The changes, which were telegraphed with the program’s launch three months ago, will expand technical certifications and capabilities for partners, increase their margins, and expand support for Barracuda’s distributors.
Jason Beal, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Ecosystems, Barracuda
Barracuda launched their brand new channel program, the Barracuda Partner Success Program, three months ago. Today, in a series of phased enhancements the company had planned to roll in, they are announcing changes designed to increase partner margin and profitability, and expand technical enablement for both channel partners and distributors.
“It was a phased approach, which was designed to give partners opportunities to qualify for the top tiers,” said Maria Martinez, VP of Channels, Americas, Barracuda. “We provided time to reach these thresholds for revenue and technical certification.”
The changes to the partner compensation models include new discounts and rebates for top-tier partners and the expansion of internal offerings to create more opportunities for partners to maximize their revenue.
“We made enhancements to boost profitability for distis and partners, looking to see how much partners can make around every dollar Barracuda sold,” said Jason Beal, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Ecosystems, Barracuda. “When we launched, we said that within 90 days we would add new multipliers – new back end rebates, managed services, how partners engaged with services – to capture more of those dollars around Barracuda sales.” Studies on behalf of multiple large vendors have shown that many of them are in that 5-7x range for attached sales, and that many partners want to build out more around resales, post sales, managed services and customer success.
Compensation paid to distributors has been adjusted.
“Globally, we altered the discount grid for distis,” Beal said. “They effectively make their own pricing for customers, but we have enhanced this with a performance-based rebate.”
Barracuda also recently expanded their North American distribution, which they acknowledged is a complicated task.
Maria Martinez, VP of Channels, Americas, Barracuda
“We want to offer be able to offer more choice – without becoming overdistributed,” Martinez said. “We just added Ingram Micro in the U.S, and we have been with TD and then SYNNEX when they merged, before that.”
“Distis are increasingly able to help partners,” Beal noted. “They are getting better at using their business intelligence. Both Ingram Micro and TDSYNNEX have strong SLED public businesses, and are spending more on cybersecurity. Both also have strong and strengthening relationships with AWS.”
Barracuda is also enhancing technical enablement with access to four new partner technical certification courses and expanded technical enablement resources. This includes making it easier for partners to build customized, trackable links to the Barracuda Email Threat Scanner and access reporting on their customer scans.
“We have a number of different training certifications in our learning management tool in the portal, and we have been rolling them out in a more digestible way,’ Beal said. “This is four more. Phase One was in December and we have gotten 2500 new certifications in 90 days.”
Barracuda is also introducing a new Premier-level rebate for top-tier partners. The new rebate program is structured around the customer success framework of the LAER model: land, adoption, expansion, and retention and renewal, to help drive partner profitability. The rebate program rewards partners for achievement of landing new customers, improving full adoption of product functionality by customers, expanding offerings across the Barracuda portfolio, and retaining customers through valuable renewals support.
“Last year we talked with our Partner Advisory boards about rebates, in the light of committing with partners who also commit with us,” Beal said. “We wanted these for our premier model. Partners can be paid for achieving all four elements of the LAER model.”
Partners participating in the global Barracuda Partner Success Program benefit from a clear path to success under the Premier, Preferred, and Authorized levels.
