The PartnerFi community and its partner benefits have been available to D&H partners in the U.S. for several years, but is now being made available for the first time in Canada.
Michelle Biase, general manager of D&H Canada
Distributor D&H Canada has announced the Canadian launch on May 1, 2024, of its peer-to-peer partner engagement community offerings. Members of the D&H Canada PartnerFi community will receive exclusive advantages like an enhanced “SuccessPath Premier” enablement program, discounts, incentives, access to subject-matter experts and keynote panelists from the field, exclusive member pricing on D&H Canada services, enhanced credit offerings, best practices development, leadership development, and peer networking opportunities. The first PartnerFi Symposium took place May 6 – 9 in Quebec City.
“We launched PartnerFi into the US three years ago, and are launching it in Canada now,” said Michelle Biase, D&H Canada’s general manager. “We had a two year gap to make sure we would have a program that would differentiate and add value. Communities are not new, but we wanted to differentiate, and make sure that we had the investment in Canada to support a properly robust program.”
The plan is to keep PartnerFi relatively select.
“We are going to stay within that size of approximately 50 members,” Biase said. “When communities get too big, they lose transparency.”
PartnerFi – the Fi suffix is mean to suggest an active component in driving strong partner relationships – is designed to provide an extended level of collaboration.
“We are really trying to create something new<” Biase said. “The D&H leadership team in Canada will be highly involved.” This includes Vice President of Sales David Stephens, Executive Director of Vendor Management Chris Ralston, and Director of Marketing and Business Development Susanne Tamburro.
A key component of the program is SuccessPath Premier Enablement Training.
“This is a partner enablement program created to help partners transition their business to the MSP model,” Biase said. “SuccessPath helps them with financial models to be a successful MSP,”
Biase said that while many partners have already made this transition to some degree, there are still many opportunities available.
“Many partners who have sold hardware alone in the past, now sell services, but in managed services there are still opportunities,” Biase stated. “Managed collaboration rooms, for example, take that managed thinking to the next level. And there are still some resellers who remain focused on hardware. These are not small resellers, but often midmarket resellers who cover specific regions, and who have businesses in the range from a couple million to ten million dollars. That’s the sweet spot for the program, and many partners who can best leverage this are robust companies, not very small businesses.”
The PartnerFi Community will meet for approximately two multi-day, live Symposium events per year, in addition to other virtual networking opportunities throughout the year. D&H will recruit manufacturer and industry experts to speak on real-world trends and practices, who will be at the members’ disposal during these events.
“We are looking at speakers who can offer business-specific content, both virtual and in-person,” Biase said.
“We had our first in-person event last week,” she added. “We talked to partners what they are looking for, and they emphasized building trust and transparency. They are also looking for something different in terms of best practices around solution delivery. We also spent a lot of time talking about AI, as well as other new technology and how the industry is evolving. Because this isn’t the first community in the market. this gives us time to make it unique.”
The next in-person event is in the fall.
“Prior to that will be additional virtual events with our community to keep the momentum going,” Biase said.
PartnerFi sponsors and speakers will deliver market insights and other SME-based content to help members drive end-to-end solutions in areas such as collaboration, end-point solutions, data infrastructure, and security. D&H will also support members with its unique value proposition around AI readiness, an impending PC refresh, hybrid workplace solutions, cloud, XaaS, and managed services. Discounts will also be offered on D&H professional services such as technology assessments, highly valued consulting services, nationwide deployment services, as well as eco-conservative “green shipping” services.
