an organization. Similarly, we continuously strive to bring constant innovation to our partner programs to stay relevant. Our solutions are flexible, easy to install, simple to run and always reliable, and we have designed our Partner Programs around the same principle. Further, we provide unique opportunities to all our partners to interact/collaborate with other region partners to interact via the Partner Xchange program so that they can learn from others.
We have strengthened our Partner Perks programme, which was created specifically to increase partner engagement, reward them, encourage focused solution adoption, and drive business growth. Veeam also provides several other network programmes that facilitate access and provide better support to our partners, as well as increase partner engagement and encourage focused product/solution adoption among customers - Veeam Technology Alliance Program (VTAP); Veeam ProPartner Network and Veeam Accredited Service Partner (VASP). To ensure more measurable success for all stakeholders, Veeam introduces innovative partner programs every year. We also launched Elite Plus, a new top-tier level of the partner program that provides superior support, investment, and rewards, as well as dedicated business development and demand generation resources.”        
Amarish Karnik 
Channel Sales Director, India & SAARC - Veeam Software

Arcserve partners are empowered to sell the best-fit products for their customers  

“The Arcserve Partner Success Program is built keeping in mind the channel partner’s business and organization, with benefits and incentives that make sense for all business models.  Our partner program is equipped with the solutions and support that they need to maximize their profits and expand their reach and business.  We have a no-cost, no-obligation Partner Program which includes industry-leading margins, rebates and support for our various partners.
No matter what industry-leading Arcserve product they are selling, we ensure that our partners are rewarded—without any hoops to jump through. They are empowered to sell the best-fit Arcserve products for their business and customers. We also have the Arcserve Academy to help partners and customers gain technical and sales training and certification through a classroom, which we offer through online tools and videos, or on location.
Our partnership program is fair and transparent, as when we stick to some select partnership, we take a holistic approach to the collaboration. We look at it as farming. We provide sales and pre-sales support to our partners and also help them in their marketing budget. Our partners are profited from the back-end as well as from the front-end, from any business received. We also have spiffs and marketing development funds for each of our partners. We abide by our registration deals, and it is for us our bible. Our training programmes are the same that we offer to our internal employees.”       
Nikhil Korgaonkar 
Regional Director - Arcserve India

Micro focus continues with its efforts to help partners in meeting business demands   

“At Micro Focus, we are uniquely positioned to support customers in making the most of their current software investments and advancing innovation quicker and risk-free on their journey to digital transformation because of our broad product portfolio, 7,500+ approved partners, and thousands of customers. The five primary IT strategies of Accelerate Application Delivery, Modernize Core Systems, Simplify IT Transformation, Strengthen Cyber Resilience, and Analyze Data in Time to Act are our core operational areas. As a channel-focused business, we offer various upskilling and cross-selling programs, portfolio adjustments, training, certifications, incentives, and demand generation support as a part of our Partner Boost program, especially in the India and APJ region for easy collaboration and high profitability. We continue with our efforts to introduce more initiatives that help our partners in meeting the business demands of customers across sectors and environments. We also support eligible partners to fund their marketing and sales activities that create awareness and drive demand for Micro Focus solutions thereby helping to generate leads and grow the business.

Over the years to push forward the government’s Digital India initiative, we have been collaborating with the Government of India in enabling citizen services. We work with multiple state governments on smart city building projects with the help of our partners and infrastructure organizations to deliver IT management solutions required for the smooth functioning of smart cities and strengthening cyber resilience.”      

Jiju Joseph, Country Head, Channels - Micro Focus India

Optoma employs transparent and equitable business practices for its partners   

“Every business needs to focus on a partner program for a stronghold in the market. It helps to reach out to the customers and to expand in new customer segments too. Since the restructuring we are thriving to have a solid partner network and understand the demand of Indian customers while offering solutions and products per their requirement. It is aiding in the development of our sales footprint and customer relationships. We have strengthened our network, engaged with a new client base, and increased brand presence through our successful partner program.

Our Partnership program is domain based and is a two-way stream with mutual benefits to all.  We focus on designing the program uniquely so that each channel partners get rewards per their unique presence in the market and their strengths.
As far as our association goes with partners, they have a tiered structure with distinct partnership categories and corresponding levels of commitment, which include a wider array of benefits and more support from the brand as well. Our success is a result of our strong partnerships model. Optoma employs transparent and equitable business practices for its partners and distributors. We as a business allow them to grow alongside us and offer them a fair portion of the profits. We are easily accessible to our partners and we update them about new developments on a daily basis.”    

   
Vijay Sharma 
Country Head India, Optoma 

Acer committed to expanding the ecosystem of its partners   

“A channel partner programme is essential to a brand's effective sales structure. When entering new markets, channel partners can offer a fast cut to profitability. They increase total brand recognition among new audiences, hence helping indirect sales as well.
At Acer, the past three years have been challenging for everyone, but even in those trying times, our partners have trusted and supported us. Our goal for our partners is to help businesses capitalise on the new technological prospects. We give our partners a better grasp of its developing potential in addition to regular product and technology training. As a company, we are committed to expanding the ecosystem of partners and fostering the ideal connections.
At Acer, we support specific programmes centred on particular products, allowing our partners access to various financing options etc. We had developed a cutting-edge Omni-Channel experience for our partners and customers during the pandemic to give them a seamless path to purchase and serve them smoothly across channels. The Omni channel experience is Acer's initial step toward a long-term Omni-channel strategy and is created to meet the needs of our Acer Exclusive retail partners in the present COVID-19 context. Partners can offer the whole line of Acer goods to their clients while still earning profits and receiving the program's benefits. It is one of several initiatives we have launched to help our partners and is a win-win situation.”     
Sanjeev Mehtani 
Chief Sales Officer, Acer India

Salesforce has built up practices solely focused on developing the Indian domestic marketplace    

“We have a partner first methodology and our partner ecosystem is growing almost 100% year-on-year in the Indian marketplace. We have global partners in the marketplace, such as Accenture, Deloitte, Wipro, and Infosys and we all work on the domestic market now. We have seen this huge shift over the last two and a half or three years, where we typically have these global players in the marketplace, servicing the global market in America or Asia, Middle East and Africa. What’s actually happening now is that they have realized the market opportunity within India itself. Therefore, they have practices built up which are solely focused on developing the Indian domestic marketplace.
The reality is that there is a crisis for talent on a global level. And that’s not exclusive to Salesforce but across the whole of the technology industry. We are doing everything within our power by enabling our partners to be able to capture that opportunity and growth that exists in the marketplace today. The problem is “How do I grow fast enough?''. It's probably to capture the market opportunity. Salesforce itself has grown with a 360° view of its customer base. Digital transformation is a part of that. Our partners ask us how they can grow from being just a CRM focused organization into one which actually embraces digital transformation as a platform. I think that's an exciting opportunity for partners as well.”     
Charles Woodall 
Senior Vice President Alliances and Channel Sales APAC - Salesforce

ViewSonic always believes in winning the mindshare of its partners first    

“There is always a need for a Robust Partner Strategy, which is critical to the success of the organization. This is imperative when Technologies are same, when infrastructure are same, and when quality of service is same. I fully believe that partners are not a community but they are individuals. Partners are instrumental in pulling up or pulling down brands if they don't see the human face of the company.

We have created https://viewsonicpartners.in/ which is a faceless system to enable the partner value creation. We at ViewSonic India realised that trust deficit and transparency among the brand and the partners are an issue in today’s world. So we developed a system which is transparent, interactive, seamlessly automated that addresses partner queries. This is also a super-fast, flawless, real-time rewarding system. We also believe that maintaining existing partners is more important than creating new ones. We ensure that the sustainability, future growth and profitability of our existing partner business should be intact. Before market share we think of first winning the mindshare of Indian partners. The biggest challenge in this age is to manage the conflict between ecommerce platform and the General Trade platform. There is a great amount of mistrust in the GT Partners as they believe that brands are supporting e-commerce. We believe that GT partners will always remain as they are at the centre stage of the business.”
        
Sanjoy Bhattacharya 
Director Sales and Marketing - IT Business, ViewSonic India

Partnering is in Cohesity’s DNA and built into everything it does 

“For the fourth year in a row, Cohesity has been included in the list of the most distinguished partner programs offered by leading technology companies serving the IT channel. This is an honour Cohesity is proud to share with all of our partners on the journey to strengthen enterprise cyber resilience through next-gen data management. Our program continues to prioritize simplicity, so it’s easy for partners and field teams to engage while offering excellent margin opportunities. This 5-star rating reflects our commitment to partnership, delivering value to your organizations and our mutual customers.

At Cohesity, we strive to offer a program that not only meets but exceeds the needs of our partners globally. Our approach is however a bit different. It starts with our innovative data management technology, a modern approach to cyber resilience for hybrid and multi-cloud environments with four key tenets - simplicity at scale, Zero Trust security principles, AI-powered insights and third-party extensibility to marketplace apps and integration with industry-leading solutions. Because we don’t sell directly to end-user customers, partners are always top of mind. We design, plan, and modify program benefits with one question in mind:  How can we improve and make working with Cohesity a better experience for our partners? At every level, we are committed to building profitable partner relationships while offering value to both partners and customers.”        
Amit Deshmukh 
Head - India Channels and Distribution Business, Cohesity