Google Cloud’s New Partner Network Is Here: 12 Huge AI, Features And Changes To Know

The new Google Cloud Partner Network is arriving this week with massive changes in store for Google partners. From new partner tiering, competencies and incentives, here are 12 big things that Google Cloud’s channel leaders want partners to know.

From new partner tiers and competences to new AI features and incentives, the way channel partners interact and work with Google Cloud is about to change with the launch of the Google Cloud Partner Network, Google’s new partner program.

“This is not just an update, it’s a complete transformation,” Philip Larson, managing director of worldwide partner programs at Google Cloud, told CRN.

On Jan. 15, the former Google Cloud Partner Advantage program will be terminated to pave way for the new customer outcome-focused and AI-powered Google Cloud Partner Network.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based $61 billion cloud company is moving its flagship partner program away from tracking the work of traditional requirements—such as business plans and customer stories—and towards rewarding partners around pre-sales influence, co-innovation, post-sales support and, most importantly, customer success.

“We want this new program to matter to all of these parties: our partners, our sales teams and our customers,” Colleen Kapase, Google Cloud’s vice president channels and partner programs, told CRN.

[Related: Google’s $32B Wiz Deal To Be Decided In February By EU]

“We’ve been working jointly with all three of those parties to make sure that everyone can know the brand of this partner program and that it matters—that diamond-level matters; that a competency matters; that an advanced competency matters; that the first call a salesperson or customer is going to make is to our partners who can deliver customer outcomes,” Kapase said.

“That’s the focus of the program,” she said. “That’s what it should do, and that has been our North Star.”

In an interview with CRN, Google Cloud’s global channel leaders break down the most important changes, features, and focus in the new Google Cloud Partner Network that every partner needs to know about.

‘Groundbreaking’ Partner Network Hub

Google said its new AI-powered Partner Network Hub will transform to deliver automation and transparency across the new program.

“It lets partners to very easily: pull in all their certification data, all of their delivery readiness portal data—really helping the partner understand with automated AI tracking and recognizing the full scope of the partners work instantly,” said Kapase.

She said partners can now see where they stand with tiering, competencies or gaps that need to be filled in.

“The data that can be brought in, and the way to interact with the tool in a native way—it’s just groundbreaking for us,” Kapase (pictured) said.

“Partners can ask in their native language, OK, if I have this gap, what else do I need to do what? Who’s already got these certifications?’” she said. “What is that gap to help partners quickly achieve what they want to achieve from a hurdle perspective?”

The 21 New Google Cloud Competencies

There are a total of 21 new competencies Google is launching this month including: six solution competencies, five product competencies and 10 industries competencies.

The five product competencies are for Apigee, Chrome, Gemini Enterprise, Maps and Looker.

The six solution competencies are artificial intelligence, application modernization, data and analytics, databases, infrastructure, and security.

The 10 industries competencies are business and professional services; consumer packaged goods; financial services; healthcare and life sciences; logistics; manufacturing and industrial; public sector and education; retail and consumer; software and internet; and telecom, media and gaming.

“We have transitioned from Google specializations to competencies,” said Kapase. “Competencies are a great way to allow partners to differentiate and for customers to find what’s the right partner for their specific need—whether it’s in a specific area of data, in AI and security.”

Baseline And Advanced Competencies

There are two types of competencies a partner can be awarded: a baseline Competency and an Advanced Competency badge.

The Advanced Competency signals a higher designation and skillset.

“It’s a measure of who’s doing some of this versus who’s doing it at scale with us,” said Larson. “So it’s the same measuring metrics, but who’s doing it at a broader scale to earn the Advanced Competency.”

Competency Reasoning; Operates Outside Of Tiering

Google Cloud said its new competency framework will reward partners for deep technical and sales capabilities.

The framework focuses on a partner’s proven ability to help customers, measuring two key dimensions: capacity and capability.

Capacity refers to knowledge and skills development, validated by technical certifications and sales credentials.

Capability refers to real-world success, measured by pre-sales and post-sales contributions to validated closed or won opportunities.

Kapase said Google keeps expanding its portfolio and solution set: “So we need to make it easy for customers to find the right partners and for partners to differentiate.”

However, it is key to note that the competency framework operates independently from partner-level tiering to allow partners to earn a competency without any dependency on a program tier.

AI Inside SOW Analyzer

Google recently launched its Gemini-based SOW [Statement of Work] Analyzer that looks to streamline how partners create, refine, review and get approval for statements of work by guiding them with examples and reasoning—effectively applying best practices as they go.

“We’re using AI as part of our SOW Analyzer, which is powering what will be a multibillion-dollar funding program where partners can submit their SOW, we read through it and make recommendations for how they could adjust that SOW to make it more likely that we would fund it,” said Larson.

Google Cloud can fund a portion of a partner’s statement of work.

“We might fund a portion of that SOW so that the customer has skin in the game, we have skin in the game, and the partner has skin in the game,” he said.

Overall, Larson said Google is using AI in its SOW Analyzer “to take what took weeks of back and forth in some cases—days minimum—and turning it into hours or minutes.”

New Tiers: Select, Premier And Diamond

There are three new level tiers inside the Google Cloud Parter Network: Select, Premier and Diamond.

Each tier will reflect joint customer successes and determined based on customer outcomes across Google Cloud and Google Workspace.

“We tier within, ‘Are you co-selling with us? Are you driving services with us?’” said Kapase. “So customers can understand, ‘Who is your best co-sell partner? What is your best services partner from a diamond perspective?”

Google independent software vendors (ISVs) are included in the program’s tiering as well.

“For example, there’s Diamond [tier] in co-sell, there’s Diamond in the services track, and then there’s Diamond in the technology track,” she added.

The former Google Cloud Partner Advantage program was a two-tier model versus the new three-tier model.

AI Solution Architecture, Partner Directory And Training Enablement

Google’s Larson said from recruiting and onboarding to enablement and training to joint business planning, marketing, demand generation, delivery, co-sell, services, support—everything inside the new program, “is getting revolutionized by AI.”

“We’re using AI to power our Partner Directory so that customers and our field teams can find the right partner for the right situation for them,” he said.

Google is also incorporating its AI into training coaches and AI-powered training enablement.

“We are also incorporating our AI into our internal lead scoring, so that as co-sell services registrations are coming in, we’re ranking and rating the value of those contributions so that we can share them more effectively and more broadly internally,” Larson said.

He said Google also has a new Solution Architecture AI feature, “so if you are looking to generate a GCP-related migration of a Java-based web application, you can go ask a solution generator to say, ‘What are the tools that would be required in GCP in order to move or migrate this application into the cloud?’ And it will generate and provide links to the documentation for how you would go implement that.”

Customer Outcomes Will Be Key To Program Incentives And Resources

There is a major strategic shift in the new Google Cloud Partner Network program towards valuing successful customer outcomes.

This includes rewarding successful co-sell sales efforts, high-quality service delivery, and shared innovation with ISVs.

Larson said Google’s new program measures the customer experience “in the form of customer outcomes.”

“So every metric related to our Diamond tiers, our advanced competencies are related to, ‘How are we driving customer-outcomes together with our ecosystem?’ The focus of these metrics are, ‘How much are you co selling with us? Are you driving workshops, assessments, pilots to help convince prospects of the value of this technology and how they can implement these solutions easily?’” he said.

Additionally, he said Google will look at service delivery capability, capacity and, “How many individuals do you have in this particular solution area, or broad area, capable of delivering these kinds of solutions for customers?’”

“We’re shifting from something that really wasn’t effectively getting at the heart of which partners are driving customer outcomes and focusing on those co-sell services and delivery capacity metrics that are directly related to customer outcomes,” Larson said.

AI-Powered Automated Tracking

Google said administrative responsibilities for partners to participate in the program will be dramatically reduced using AI.

One key AI feature inside the new program will be automated tracking across tiering and competency achievements.

Google Cloud will automatically apply every successful customer engagement toward a partner’s progress in all eligible tiers and competencies. This radical simplification eliminates redundant reporting and ensures seamless, comprehensive recognition for the outcomes delivered.

“This is going to make their lives easier with less resources to manage programs and get them faster to the levels that represent their business within our program,” Kapase said. “This is going to be a huge leap forward for us.”

Google Is Giving Partners An ‘AI-Powered GPS For Growth’

Kapase said the new Google Cloud Partner Network is “giving partners an AI-powered GPS for growth.”

“We are trying to make it more intuitive, easier self-service for partners, and that ability to incorporate AI and make it native language questions that you can ask to learn, ‘How can I get a better statement of work out there that’s more effective or efficient using the knowledge that Google shares with our partners? How can I help close the gap on earning a competency?’—all of that is becoming is much more intuitive.”

She said the “cost of doing business with Google” will lower thanks to incorporating AI inside the new program.

“The intention is to make it easier to connect our field organization with our customer organization as well to figure out: ‘Who’s got the right capabilities for what?’ And you can see it’s all based on value metrics all the way out to delivery, ‘Have I driven this outcome for a customer?’” Kapase said. “So our sales organization and our customer base is pretty excited about this.”

‘Reselling Still Has A Place,’ But Co-Selling Is Key

Google channel executives said reselling will still be rewarded, but co-selling alongside Google is key.

“Reselling still has a place. It’s really important for us and for many of our customers,” Kapase said.

“But if you go up to the upper enterprise, they’re looking for a direct legal agreement with us, but the partner still has an immense amount of value to bring it through the sales process and the delivery process.”

Kapase said there’s “billions of dollars of opportunities” for partners when co-selling and engaging with Google’s field team.

Larson (pictured) said Google is “seeing unprecedented alignment internally based off co-selling services motions” with partners.

“We are programmatically uniting partners and Google field resources around shared goals in a more elegant way than ever before,” Larson said.

Six Months Transition Period For Partners

The new Google Cloud Partner Network program kick off on Jan. 15.

However, there is a six-month transition window starting on Jan. 15 for partners to adjust to the new framework.

“We’re having a transition period so our partners have time to get into the new pool, look at where they’re at, figure out maybe where there might be some gaps if they have the interest in earning that competency or earning that advanced competency,” Kapase said.

Over the course of the next six months, Google is letting partners interact with the new tools, learn the new AI capabilities, plug-in the data Google needs to track everything, and find what capabilities they need.

“I’d like to say every single partner is out there registering their co-sell opportunities and services registrations. The majority are, but a few still have to get that motion in place. So we’ve got a nice long window to work with our partners to make sure that they’re getting that data into the system and that we can see it,” said Kapase.

Google’s program leader said her company will be helping partners through the transformation process over the next six months.

“We want to make sure they’re getting into the right spots and in the right lanes for what reflects their business and what they’re doing already,” she said. “Our partners are going to love it.”