ServiceNow partner strategy ramps up for $10 billion target
The ServiceNow partner program will retire its Gold, Silver and Bronze tier system and roll out fresh enablement tools; other news from the week.
ServiceNow has invested significantly in its channel resources as it seeks to become a $10 billion company.
At the ServiceNow Knowledge 19 user conference, held this week in Las Vegas, the service management software vendor introduced a new partner ecosystem framework and raft of programs and tools. The updates aim to build on existing ServiceNow partner resources, guided by a vision of making channel sales a powerful growth engine for the company.
"John Donahoe, our CEO, has stated that we are on a journey to $10 billion. Currently, we are just over $3 [billion]. And ... to grow at that pace and scale, it is going to require a strong and vibrant global partner ecosystem community," said David Parsons, senior vice president of global alliances and channel ecosystem at ServiceNow.
Parson said the updated ServiceNow partner ecosystem framework organizes channel firms into five segments -- Global Elite, Elite, Premier, Specialist and Registered -- based on their expertise and capabilities. The adoption of a segmented framework replaces the conventional metallic tiers of Gold, Silver and Bronze previously used by the vendor, he noted.
"We [retired] the metal designations of Gold, Silver and Bronze. Partners felt that ... [those tiers] were more related to a transaction model ... versus partners who were driving digital transformation with clients through services as they implemented our technology," he said.
The new Premier partner category is for companies focusing on less than five ServiceNow products in more than one geographic region, while the Elite category is for those that specialize in five or more products and operate in multiple geographies, the vendor said.
Global Elite partners, meanwhile, meet Elite partner requirements, plus have a deep level of industry domain expertise; digital transformation-related skills such as business process reengineering and organizational change management; and global scale, according to ServiceNow. Additionally, the vendor said Global Elite partners must pledge to grow their ServiceNow practices to $1 billion within a three- to five-year period.
The partner ecosystem also encompasses a Specialist designation for firms specializing in one or more ServiceNow products, as well as a Registered designation for new partners.
Additional channel updates revealed at ServiceNow Knowledge 19 included the following:
- A program that caters to service providers building on ServiceNow's workflow products or platform.
- A new business development team to support ServiceNow's leading global and regional service providers.
- A program to support partners in the U.S. federal space. The program will expand to include state, local and education markets, as well European and Asian public sector markets, ServiceNow said.
- A revamped deal registration system, slated to launch July 1.
- A Global Partner Concierge Service Center.
RPA platform vendor Kryon launches partner effort
Kryon Systems, a robotic process automation (RPA) vendor based in New York, has launched a channel initiative targeting ISVs, consultants and other types of partners.
The company has worked with partners in the past but decided to create a formalized program to make it easier to form relationships with companies that refer or deploy the Kryon RPA platform, noted Richard French, chief revenue officer at Kryon. In addition, the program formalizes the capabilities -- such as certification programs -- the company offers partners that need help getting up to speed on Kryon RPA, he added.
"We believe it is important to have a good partner program to influence the market," French said. "With the new partner organization, we can put a more concerted effort into our individual partners and work with them ... to make them successful.
The Kryon Partner Program is structured in four tiers: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Referral. The program matches benefits to partners' annual sales and certification requirements. Benefits include sales and training development courses, discounts, deal registration, sales and marketing support, access to Kryon Academy and to a partner portal. French said the Kryon Partner Program encompasses not only large partners, but companies of all sizes, including small regional resellers.
Kryon has hired Jim O'Gara to manage the company's partnering efforts as vice president of global channels. O'Gara's background includes sales, business development and strategic alliance roles at Apple, HP, Informix, AltaVista, Ivanti and SugarCRM.
In another move, Kryon has released version 19.1 of its process discovery tool, which debuted in 2018.
Process discovery tools are designed to help organizations identify and prioritize the best process candidates for automation. Kryon Process Discovery, part of the Kryon RPA platform, uses AI and machine learning techniques to figure out a work group's processes and variants, which are activities that follow a different path than the standard processes. The latest release of Kryon's process discovery tool includes an optimized algorithm that French said makes it easier to find processes. The new tool also includes improvements to the UI and recommendation engine, he noted.
French said Kryon is in early-stage discussions with a couple of consulting companies interested in working with the process discovery offering. The consultants believe the tool could boost their margins on RPA projects, he added.
Trace3 grows revenue on acquisitions, services
Acquisitions, hot markets such as security, and managed services buoyed Trace3 Inc. in 2018, resulting in record revenue production of $1.2 billion.
Trace3 last year purchased Data Strategy and Optio Data, both based in Grand Rapids, Mich. Now, the Irvine, Calif., company's task is to bring its West Coast offerings back east. Tyler Beecher, CEO at Trace3, pointed to the company's cloud, security and AI practices as service lines that could find a home in its geographic expansion.
In addition, Trace3's data center architecture and engineering core business could also find new markets. "What we are seeing is a very strong demand in the Midwest for that," Beecher said.
Conversely, Trace3 will migrate the acquired companies' offerings in a westerly direction. Those include a collaboration practice, a mobility practice and a midmarket customer orientation. Trace3 focuses primarily on enterprise clients.
"We are taking our large enterprise play toward the east and bringing their midmarket [offerings] toward the west," Beecher said.
The acquired companies also contribute inventory and integration facilities for staging IT gear, he added.
Beecher also pointed to the growing role of security services at Trace3. Three years ago, security contributed around 10% of the company's revenue -- without having a formal security practice. The company launched such a practice to focus its efforts, a move that pushed security to more than 25% of Trace3's revenue in 2018.
Managed services, particularly around cloud platforms, is another expanding area. Those services have hit a year-over-year growth rate of 20%. "Our managed services have continued to grow while products have remained flat," Beecher noted. "The business is trending that way."
Other news
- Microsoft has expanded its IP Co-sell Program, launched two years ago with an Azure focus, to include Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Power Platform. In addition, Microsoft, as of July 1, 2019, will open its worldwide reseller channel to ISVs that have published offers in AppSource or Azure Marketplace. The co-sell initiative helped drive $5 billion in partner revenue in 2018, according to Microsoft.
- VMware said a new purchase agreement now lets customers buy VMware Cloud on AWS directly through AWS APN Partners in the Solution Provider Program, as well as via AWS. A number of managed service providers (MSPs) have built services around VMware Cloud on AWS.
- MSP software vendor Kaseya bolstered its security offerings with the acquisition of ID Agent, a threat intelligence and identity monitoring vendor. ID Agent's portfolio features Dark Web ID, a dark web monitoring tool, and BullPhish ID, a phishing simulator and security awareness training product. ID Agent will operate as an independent business unit from its headquarters in Bowie, Md., Kaseya said.
- Also in the MSP software space, SolarWinds launched an endpoint detection and response offering. The new security tool was developed in partnership with endpoint protection vendor SentinelOne, SolarWinds said.
- DMI, a mobility services provider based in Bethesda, Md., has acquired Pragiti, a SAP Silver-level partner and digital commerce specialist. Pragiti implements SAP Commerce Cloud, a focus that builds upon DMI's presence in the Oracle, Salesforce and Adobe Magento environments, according to DMI.
- Visier, a people analytics and planning company based in Vancouver, B.C., unveiled a formal partner network geared to global and regional HR consultants. Global strategic partners include Mercer, Aon, Accenture and Tata Consultancy Services. Regional strategic partners include Anchor HR, PA Consulting Group, People Analytics Success, Reframe.Work Inc., Workforce Insight, Workforce Transformation and 3n Strategy.
- RelationEdge, a Rackspace company and Salesforce Platinum Consulting Partner, has expanded into the Australia and New Zealand region.
- D&H Distributing, a distributor based in Harrisburg, Pa., has inked a pact with Axcient in the business availability and cloud migration space. D&H will offer Axcient's business availability offerings to MSPs and solutions providers targeting SMBs.
- Under a new agreement, IBM will resell data storage vendor Panzura's Freedom Cloud NAS software with IBM storage products.
- Mission, a managed services and consulting company based in Los Angeles, said it has passed its annual AWS MSP Partner audit.
- Unified Office Inc., an MSP in the business communication market, said it has received a second patent for its Highest Quality Routing Protocol transmission network. The protocol routes voice calls over VoIP networks.
- Carousel Industries, a communications technology integrator in Exeter, R.I., appointed Stephen Drew as vice president of contact center solutions. He reports to Carousel CTO Jason Viera.
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