Nutanix Partners: New Elevate Incentives And AI Will Drive Profits

“Nutanix is rewarding partners for driving customer outcomes, not just transactions,” Insight Enterprises’ Prashant Singh tells CRN regarding Nutanix's revamped Elevate Partner Program.

Nutanix partners are bullish that the revamped Elevate Partner Program will create more financial opportunities and channel profitability via new cross-selling incentives, an AI telemetry tool, and a new Business Development Fund.

“The new incentives reward partners for the full customer relationship, not just the initial sale,” Samantha Vince, vice president of alliances for Nutanix partner Edge Solutions, tells CRN.

“A lot of the value we bring to customers comes after deployment through renewals, expansions, and helping them get more out of their Nutanix investment. Recognizing that ongoing work creates more opportunities for us to grow profitably,” Vince said.

Nutanix made improvements to its flagship Elevate Partner Program to incentivize partners to double down on lifecycle management services and cross-selling more Nutanix products.

“Nutanix is rewarding partners for driving customer outcomes, not just transactions,” Prashant Singh, vice president of partner alliances for Nutanix partner Insight Enterprises, told CRN. “That aligns well with Insight's strategy and creates new opportunities for growth.”

Cross-Selling Profitability Push

Nutanix partners can now earn more financial incentives and rebates for cross-selling new products to existing clients, such as Nutanix’s Enterprise AI and Kubernetes platforms, as well as Nutanix database, unified storage and AI offerings.

“Our biggest cross-sell opportunity is AI on the Nutanix Cloud Platform,” said Edge Solutions' Vince. “Also with Nutanix Kubernetes Platform, Enterprise AI, and Agent Gateway, we can help customers move from their existing infrastructure to running AI in production.”

Partners said they see the new incentives aiding them in selling specific products like Nutanix Cloud Clusters, Nutanix Database Service, Self-Service, and Nutanix Unified Storage.

Partners Rewarded 1 Percent Of TCV Via New Business Development Fund

Another new partner-funding incentive Nutanix is rolling out is the new Business Development Funds (BDF) for qualifying go-to-market activities.

Christian Goffi, vice president of Americas ecosystem sales, told CRN that partners who gain access to Nutanix BDF can be rewarded 1 percent of a client’s total contract value (TCV).

“It’s 1 percent of your TCV sales, and it’s applicable for all of our top-tier partners. Our Premier-level partners are now going to benefit from an earned BDF,” Goffi said.

“Partners have always asked about, ‘If I knew how much that rebate was going to be, I would be better at planning demand generation campaigns and things to grow your brand. But since it’s always up and down and based on performance, I’m not able to do that,’” said Goffi. “This earned BDF now gives [partners] consistent inflow of money that can be used to grow the business.”

Insight Enterprises' Singh said the new BDF program will drive demand generation and benefit the entire channel ecosystem.

“The new BDF investment gives partners a predictable way to fund growth. It helps drive demand generation and solution development,” Singh said. “Programs like this strengthen the entire ecosystem.”

Vince, for her part, said the new BDF gives Edge Solutions more predictable funding to plan campaigns, customer events, and investments that help grow its Nutanix business.

“Instead of relying solely on rebates that fluctuate with performance, we can be more intentional about where and how we invest,” she said about the BDF program.

Nutanix’s New AI ‘Deal Coach’

Nutanix is building a new AI telemetry tool that partners can leverage called Deal Coach in a move to accelerate lifecycle activities.

The company will provide partners with approved visibility into selected customer-environment health, adoption, and lifecycle signals to help partners support customer success and renewal planning.

“Deal Coach is an AI mechanism that takes the telemetry data, gives it context, and provides that enablement in real time to a partner,” Nutanix’s Goffi said.

Nutanix partners said the new AI tool will help sales teams have better conversations with customers.

“Having visibility into how a customer’s environment is performing gives our team better insight going into renewals and expansion opportunities,” said Vince. “We also like that it’s built into Partner Central, making it easier for our sellers to use without adding another tool.”

Deal Coach aims to help Nutanix partners better understand a client’s environment—from what to ask during a meeting to making sure products are being properly utilized.

“Tools like Deal Coach provide actionable insights to identify opportunities and improve execution. That's exactly the kind of innovation partners need as customer environments become more complex,” said Insight’s Singh.

Partners Are ‘Bullish’ With ‘Confidence’ About Nutanix’s Partner Future

Nutanix’s Goffi explained in a housing analogy exactly what the company wants to see from partners after the changes made to its Elevate Partner Program.

“It’s almost like before, we would incentivize quite a bit on selling a house. Now, we’re focusing a lot on being a property manager. Help us with maintaining the house; if something breaks, you fix it. Making sure it looks nice. I’m using that metaphorically, but that’s essentially the leap we’re making as a partner program,” he explained.

Overall, Nutanix partners Edge Solutions and Insight said they are “bullish” and have “confidence” in Nutanix’s future via changes to the Elevate partner program.

“We have a lot of confidence in Nutanix. Customers are looking for greater flexibility and a clear path to AI adoption and virtualization. Nutanix is well positioned to meet those needs, and the Elevate enhancements create even more opportunity for us to grow together,” said Insight’s Singh.