2021 Partner Program Guide: 5-Star Software Vendor Programs

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some vendor channel programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here are the 5-Star designees in the software and applications space for 2021.

Software Standouts

In early 2020 IT software developers moved quickly to assist their channel partners as the COVID-19 crisis took hold. Many temporarily changed or suspended sales thresholds and other program tier requirements, extended certification deadlines, loosened credit and payment terms for partners and their customers and allowed more flexibility in using market development funds.

But despite the difficult year, many IT companies have continued to expand and improve their channel partner programs, offering solution provider partners the support, resources and incentives they need to be successful as the economy rebounds in 2021.

That includes vendors who provide industry leading software products, everything from operating systems and software development tools to business intelligence software and operational applications.

The CRN 2021 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 – more than 275 this year – 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, training, services and benefits.

Here we provide snapshots of the 5-Star designees in the software and applications space. Details of every vendor’s partner program can be found at /partner-program-guide/ppg2021.htm.

Other slide shows in the 5-Star Partner Program Guide series running this week include companies that provide products and services for systems and data centers, cloud platforms and infrastructure, networking and unified communications, security, devices and peripherals, and data storage and backup. While many companies provide products and services that span multiple technologies, we’ve assigned each vendor to the slide show for the technology category in which they are most prominent.

Accedian

Program Name: Skylight 4X Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2018

Channel Chief: Sergio Bea, VP, Global Enterprise, Channel Sales

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Accedian plans to significantly improve online enablement, sales tools and resources for partners. It also aims to improve online collaboration and scale the MSP-MSSP business.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=3

Acumatica

Program Name: Acumatica Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Channel Chief: Geoff Ashley, VP, Partner Strategy, Programs

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: In 2021, Acumatica aims to continue to expand its network of qualified international partners. It also wants to migrate partners to cloud solutions and increase the amount of net- new accounts coming through partners.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=7

Atlassian

Program Name: Atlassian Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2017

Channel Chief: Martin Musierowicz, Head of Global Channels

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Atlassian is focused on helping partners succeed with IT service management and DevOps solutions. The most successful partners lead with solutions and leverage their domain expertise around enterprise needs.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=22

BMC

Program Name: Partner Advantage Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Channel Chief: Simon Blanks, Area VP, North America Channel

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: BMC is zeroed in on supporting existing partners as they join BMC in its journey to be a SaaS leader and recruiting new born-in-the-cloud partners to help customers evolve to become autonomous digital enterprises.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=38

Cloudera

Program Name: Cloudera Connect

Year Program Established: 2011

Channel Chief: Gary Green, VP, Strategic Partnerships

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Cloudera aims to help partners take advantage of new program offerings so they can succeed in a hybrid cloud environment. 2021 will be focused on activating partners to take advantage of new elements that help drive pipeline growth.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=47

erwin

Program Name: erwin Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2016

Channel Chief: Dave Casillo, Chief Revenue Officer

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: The company will be integrated into Quest during 2021. While Erwin is working to ensure a seamless transition for partners, it is also building the bridge for partners to reap the rewards of the combined organization.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=77

FinancialForce

Program Name: FinancialForce Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Channel Chief: Aaron Koenderman, VP, Global Partner Strategy

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: FinancialForce is aiming to have partners implement 70 percent or more of all new sales and looks to double revenue obtained through and with partners.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=84

Hitachi Vantara

Program Name: Hitachi Vantara Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2018

Channel Chief: Kimberly King, VP, Global Strategic Partners, Alliances

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Hitachi Vantara is designing its partner program to support key channel goals: Improving partner profitability and increasing the overall percentage of company revenue and the number of net-new accounts coming through partners.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=96

IFS

Program Name: IFS Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2012

Channel Chief: Merlin Knott, Global Head of Partner, Channels

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: IFS is dedicated to helping partners better serve customers. By automating processes in its partner relationship management system, partners have more insight into their own pipeline.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=101

IGEL

Program Name: IGEL Velocity

Year Program Established: 2021

Channel Chief: Balaji Subramanian, SVP, Global Channel Chief

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: In 2021 IGEL is planning to increase run rates and see growth in sales, acquisition of new customers and higher renewal rates.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=102

Ivanti

Program Name: Ivanti Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2017

Channel Chief: Erik Randles, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Ivanti will provide larger market opportunities through increased investment in marketing and solution-selling programs to enable partners to achieve double-digit revenue growth in 2021.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=116

Micro Focus

Program Name: Micro Focus Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2019

Channel Chief: Mike O’Neill, President, Worldwide Indirect Sales

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Micro Focus offers partners a partner portal with a wealth of tools, access to the same collateral and training materials available to its sales force, and the ability to build testing environments and pilot deployments.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=135

NetDocuments

Program Name: NetDocuments Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1998

Channel Chief: Reza Parsia, VP, Strategic Partnerships

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: NetDocuments is working on the development of existing strategic partnerships and the requirements of new select partnerships.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=143

Nintex

Program Name: Nintex Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2008

Channel Chief: Joe Peterson, VP, Channel Sales, Strategy

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Nintex has three core goals for channel success in 2021: Set a new high in leads sourced by Nintex partners; issue 7,000 Nintex product certifications to Nintex partners; and achieve a revenue mix with new product making up 30 percent of channel revenue.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=148

NS1

Program Name: NS1 Channel Program

Year Program Established: 2019

Channel Chief: Warren Mead, VP, Business Development, Channels & Alliances

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: NS1 is aiming to increase the overall percentage of company revenue through the channel. It also wants to increase the amount of recurring revenue going through partners and encourage them to sell a broader part of the portfolio.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=150

Progress Software

Program Name: Progress Accelerate Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2020

Channel Chief: Gary Quinn, SVP, Core Field Organization

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Progress Software’s goal is to keep the pedal to the metal for growth around its digital experience platform, secure file transfer offering and network monitoring tool.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=174

Qlik

Program Name: The Qlik Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2005

Channel Chief: Poornima Ramaswamy, EVP, Global Solutions & Partners

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Qlik accelerated analytics modernization with customer migration to SaaS and the cloud. It is focused on new customer adoption and partner value throughout the customer success journey.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=177

Quest Software

Program Name: Quest Partner Circle Program

Year Program Established: 2016

Channel Chief: Todd Werner, VP, Global Channels

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Quest’s partner enablement provides foundational knowledge and understanding and is designed to help partners become more directed when identifying and solving customer challenges.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=180

Sage Intacct

Program Name: Sage Intacct Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Channel Chief: Taylor Macdonald, SVP, Channels

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Sage Intacct is working to ensure partners focus on micro-vertical industry segments and follow the company’s streamline sales process.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=192

Sage Software

Program Name: Sage North America Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Channel Chief: Nancy Teixeira, VP, Partner Strategy, Sales

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: In 2021 the focus is on enabling partners to provide managed services related to the public cloud hosting of Sage 100 and Sage 300 customers on the Azure platform via the Sage Partner Cloud.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=193

Salesforce

Program Name: Salesforce Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1999

Channel Chief: Kori O’Brien, SVP, COO, Alliances, Channels

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Salesforce is expanding its partner program pillars to include a focus on social impact. Partners are encouraged and incentivized to drive diversity within their organizations and make positive contributions to social causes.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=194

SAP

Program Name: SAP PartnerEdge

Year Program Established: 2005

Channel Chief: Karl Fahrbach, Chief Partner Officer

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Through its partner and ecosystem strategy, SAP sees coordinated execution between the company and partners to orchestrate the customer journey end to end, jointly putting customer success at the heart of the partnership.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=198

Seeburger

Program Name: Seeburger Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2011

Channel Chief: Ulf Persson, SVP, Global Business Development

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Seeburger will continue to build out an agile program for existing and new partners and alliances, considering offerings for on-premises, hybrid and cloud.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=207

Siemens Digital Industries Software

Program Name: Siemens Digital Industries Software Solution Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2007

Channel Chief: Jeff Zobrist, VP, Global Solution Partner Sales

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: As business buyers increase their digitalization requirements, shorten timelines and increase expected ROI, the company is focused on helping partners engage with these decision-makers via digital strategies.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=211

Smartsheet

Program Name: Smartsheet Aligned

Year Program Established: 2017

Channel Chief: Steve Stewart, Head of Global Channels

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Smartsheet is investing in channel marketing to help drive partner-sourced opportunities. One of its goals is to recruit and on-board global systems integrators with a focus on depth, not breadth.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=214

Snow Software

Program Name: Snow Software Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Channel Chief: Brian Allison, VP, Global Channels, Alliances

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Snow Software build and executed a new partner strategy, supported by a new program focused on delivering customer success and increasing partner profitability. This is the continued focus for 2021.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=215

Software AG

Program Name: PartnerConnect

Year Program Established: 2000

Channel Chief: Jason Johns, SVP, Global Channels, Alliances

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: Software AG is focused on deal registration bookings, top-tier partners, an increased partner mix of overall business, the number of recruited and enabled partners, and the number of partner badges/certifications.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=218

Splunk

Program Name: Splunk Partners+ Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Channel Chief: Bill Hustad, VP, Global Go To Market Partners

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: In 2021 the Splunk Partner+ Program will prioritize continuing to migrate partners to cloud solutions and increase the amount of recurring revenue going through partners. Initiatives will be aligned to support these partners.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=224

SUSE

Program Name: SUSE One Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2020

Channel Chief: Rachel Cassidy, SVP, Global Channels, Cloud

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: SUSE will continue to expand and refine the key benefits and requirements for each partner specialization and localize the partner portal, adding local resources to support partners.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=228

TIBCO

Program Name: TIBCO Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2021

Channel Chief: Tony Beller, SVP, Worldwide Partners, OEM Sales

Companies reveal their partner program goals for 2021: This year TIBCO is laser-focused on accelerating value through innovation for its partner ecosystem. Partners play a pivotal role in customer success continuity, connecting them to Tibco’s expertise wherever they are needed.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2021-details.htm?c=243