Monday Morning Impact – May 20

ServiceNow Adjusts Partner Segmentation in Major Program Upgrade

ServiceNow has announced major changes to its global partner strategy, including a new approach to partner segmentation.

Under the new framework, partners are segmented based on the breadth and depth of their ServiceNow‑enabled solutions adoption, plus a number of other factors including the number of certified staff, specializations, customer satisfaction scores, and a qualitative assessment of the partner’s digital transformation skills, industry domain expertise and global scale.

Based on these criteria, partners are segmented as a Global Elite partner with deep digital transformation skills, global scale, and a commitment to achieve a $1billion ServiceNow practice within three‑to‑five years; an Elite partner, which typically specializes in five or more products in multiple geographies; a Premier partner with fewer than five products in more than one geographic region; a Specialist partner with highly specialized skills in a specific area; or a Registered partner which has met the minimum qualification requirements for the program and has yet to achieve measurable activity or certifications.

“ServiceNow believes it can become a $10 billion company, creating significant opportunity for our global partner ecosystem to grow with us as we help enable digital transformation for customers worldwide,” said David M. Parsons, SVP of channels and global alliances. “We also are implementing a more consistent, proactive and predictable joint go‑to‑market engagement framework. Together, ServiceNow and its partners represent a true ‘force multiplier’ for our customers. We are committed to helping customers accelerate their digital transformation journey and realize unprecedented business value.”

To augment this strategy, the company has also rolled out a dedicated business development team to support the top global and regional service providers, a new program for service providers who innovate on ServiceNow’s workflow products or platform, and a new program to help its partners more effectively respond to public sector customer opportunities.

Other new features include a global‑regional joint engagement framework, a joint go-to-market governance model, updated training, an enhanced deal registration process and a global Partner Concierge Service Center.

Channel Impact^®
The new approach to partner segmentation is intended to recognize partners’ expertise across the ecosystem, enhancing the opportunity for partners to differentiate and position their services to joint customers. These updates also underscore the company’s commitment to assisting the channel in digital transformations.

VMware Cloud on AWS is Now Available Through AWS and APN Partners

Customers can now buy VMware Cloud on AWS directly through AWS and AWS Partner Network (APN) Partners in the AWS Solution Provider Program, through a recently announced agreement between the two companies.

VMware Cloud on AWS is a managed cloud offering that is co-developed by AWS and VMware. This on-demand service enables IT teams to extend, migrate, and manage their cloud-based resources with VMware tools. Customers are using VMware Cloud on AWS for a variety of workloads and use cases, including SQL Server migrations, SAP workloads, and Oracle and Oracle RAC migrations.

When purchasing through AWS, customers can also take advantage of available field promotional programs like the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP).

They can also use additional services such as Amazon RDS for VMware, AWS Outposts for VMware (available in 2H 2019), and new Amazon EC2 R5 Instance types. In addition, services like Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for back-up scenarios and AWS Managed Microsoft AD when using VMware Cloud on AWS for Microsoft SQL Server Migrations are also available.

Targeted verticals include healthcare, transportation, media and entertainment, financial services, manufacturing, oil and gas, government, education, and technology.

AWS recently launched a new partner enablement path for VMware Cloud on AWS for APN partners. The VMware Cloud on AWS Navigate track creates a prescriptive journey for APN Partners who want to build expertise in supporting customer projects for VMware Cloud solutions on AWS.

Channel Impact^®
The two companies have collaborated on related initiatives since 2017. This one allows customers the flexibility to purchase VMware Cloud on AWS either through AWS, VMware, or the AWS Solution Provider partner of their choice.

Impartner launches PRM Technology for Integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Impartner, a Salt Lake City-based Partner Relationship Management (PRM) provider, announced a collaboration with Microsoft to offer “Impartner PRM for Microsoft Dynamics 365,” a PRM platform specifically tailored to integrate tightly with Microsoft’s Customer Relationship Management solution at a native level.

The move provides channel marketing and sales professionals with an integrated master view of their channel data such as lead distribution, deal registration, cooperative marketing, partner onboarding, business analytics, etc. Microsoft will co-market, co-sell, and support both solutions to Dynamics 365 customers.

“PRM solutions provide companies with a nerve center for managing and optimizing their channel sales ecosystem in the same way that CRM facilitates direct sales,” said Ariel Katz, Microsoft’s General Manager of Dynamics 365 for Sales. “Impartner has developed integrations into Dynamics 365 to deliver an end-to-end solution that critically accelerates both direct and indirect sales.”

The newly released integration between Impartner and Microsoft enables sales teams to manage indirect sales with the same level of insight and scrutiny that they traditionally manage direct sales. Customers can see their pipeline with great insight and clarity, and report and manage it with the same suite of Dynamics 365 tools they use to manage direct sales.

Channel Impact^®
The collaboration results in an integrated technology solution to help customers accelerate both direct and indirect sales functions from a single console.