The new channel program is particularly designed to support partner types like system integrators and CSPs that CloudBees has recently made a priority in their channel-building efforts.
Jose Pena Toro, vice president of channels and alliance at CloudBees
Enterprise software delivery platform provider CloudBees has announced the CloudBees Partner Network, which is a complete reworking of their old partner program. That old program was aimed as traditional resellers and technology partners. CloudBees has more recently been focusing on attracting other types of partners like Cloud Service Partners [CSPs], and global systems integrators [GSIs], and the new program is designed to provide them with the proper types of support.
“We are the leading software-defined platform for enterprises,” said Jose Pena Toro, vice president of channels and alliance at CloudBees. “60% of the Fortune 100 use it, as well as more than half of the Fortune 1000. We move workloads to the cloud in a secure way though continuous integration and deployment, with our heart being DevOps, which is where we were originally positioned.
Cloudbees is a private company, that has been around since 2010, and today they compete against both mature companies like Microsoft and IBM, as well as some startups in the space.
“We are a mature company with a product that has a lot of scalability,” Pena Toro said. “Our high level of automation allows secure migration of huge numbers of applications.”
CloudBees has more than 50 engaged partners globally, with ARR growing by 176% since 2020. They also had a partner program in place previously, but they concluded that it was not properly suited to support their aggressive channel growth goals going forward.
“We want to double the size of the business by 2025, and also want to grow is specifically in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Central Europe,” Pena Toro said. “Our old program could not get us there. The partner base was primarily resellers, who were mainly transactional, as well as technology partners. To grow the company, we need to add more value-added partners, including GSIs, CSPs and boutique consultants.”
Pena Toro said that the old program lacked basic enablement essentials.
“The rewards were not mapped well the value that was being contributed by specific partners,” he said. The old program had a lack of infrastructure and a lack of incentives. The objective of the new program is to have the right combination of partners along with proper support for all the partner types.”
The new program is based upon a turnkey engagement model. It features a portal that provides deal registration, marketing support, and branding.
“The portal is designed to make it easy to work with us and to help partners provide support to their customers,” Pena Toro said. “The portal also includes enablement and the certification program.”
Pena Toro said that certification through CloudBees Partner University is a selling point for partners, which allows them to deliver more features
“Software delivery transformation requires that the partner be able to design and manage things for the customer,” he stated. “Larger companies with a deep level of skills are capable of this, but most are not. We have a specialized team for services to train customers or partners to take it to the next level. Partners are also asking us for a Microsoft service certification program.”
Partner discounts are now based on the level of engagement and value added to the sales cycle. Enablement activities have also been beefed up for the types of partners that CloudBees is looking to attract.
“We have introduced new incentives to attract consulting firms and integrator,” Pena Toro stated.
CloudBees also announced their partner of the year awards at their partner day last week. This included Wipro as their Global Partner of the Year, AWS as their Cloud Partner of the Year: IT Methods as their Americas Partner of the Year, and Carahsoft as the Americas Partner of the Year (Public Sector).
