5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Jan. 23, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel including Extreme Networks, D&H Distributing, ConnectWise, Claroty and ServiceNow.

The Week Ending Jan. 23

Topping this week’s 5 Companies that Came to Win list is Extreme Networks, which debuted a major revamp of its partner program with a wealth of new offerings including simplified deal registration, more transparent pricing, new training and certifications, and increased use of AI to help partners improve time to revenue and profitability.

Also making this week’s list is D&H Distributing for a savvy acquisition in the e-commerce fulfillment space while ConnectWise is here for its acquisition of an agentic AI company with technology that automates high-volume service desk operations.

Claroty, a developer of security for cyber-physical systems, raised an impressive $150 million in a Series F funding round this week. And ServiceNow unveiled a number of improvements to its channel program, including the launch of a partner business value composer designed to make it easier for solution providers to help speed customers’ adoption of the latest AI technologies.

Extreme Networks Launches New Partner Program To Position Specialists Against Network Heavyweights

Extreme Networks makes this week’s Came to Win list for its launch of a new partner program that seeks to meet the changing networking market needs of enterprise customers while providing simplicity for channel partners.

The Extreme Partner First program simplifies deal registration, serves up more transparent pricing, offers new training and certifications, and uses AI to improve time to revenue and profitability with less friction, according to Joe Spencer, Extreme’s senior vice president of global channel and strategic initiatives.

“Our program has been around for quite some time. It was designed for what the market needed several years ago, and we listened to our partners and redesigned for what they need today,” Spencer told CRN. “I want partners to know that we’re going to do business with them in a simple and predictable fashion that builds trust between us and them and that if we go to market together, they know what to expect, and that they’re going to solve their needed customer outcomes with ease with Extreme versus our competition.”

Extreme Partner First offers a unified rebate structure, quicker deal approvals, and clearer pricing and benefits for partners. For more predictable profitability, the program provides one global, SKU- and volume-based rebate model and a unified global framework for deal registration with a 48-hour target approval for service level agreements that makes it easier for partners to pursue and scale international opportunities.

Extreme will also help partners close deals faster thanks to its new Partner AI Sales Assistant, a feature that helps partners find critical sales information in seconds, the Morrisville, N.C.-based company said.

Through new training opportunities, partners can earn combined certifications for installation and troubleshooting, with a specific focus on AI readiness and use cases within the company’s flagship Extreme Platform ONE.

D&H Acquires Fulfillment.com In Third-Party Logistics Play

D&H made a savvy acquisition this week, buying Fulfillment.com, a Savannah, Ga.-based provider of technology for e-commerce fulfillment, in a move the IT distributor said will expand its Scale third-party logistics and supply chain services business.

Fulfillment.com is a top provider of e-commerce fulfillment services to high-volume, multi-channel and omni-channel internet retailers worldwide. The company says it ships millions of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) orders to over 150 countries.

D&H told CRN the acquisition is focused on expanding the capabilities of D&H’s Scale business and strengthening the distributor’s ecommerce fulfillment and third-party logistics operations. D&H Scale is an in-house supply chain management organization that offers end-to-end B2B and B2C commerce capabilities.

D&H Scale is independent of D&H’s core technology distribution strategy and the Fulfillment.com acquisition does not involve changes to channel programs, partner engagement models or distribution operations.

But while Fulfillment.com is focused on B2C distribution, the company’s technology could be a boon to D&H’s channel partner community through enhanced third-party logistics capabilities, expanded direct-to-consumer fulfillment, an improved global e-commerce infrastructure,and advanced technology-driven logistics.

Fulfillment.com has four fulfillment centers in the U.S. and one each in Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Australia. The company says that in the U.S., it can make one-day to two-day delivery to 99.97 percent of the continental U.S. population and can make next-day delivery by ground to 69 percent of that population.

ConnectWise Buys Service Desk Agentic AI Startup

Staying on the topic of strategic acquisitions, ConnectWise this week acquired Toronto-based Zofiq, an agentic AI company with technology that automates high-volume service desk operations, in a move to push toward more autonomous service delivery for MSPs.

The acquisition deal brings about 15 Zofiq employees into the Tampa, Fla.-based vendor and folds the startup’s technology directly into ConnectWise’s broader platform strategy: embedding AI agents inside PSA and RMM workflows.

“This has always been part of our strategy,” ConnectWise CEO Manny Rivelo (pictured) told CRN. “How do we move the company toward autonomous workflows? When you look at Zofiq, it just feels like a great marriage. The timing is right, the technology is ready and the industry needs it.”

Service desks are under pressure from every direction, according to Rivelo. Service ticket volumes keep climbing, talent is hard to find and harder to keep, and customers expect faster, more consistent outcomes, he said. With Zofiq, AI agents handle tasks like triage, routing, resolution steps and documentation—all within existing workflows.

Zofiq’s approach ingests ticket data and learns from it. “At the core of Zofiq is our learning engine. It trains on historical data, learns how an MSP works, and automates based on that. In the old world, you automated by building workflows. In the post-AI world, you automate by letting AI learn from your data and guiding it with natural language,” said Lee Silverstone, Zofiq co-founder and CEO.

Claroty Raises $150M In New Funding Amid Industry Segment Consolidation

Claroty, a developer of security for cyber-physical systems, makes this week’s list for raising an impressive $150 million in a Series F funding round.

Funding from the new round, which was led by Golub Growth with participation from earlier investors, will be targeted for expansion globally, including potentially through mergers and acquisitions.

With the new capital infusion, Claroty has raised at least $885 million in total funding since its launch in 2015.

Claroty did not disclose a new valuation for the company following the new funding round, but the company said it had experienced 80 percent growth in valuation since the previous funding round in March 2024. A published report said Claroty was eyeing a possible IPO in 2027.

The announcement of Claroty’s new funding comes amid consolidation in the market for vendors specializing in OT and IoT security. Nozomi Networks disclosed in September that it had reached an agreement to be acquired by Mitsubishi Electric for roughly $1 billion.

ServiceNow Beefs Up Channel Program With AI Emphasis

ServiceNow this week unveiled a number of enhancements to its channel program, including the launch of a new partner business value composer designed to make it easier for solution providers to help speed customers’ adoption of the latest AI technologies.

The company is also offering partners new certifications in different product areas, as well as bringing them the fruit of acquisitions such as ServiceNow’s pending acquisition of agentic AI developer Moveworks.

The changes to the channel program were officially unveiled at ServiceNow’s annual sales kickoff, held this week in Las Vegas.

One initiative ServiceNow is discussing at the sales kickoff is streamlining the incentives the company provides across the deal life cycle, Michael Park (pictured), senior vice president of global partnerships and channels, told CRN.

“We are expanding our strategic investment fund,” Park said. “We’re setting a new market development fund in front of that for demand gen. ... And then we have reseller fees and incentives for deployment. When I came into the job, there were 14 different incentive models. We now have four.”

Another plan introduced at the sales kickoff was simplifying partner membership fees, Park said. “We’re going to roll out a single program membership fee across all the partner types,” he said. “We’ve got too many versions right now. It’s so complicated. Let’s just do one.”