Here’s What You’re Missing: Channel Program Offerings IT Vendors Wish More Partners Took Advantage Of
As part of the 2026 CRN Partner Program Guide evaluation, channel executives were asked what elements of their partner programs they wish more partners took advantage of and what are their benefits. Here’s what 20 had to say.
Underutilized Benefits
One thing that’s clear every year from the annual CRN Partner Program Guide: IT vendors have a lot to offer their channel partners in terms of incentives, financial assistance, technical training and support, marketing resources and expertise, and a whole lot more.
And yet for whatever reason, solution providers don’t always take full advantage of everything these programs have to offer. And that leaves channel chiefs throughout the IT industry scratching their heads.
That’s why as part of the 2026 CRN Partner Program Guide we asked IT companies the question: What element of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
In the following slides we provide the answers that 20 of the IT vendors who submitted applications for this year’s Partner Program Guide provided to that question.
The CRN 2026 Partner Program Guide offers the information solution providers need to evaluate the channel programs operated by the IT vendors they work with or are considering partnering with. The guide is based on detailed applications submitted by vendors outlining all aspects of their partner programs.
As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs because they provide the most comprehensive lineups of incentives, resources, training, services and benefits.
The text for the answers provided in the following slides have been taken from each company’s PPG application and lightly edited.
Acumatica
Partner Program Name: Acumatica Partner Program
Channel Chief: CJ Boguszewski, SVP, Partner Programs and Strategy
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=4
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Acumatica encourages greater participation in its educational programs and workshops, including the Win Academy and AcuMastery sales training platform. These resources provide hands-on, role-based learning for sales, solution architecture, and technical implementation teams. Partners who leverage these programs gain stronger execution capabilities, improved customer success outcomes, and faster time-to-value, ultimately enhancing both partner growth and ecosystem performance.
Aryaka
Partner Program Name: Aryaka Accelerate
Channel Chief: Nick Alagna, VP, Global Channel Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=14
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
One element of our partner program we wish more partners would take advantage of is our New Logo Partner SPIFF. This SPIFF rewards partners for qualified, closed new logo deals, with payouts based on monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and contract term. Depending on deal size and duration, partners can earn up to $50,000 per deal. Overall, the New Logo Partner SPIFF represents a win for partners, Aryaka, and the customer.
Calero
Partner Program Name: Calero Partner Program
Channel Chief: Jason Wieser, SVP, Partners and Alliances
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=30
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
One element of our partner program we wish more partners fully leveraged is our partner growth engine, the structured, insight-led motion that turns technology expense visibility into continuous revenue opportunity.
This capability enables partners to quickly gain a clear view into their customers’ SaaS and technology environments through a low-friction visibility engagement. When partners activate this motion consistently, they move beyond one-time transactions and gain a data-backed reason to stay engaged in accounts continuously. It allows them to identify underutilization, renewal risk, and expansion readiness early, and to reposition cost optimization as funding for higher-value advisory and transformation initiatives.
The benefit to partners is significant. Those who fully adopt this approach see faster deal velocity, stronger executive relationships, and more predictable pipeline creation. Instead of relying on annual check-ins or opportunistic selling, partners lead with insight, guide proactive planning conversations, and build defensible wallet share over time.
Ultimately, this growth engine is not about selling a product, it is about giving partners a scalable operating model that helps them differentiate as trusted advisors, expand their services footprint, and grow their business more consistently with Calero.
CrowdStrike
Partner Program Name: Accelerate Partner Program
Channel Chief: Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=46
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
One element of our partner program we believe more partners can fully capitalize on is Falcon Flex as a growth and services accelerator. Partners that embrace Falcon Flex beyond individual transactions unlock a fundamentally different motion—one that enables faster net-new customer acquisition, broader platform adoption, and repeatable expansion over time.
Falcon Flex gives partners the flexibility to lead with outcomes rather than individual products, making it easier to land new customers, simplify platform standardization, and attach high-value services. When combined with our contribution-based incentives, including Falcon Accelerate Rebate (FAR) and CrowdCard, partners are rewarded not just for closing deals, but for influence, lifecycle engagement, and services delivery.
We consistently see outsized results from partners who pair Falcon Flex with advanced enablement, partner-led demonstrations, and services-led delivery models. These partners engage earlier, shape customer security strategies, and build long-term relationships anchored in SOC modernization and AI-native security.
Together, Falcon Flex and contribution-based incentives help partners increase deal size, protect margins, and create durable growth while delivering measurable security outcomes in a market that increasingly values platform consolidation and execution at scale.
Dell Technologies
Partner Program Name: Dell Technologies Partner Program
Channel Chief: Denise Millard, Chief Partner Officer
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=59
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We encourage partners to leverage our lead management tool, which delivers AI-driven demand signals to identify new opportunities. Through the ENRICH program, partners can target customers who are more likely to buy or acquire additional solutions or cross-sell to additional Dell lines of business.
In addition, Tech Refresh leads have expanded to cover client solutions, now giving partners timely visibility to leads for upcoming refresh on server, storage and client. With targeted leads, partners are empowered to engage the right opportunities at the right time, delivering stronger results for their customers and their business.
Elastic
Partner Program Name: Elastic Partner Ecosystem
Channel Chief: Alyssa Fitzpatrick, Global VP, Partner Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=65
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Historically, our program was structured to reward primarily transactional behavior. With the introduction of incentives across every phase of the customer lifecycle, we want partners to fully embrace this end-to-end engagement model. When customers adopt more than one Elastic solution, their overall usage expands by more than 50 percent. If partners drive multi-solution sales, it creates a powerful ripple effect, unlocking additional service opportunities and significantly amplifying their profitability. This is where partner growth becomes exponential.
Exabeam
Partner Program Name: Exabeam APEX Partner Program
Channel Chief: Craig Patterson, Global Channel Chief
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=70
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Several high-impact elements of the Exabeam APEX Partner Program remain underutilized, particularly the depth of enablement, certification incentives, and hands-on co-marketing support. The program is designed to give partners real-time savings, resources, and results without unnecessary complexity. Those who invest in technical and sales certifications unlock stackable discounts and higher-tier benefits, creating a clear path to profitability with every milestone.
Exabeam also provides highly personalized co-marketing support that goes far beyond traditional MDF processes. Instead of facing administrative friction, partners receive direct assistance to execute campaigns tailored to their tier, target market, and solution focus.
The Exabeam partner portal is another significant asset, offering an expanding library of sales and technical content, from discovery guides and playbooks to campaign-ready assets. Partners can activate one-to-many campaigns quickly, with new content added weekly by the product marketing team to support every stage of the sales cycle.
Together, these elements represent a complete growth engine that helps partners sell more effectively, market more strategically, and deliver greater value to customers.
GoTo Technologies
Partner Program Name: GoTo Partner Network
Channel Chief: Michael Day, VP, UCC Partner Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=87
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
The new partner onboarding program guides new partners through an easy course with micro learnings to jumpstart their business with GoTo. Dedicated partner managers are incorporated into the onboarding to guide new partners and help them maximize their first UCC deal payouts, familiarize them with full product offerings, and strategize on how to grow their business and average deal size, and shorten the time it takes to start realizing GoTo success.
HP Inc.
Partner Program Name: HP Amplify
Channel Chief: Mary Beth Walker, VP & Head of Global Partner Experience and Enablement
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=92
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Two standout elements of the HP Amplify Partner Program, often underutilized or new to partners, are Amplify Data Insights and the SuperPower Booster. Amplify Data Insights gives partners access to billions of data points across HP’s ecosystem, offering predictive and prescriptive analytics that help identify customer needs before they arise. Partners can pinpoint opportunities for device refreshes, service upgrades, and attach sales across print, personal systems, and services. Those who actively use the platform see up to 2x higher performance in sales productivity and marketing engagement.
Separately, the SuperPower Booster is a new incentive designed to reward partners for driving strategic growth in priority segments. It offers enhanced compensation for cross-portfolio selling, helping partners maximize deal value while aligning with HP’s long-term growth strategy.
Together, these tools empower partners to sell smarter, bundle more effectively, and unlock greater value from every customer engagement.
Illumio
Partner Program Name: Enlighten Partner Program
Channel Chief: Todd Palmer, SVP, Global Partner Sales and Alliances
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=95
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
One element of our program we wish more partners would take advantage of is our EPIC (Excellence through Partner Innovation and Competency) program. EPIC is designed to recognize and empower top engineers and consultants within our partner ecosystem who excel in Illumio deployment, advanced segmentation, and technical leadership.
Members gain exclusive access to quarterly meetings with our product leads, early insights into our roadmap, dedicated forums, and direct feedback channels into product development. They also receive branded recognition, including digital badges and special invitations. The benefits are significant: deeper technical engagement, early access to new features, and the ability to directly influence our product direction.
Ultimately, EPIC helps partners differentiate themselves in the market and deliver even greater value to their customers.
Lenovo
Partner Program Name: Lenovo 360
Channel Chief: Wade McFarland, VP, North America Channels
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=112
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
The Lenovo Partner Credit program provides flexible financing solutions to help Lenovo channel partners manage cash flow and grow their business. Partners receive a dedicated line of credit for purchasing any Lenovo product with interest-free terms, up to 60 days, allowing them to stock inventory, fulfill customer orders faster, and improve working capital. Key benefits include improved cash flow, increased purchasing power, and reduced financial strain. By deferring payments, partners can invest in more inventory without immediate capital outlay, shorten delivery timelines, and increase profitability.
Logitech
Partner Program Name: Logitech Partner Connect Program
Channel Chief: Crystal Ferreira, Head of Global, North America Channel Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=114
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Joint business planning is one of the most impactful components of the Logitech Partner Connect Program, delivering measurable improvements in partner performance. Partners who engage in structured, strategic planning and joint go-to-market collaboration consistently achieve stronger and more predictable revenue growth.
Through this approach, ecosystem and bundled solutions are deployed with a clear focus on ROI, supported by MDF and strategic account mapping. Business planning serves as a shared roadmap for both sales and marketing, driving accountability across Logitech and our partners, to ensure we not only meet but exceed our mutual objectives through purposeful, data-driven sales and marketing initiatives with sustained engagement.
Netskope
Partner Program Name: Evolve Partner Program
Channel Chief: Christina Pulley, VP, Channel Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=123
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We recently relaunched a robust Not for Resale (NFR) program that more partners should take advantage of. This offer is at no charge to our partners and the NFR part number combines 13 of our core products. This program enables partners to use our products in a non-production environment where they can demonstrate Netskope product capabilities to customers and use it for internal training.
Nutanix
Partner Program Name: Nutanix Elevate Partner Program
Channel Chief: Dave Gwyn, SVP, Worldwide Channels
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=129
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We wish more service providers and MSPs would engage with the Elevate Service Provider Program to capitalize on the massive opportunity created by recent disruption in the managed services market. As competitors alter their models, Nutanix offers a stable, profitable alternative for building differentiated hybrid multicloud services.
Our FY26 program is specifically designed to support this transition. We offer a specific Migration Rebate and a New Logo Rebate to aggressively reward partners who move tenants from legacy platforms. To lower the barrier to entry, we provide benefits such as no-cost NFR licenses and free certification vouchers to MSPs at Authorized level and above, allowing them to rapidly build competencies in the Nutanix Cloud Platform without heavy upfront costs.
This combination of protection, profitability, and enablement makes Nutanix the ideal home for MSPs seeking predictability.
One Identity
Partner Program Name: One Identity Partner Circle
Channel Chief: Ian Sutherland, SVP, Global Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=132
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Digital sales rooms are quickly becoming one of the most impactful elements of our program and we wish more partners would use them because they make selling easier and more effective. Built into the partner portal, they bring everything for a deal into one place - sales resources, real-time visibility, and direct communication between partners and our team. This means fewer delays, less back-and-forth, and a better experience for customers.
Partners who use digital sales rooms report significant gains in efficiency and alignment, shortened sales cycles, and improved collaboration, giving them more time to focus on winning business. We’re expanding access across our ecosystem because we know this tool can help every partner work smarter and close deals faster.
SAP
Partner Program Name: SAP PartnerEdge Program
Channel Chief: Karl Fahrbach, Chief Partner Officer
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=154
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Complementary to programmatic levels is our expertise recognition system called our Competency and Specialization Framework. Partners can obtain competencies and specializations at Solution Area/Line-of-Business level, based on knowledge capabilities, demonstrated customer success through the number of delivered projects, and proficiency coverage. It helps partners realize higher market visibility with customers by providing verified transparency into the skills, expertise, and maturity of their SAP practice. Demand generation and solutions enablement services offered through the Partner Benefits Catalog provide upskilling opportunities for our partners with free or fee-based services eligible for development funds, focused on SAP strategic areas in Business Suite and AI focus.
Sherweb
Partner Program Name: Sherweb Partner Program
Channel Chief: Jim O’Driscoll, VP, Sales
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=165
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
We wish more partners leveraged our expert network like our 1-to-1 consultations with Microsoft CSP specialists, our CyberMSP security community, and technical SMEs. From professional services to roadshows and VIP events, our people and programs are built to guide partners through change, simplify complexity, and accelerate growth.
SUSE
Partner Program Name: SUSE One Partner Program
Channel Chief: Jim Sarale, Head of Global Partners & Industries
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=177
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
The element we wish more partners would fully leverage is the cloud marketplace transaction model within our Cloud Elevate Program, which is designed to help partners capitalize on the shift toward public cloud consumption.
The macro trend is undeniable: enterprise customers are rapidly shifting procurement to cloud marketplaces, viewing it as the fastest, easiest way to buy solutions and, crucially, a necessary mechanism to consume their significant existing cloud committed spend.
This shift in customer buying behavior represents a massive, high-velocity opportunity. For partners, the benefit is accelerated growth and efficiency. By enabling co-selling and transactions through Cloud Elevate, partners are gaining an immediate advantage. Data shows that leveraging the marketplace can generate approximately 40 percent more net-new business, lead to 50 percent faster deal closure, and result in deal sizes that are typically four to five times larger than traditional deals. This program positions our partners directly where customer demand and budget are moving.
Tenable
Partner Program Name: Tenable Assure Partner Program
Channel Chief: Jeff Brooks, SVP, Global Channels and Alliances
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=188
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
Our Cloud Security and OT assessment licenses are a major advantage for partners, giving them the ability to deliver targeted security assessments for both existing and prospective customers. These engagements help demonstrate the power of Tenable’s platform while creating new opportunities for partners to expand and differentiate their services. The licenses are available to all Tenable Assure partners who complete the required training.
Zscaler
Partner Program Name: Zscaler Summit Partner Program
Channel Chief: Anthony Torsiello, SVP, Global Partner Ecosystem
Partner Program Details: https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2026-details?c=209
What elements of your program do you wish more partners took advantage of and what are its benefits?
One of the most valuable, and underutilized elements of our recent program changes is how we treat deal registration. This year, we introduced an enhanced deal registration model that recognizes material early contribution, not just traditional sourcing. Partners who engage early by shaping requirements, providing architecture guidance, delivering workshops, securing stakeholder alignment, or driving technical validation now receive deal registration benefits even if they did not source the original opportunity.
This shift rewards the behaviors that actually accelerate outcomes and improve deal quality. It also supports complex, multi-partner engagements where GSIs, cloud providers, resellers, and services partners each play a role across the deal cycle.
The benefits to partners are significant: Stronger protection and visibility earlier in the pursuit, faster engagement with our field teams through improved attribution, higher win rates due to clearer alignment across ecosystem partners, eligibility for incentives tied to influence, co-sell, and delivery motions, and a simplified pathway to participate in large, strategic opportunities.
By submitting a deal registration whenever they materially shape the opportunity, regardless of who ultimately sources, partners strengthen their position, improve joint planning, and unlock more consistent value through the program.