NetApp
announced updates to its award-winning Unified Partner Program for fiscal year
2022 (FY'22). The latest enhancements will provide partners with a more
flexible, consistent and simplified experience - preparing them for the planned
transition to a new tiering structure next year. The program is expanding the
partner ecosystem, offering new financial incentives and accelerating
profitability, and adding new solutions and Services Certified specializations.
"It's
an exciting time to be a NetApp partner,'' said John Woodall, vice president,
engineering at GDT, a longtime NetApp partner. "The new updates to the Unified
Partner Program will make it easier to do business with NetApp. Together, by
offering a simpler experience, more flexibility and clear areas for our joint
investment, these changes will enable us to further differentiate based on our
expertise and contributions. More importantly, it serves as a clear roadmap for
our alignment with NetApp and the emerging roles of an OEM and their Partner
community."
Enhancements
to the NetApp Unified Partner Program for FY'22, available immediately,
include:
- Expanding
Partner Ecosystem - The
program will now include specialist partners who sell, consume or
influence the NetApp portfolio - increasing relevance to more partner
types.
- Simplified
Incentives - Incentives
are streamlined to align with key initiatives, and focus areas including customer
acquisition, FlexPod, consumption, cloud and more. These incentives tied
to new specializations become more predictable along the sales lifecycle.
- New
Partner Rewards -
Individual participants who opt in will be rewarded for actions that drive
deal closure as part of strategic programs - such as setting meetings and
registering deals.
- New
Solution Specializations
- An opportunity to recognize and reward partners' unique skillsets and
go-to-market models, new solution specializations will be available for
Cloud Preferred, FlexPod, SAP, AI/ML, Data Protection, Data Security,
Hosting Service Provider, Infrastructure, and Spot by NetApp Preferred.
- New
Services Certified Specializations - The transformation of Services Certified
Specializations include: Integration Services Certified, Lifecycle
Services Certified, and NetApp Keystone Services Certified, ensuring
alignment with customer needs across the hybrid cloud lifecycle.
- Partner
Connect 2.0 - The
NetApp partner locator is being redesigned for a better user experience to
help customers find the most specialized partners to meet their needs.
"We
are transforming our Unified Partner Program and evolving its structure to make
doing business with NetApp simpler and more profitable for our partners than ever
before," said Chris Lamborn, Head of Global Partner GTM & Programs at
NetApp. "The latest updates are just the start of a multi-phase strategy to
incentivize and reward our partners for their solution expertise, while
delivering greater value to their customers."
More
information on the NetApp Unified Partner Program's latest updates is available
online at: https://www.netapp.com/partners/resources/