EDITOR’S COMMENT
BASSAM ALMASRI, SR MANAGER CHANNEL, NUTANIX – ME
P
artner programmes should be
dynamic and stay ahead of the
trends. The technology space is one
of the fastest changing industries and so
with the evolving landscape, it’s important
to keep your hand on the pulse and
change strategies accordingly. A partner
programme should ensure that all partners,
irrespective of which tier they fall into, have
equal access to opportunities to evolve and
grow their businesses.
A partner programme should have a clear
and defined vision and plan on how to achieve
it. And a recognition and reward programme
that is transparent and achievable.
Nutanix is a perfect example of a
company that has broken the traditional
partner programme mould and created a
channel charter. The term ‘programme’ is too
definitional and limiting.
Too many vendor partner programmes
today focus on partner classification and
tiering based on revenue alone. However,
there are other factors that we deem more
relevant for long term mutual success
including the number of deals, quality of
deals and partner’s investment in Nutanix
through certifications and training.
Measuring commitment by transactions
16
THE FACTORS
THAT MAKE
A PARTNER
PROGRAMME
SUCCESSFUL
rather than total
revenue allows
smaller, focused
partners to reach
the highest level of
partnership, not just
the large account
resellers and
long-time Nutanix
partners who have
already built up
large practices.
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Al
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Transactions
Sr
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ager Ch
annel, Nuta
also show breadth,
winning new
customers as well as getting repeat business. Nutanix understands
that it is important to have a mechanism in place to safeguard against
partners trying to beat the system with artificially smaller deals to
score more transactions and as such the company has implemented
advanced analytics that immediately raises a red flag.
Nutanix’s channel charter is about empowering partners rather
than measuring them and giving benefits based on what they deliver.
There’re no platinum, diamond or silver-levels. Instead partners are
categorised as pioneers, scalers and masters.
Pioneers are newbies who have just joined with the company
and they need a different set of tools and support. Scalers are
companies that are experiencing strong growth and need additional
support; and masters are companies that are off and running on
their own. In addition to more margin, the master partners get more
MDS as well and more sales support, because they are selling more
and addressing more of the market. Each category needs different
rewards, incentives and forms of support.
Training and certification is a very important part of a good
partner programme. Giving up control of opportunities to partners
can be an uncomfortable process for territory managers but
with the proper training and certification to measure the level
of expertise in the channel, everyone can be fully confident in
a partner’s ability to professionally deliver the best and most
compelling representation of a solution.
When you don’t have a training programme in place, it limits the
ability to scale the business as vendor presence is typically going to
be required to ensure the customer fully understands the value of
your solution.
Moreover, unless a partner is trained and certified, you have no
way of qualifying the level of expertise in the partner organisation
and whether they need additional help in certain areas. In short
partner training is mandatory for any vendor if they expect to be
successful and meet their growth targets.
Finally, it’s very important to constantly get feedback from
partners so that the partner programme can successfully evolve and
be tailored to their needs.