Here’s What You’re Missing: Channel Program Offerings IT Vendors Wish More Partners Took Advantage Of
As part of the CRN Partner Program Guide evaluation, channel executives were asked what elements of their partner programs they wish more partners took advantage of how they will benefit them. Here’s what 20 had to say.
Unclaimed Benefits
One thing that’s clear every year from the CRN Partner Program Guide: IT vendors have a lot to offer their channel partners in terms of incentives, financial assistance, technical training and support, marketing resources and expertise, and a whole lot more.
And yet for whatever reason, solution providers don’t always take full advantage of everything these programs have to offer. And that leaves channel chiefs throughout the IT industry scratching their heads.
That’s why as part of the 2024 CRN Partner Program Guide we asked IT companies the question: What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
In the following slides we provide the answers that 20 of the more than 280 IT vendors that submitted applications for this year’s Partner Program Guide provided to that question.
The CRN 2024 Partner Program Guide offers the information solution providers need to evaluate the channel programs operated by the IT vendors they work with or are considering partnering with. The guide is based on detailed applications submitted by vendors—more than 280 this year—outlining all aspects of their partner programs. Details of every vendor’s partner program can be found at CRN.com.
As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs because they provide the most comprehensive lineups of incentives, resources, training, services and benefits.
Slide shows in the 5-Star Partner Program Guide series running this week include companies that provide products and services in cloud platforms and infrastructure, devices and peripherals, data storage and backup, networking and unified communications, security, software, and systems and data center, in addition to 5-Star partner programs operated by startups.
Acer
Program Name: Acer Accelerate Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2022
Channel Chief: Philip Burger, VP, U.S. Channel
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=3
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Our program platform offers downloadable resources and self-paced training modules to help partner sales representatives sell, learn and earn more with the Acer Accelerate Partner Program.
Acumatica
Program Name: Acumatica Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2010
Channel Chief: CJ Boguszewski, SVP, Partner Programs, Strategy
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=5
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Our Referral Program. By leveraging this program, services partners can refer new leads back to authorized Acumatica VARs, thereby supporting our channel ecosystem in growing their respective customer bases and bringing in net-new customers to the ecosystem business.
Barracuda Networks
Program Name: Barracuda Partner Success Program
Year Program Established: 2004
Channel Chief: Jason Beal, VP, Worldwide Partner Ecosystems
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=30
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Barracuda recently introduced a certification for customer success, enabling sales and customer success staff to improve customer loyalty, drive higher customer satisfaction and increase sales. This will help partners understand more about customer success, what it is, why it’s happening in the industry and what the benefits are.
CrowdStrike
Program Name: CrowdStrike Accelerate Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2023
Channel Chief: Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=65
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Our Ecosystem. CrowdStrike maintains relationships with many different go-to-market partners who can help accelerate opportunities. Partners such as Tech Alliance Partners, GSIs and Cloud Service Providers are highly influential, with a presence within the customer. Solution Provider partners that leverage these relationships realize larger deal sizes with increased velocity.
Deepwatch
Program Name: Accelerate Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2019
Channel Chief: Ryan Wiese, Interim CRO
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=77
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Guaranteed Margins Impact to Partners: Partner margins are consistently healthy and predictable and complicated discount negotiations are unnecessary. Deepwatch will never push to take deals direct and there are no non-standard discount processes to worry about.
Devo Technology
Program Name: Devo Drive
Year Program Established: 2021
Channel Chief: Gary Pelczar, VP, Global Alliances
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=80
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Our comprehensive training and certification offering. By engaging in these, partners enhance their knowledge, ensuring they stay current with trends and product advancements. The benefits extend beyond individual growth, bolstering our partnership ecosystem’s success. We encourage partners to embrace joint planning sessions and collaborative marketing initiatives to amplify shared success.
ExtraHop
Program Name: Panorama Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2019
Channel Chief: Chris Royer, AVP, Americas Channel Sales, North America
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=95
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Selling through our primary MSSP program is underutilized and a great benefit many partners are missing out on. Partners do not like to give up control of customers, but in cases where they lose a deal, selling through an MSSP can be a strong alternative.
Gigamon
Program Name: Catalyst Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2013
Channel Chief: John Machonis, Sr. Director, Americas Channel Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=106
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Gigamon has created rich SPIFFs for partners to take advantage of, ranging from Deal Registration SPIFFs to CW SPIFFs. We even offer partner SPIFFs for engaging in customer case studies and completing required accreditations.
Google Cloud
Program Name: Google Cloud Partner Advantage
Year Program Established: 2019
Channel Chief: Kevin Ichhpurani, VP, Global Partner Ecosystem, Channels
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=108
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Delivery Readiness Index is a valuable tool that assesses partner proficiency to enhance their skill sets and propel growth and customer satisfaction. Delivery Readiness Index, in particular, doesn’t just focus on credentials, it confirms that partners possess the essential know-how and hands-on experience to exceed any customer’s expectations.
Intermedia
Program Name: Intermedia Champions
Year Program Established: 2006
Channel Chief: Jonathan McCormick, COO, Head of Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=130
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We encourage more partners to leverage the Intermedia All Access Sales & Marketing Platform. This offers custom 1:1 training, collateral customization, campaign deployment, social media support, data analytics, and sales/marketing webinars. Unlocking these benefits enhances partner capabilities, drives effective campaigns, and optimizes overall sales and marketing strategies for mutual success.
Keyfactor
Program Name: Keyfactor Partner Network
Year Program Established: 2019
Channel Chief: Joseph Tong, SVP, Global Channel
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=137
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
I wish partners would use our strategic thought leadership resources more creatively. Our team brings considerable knowledge and global perspectives into our technology areas. There is a great opportunity for partners to leverage our thoughts and expand with their own insights to customers for solution development.
N-able
Program Name: N-able Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2021
Channel Chief: David Weeks, Sr. Director, Partner Experience
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=159
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Our 2024 N-able Roadshows give an in-person rundown on what N-able currently offers including products, insights, and networking. It isn’t just a roadshow, it’s a journey of innovation, connection, and collaboration. We have tailored support and educational resources through N-ableMe.
Nutanix
Program Name: Elevate Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2020
Channel Chief: David Gwyn, SVP, Worldwide Channels, Customer Success
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=172
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Our Not For Resale (NFR) licensing program: Although many of our largest partners are utilizing these licenses, we believe that the eligible small and mid-sized partners could take better advantage of this benefits to get hands-on learning of our products to help them upskill their teams and reduce sales cycles.
Pax8
Program Name: Pax8Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2016
Channel Chief: Ryan Walsh, Chief Strategy Officer
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=185
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Partners should take advantage of our powerful education and enablement events like Mission Briefings, Bootcamps, Momentum, peer groups, business coaching through Pax8 Academy, and the annual Beyond conference. These events provide a technical deep dive into the cloud products we offer and teach partners how to position, upsell and cross-sell solutions.
RackTop Systems
Program Name: RackTop Channel Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2018
Channel Chief: Frank Russell, Director, Channel
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=195
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We have a strong third-party research reprint library that’s available to all of our partners to use in email and social media campaigns. Our partners can benefit from sharing complimentary third-party research that educates their audience and associates them as a thought leader.
Schneider Electric
Program Name: Edge Software & Digital Services Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2022
Channel Chief: Gordon Lord, VP, US Channels
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=209
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We understand it can be challenging to build a new practice. Therefore, MSPs can offset expenses needed to develop it by taking advantage of customer life-cycle rebates available exclusively to certified partners. We have specialized teams to support Premier partners and help them grow their managed power services business.
Sherweb
Program Name: Sherweb Partner Program
Year Program Established: 2010
Channel Chief: Jim O’Driscoll, VP, Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=224
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We encourage partners to seize the full potential of our Partner-to-Partner (P2P) program. Facilitating collaboration between Dynamics 365 resellers and MSPs, it delivers specialized matching, lead generation and a tiered pricing structure. Partners leveraging this opportunity gain user-friendly access, comprehensive support and dynamic skillset expansion, fostering mutual success.
Trustifi
Program Name: Trustifi MSP Channel Program
Year Program Established: 2021
Channel Chief: Zack Schwartz, VP, Channels; VP, Business Development
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=258
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Partners should take advantage of opportunities to allow third-party providers to deliver services they may not be able to provide on their own, augmenting their offerings and building a more comprehensive proposition. This takes some of the burden off partners so they can focus on sales and operational tasks.
Veritas Technologies
Program Name: Veritas Partner Force
Year Program Established: 2015
Channel Chief: Mike Walkey, SVP, Global Channel, Alliances
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=268
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Opportunity Registration Rebates are not leveraged by all partners. Veritas offers a robust Opportunity Registration rebate benefit that provides up to 24 percent for eligible partners for identifying, developing, and closing new and incremental sales.
Zebra Technologies
Program Name: PartnerConnect
Year Program Established: 2016
Channel Chief: Robert Armstrong, CMO
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2024-details?c=279
What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Encouraging channel partners to invest in digital transformation, we provide essential tools and education for improving their digital landscape and adapting to evolving customer buying processes. Our Collaborative Business Plan aligns partner goals with strategies, fostering effective partnerships, tracked and analyzed for optimized outcomes.