Making The Partner Connection

IT vendors spent much of 2020 helping channel partners make their way through the COVID-19 crisis, providing financial flexibility amid the sudden economic uncertainty and creating ways for partners to market and sell their products and services in a no-contact world.

But despite the challenging 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 improves.

That includes vendors who provide hardware, software and services for IT networks, telecommunication systems, unified communications, video conferencing and more.

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 networking and unified communications space. Details of every vendor’s partner program can be found at https://www.crn.com/partner-program-guide/ppg2021.htm.

Other slide shows in the 5-Star Partner Program Guide series running this week will include companies that provide products and services for systems and data centers, cloud platforms and infrastructure, software and applications, 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.