2022 Partner Program Guide: 5-Star Networking And Unified Communications Vendor Programs

As part of the Partner Program Guide, CRN designates some vendor channel programs as 5-Star Programs. Here are the 5-Star programs among networking and unified communications vendors for 2022.

Making A Connection With Partners

The 2022 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 – just over 300 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 here.

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

8x8

Program Name: 8x8 Open Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2019

Channel Chief: Lisa Del Real, Global Channel Chief

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: 8x8 is expanding program benefits and resources to help partners grow and retain revenue. In addition, the company will continue to innovate its XCaaS platform, expand its enterprise base and increase global scale following the acquisition of Fuze.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=2

Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Program Name: Partner Ready For Aruba

Year Program Established: 2016

Channel Chief: Donna Grothjan, VP, Worldwide Channels

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Aruba plans to increase rewards for partners who demonstrate specific capabilities. It also aims to drive business growth with Aruba SD-WAN solutions leveraging Silver Peak value and evolve the partner ecosystem with a focus on services partners.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=22

Aryaka Networks

Program Name: Aryaka Accelerate Program

Year Program Established: 2021

Channel Chief: Craig Patterson, Channel Chief & VP of Sales Americas

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Aryaka wants to double its partner base in 2022. With its new managed SD-WAN and SASE offerings the addressable market will expand and this, coupled with the Accelerate program, should be very attractive to partners.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=23

Avaya

Program Name: Avaya Edge

Year Program Established: 2016

Channel Chief: Dennis Kozak, SVP, Global Channel Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: The 2022 Avaya Edge partner program supports three key components: migrations to subscription and cloud, paying more for new customers, and simplifying program terms.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=29

BlackBerry

Program Name: BlackBerry Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2016

Channel Chief: Colleen McMillan, VP, Global Channel Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: BlackBerry is committed to mutual success with partners. It is focused on providing enhanced opportunities for partners to grow their profitability through expanded training, offerings, competencies and incentives.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=40

Ciena

Program Name: Ciena Partner Network Program

Year Program Established: 2018

Channel Chief: Matt Cook, VP, Global Partners

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: At Ciena, more certifications and training to support partner enablement is coming as is an NFR program to enhance partners’ go-to-marker. It also is expanding partner event activities as more in-person meetings take place.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=50

Cisco Systems

Program Name: The Cisco Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2020

Channel Chief: Oliver Tuszik, SVP, Global Partner Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Cisco’s priorities are to evolve the Cisco Partner Program to align specializations to the value partners deliver, focus on customer life-cycle practices, and maximize partner value through differentiation, transformation and value exchange.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=51

Citrix Systems

Program Name: Citrix Partner Success

Year Program Established: 1989

Channel Chief: Mark Palomba, SVP, Partner Sales & Ecosystems

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Citrix is simplifying its partner experience. The company will offer a success cloud renewal rebate and update the cloud adoption rebate incentive. It also will increase transaction flexibility when leveraging marketplaces and hyperscalers.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=52

Comcast Business

Program Name: Comcast Business Solutions Provider Program

Year Program Established: 2011

Channel Chief: Craig Schlagbaum, SVP and Channel Chief

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: The Comcast Business Solutions Provider Program team has one goal: to help partners sell. The company helps partners sell the right set of solutions to their customers of every size and in every industry.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=60

CommScope

Program Name: PartnerPRO Network

Year Program Established: 2012

Channel Chief: Karen Pugliese, Partner Leader, Americas

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Commscope plans to improve the ease of doing business with the company and better reward those partners that demonstrate a higher degree of technical competency.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=61

Cradlepoint

Program Name: Cradlepoint Global Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2008

Channel Chief: Eric Purcell, SVP, Partner and Alliance Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Cradlepoint will be providing a more comprehensive program for MSPs and technology alliances. This allows these partners to appropriately position the company’s offerings and a supporting infrastructure.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=68

Extreme Networks

Program Name: Extreme Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1996

Channel Chief: Joe Vitalone, Chief Revenue Officer

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Extreme will focus on migrating partners to cloud solutions, improving partners’ technical skills, increasing the number of net-new accounts coming via the partner network, and enhancing the partner experience with new tools and training.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=100

Geoverse

Program Name: Geoverse Partner Program 2.0

Year Program Established: 2020

Channel Chief: Bob Gault, Chief Commercial Officer

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Geoverse is focusing on identifying, selecting, training and equipping Elite-level partners for post-sale support, including RF design, site surveys and deployments.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=108

Gigamon

Program Name: Catalyst Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Channel Chief: Larissa Crandall, VP, Worldwide Channel & Alliances

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Gigamon is continuing to provide access to demand generation resources and investment for partners. The company saw success with partners utilizing content to drive strong ROI with the tools and content provided, and that will be a big focus in 2022.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=109

Infiot

Program Name: Infiot Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2020

Channel Chief: Parag Thakore, CEO

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Infiniot invests in its partners’ success and wants them to leverage its offerings and available resources effectively. The goal is for partners to increase the amount of deployment and services that go through them.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=128

Infoblox

Program Name: BuildingBLOX Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2017

Channel Chief: Chris Millerick, VP, Channels & Alliances

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Infoblox is evolving the BuildingBlox partner program’s pricing and incentives accordingly with an eye on maximizing partners’ profitability. Partners can look forward to simplification and revised incentives with cybersecurity as the cornerstone.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=129

Intermedia Cloud Communications

Program Name: Intermedia Partner Accelerate

Year Program Established: 2006

Channel Chief: Jonathan McCormick, COO and Head of Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Intermedia Partner Accelerate offers two partner models to choose from: the Customer Ownership Reseller model (CORE) allows partners to set their own price points and brand Intermedia‘s solutions as their own; the Advisor program delivers attractive, recurring commissions and both midels come with Intermedia’s 360 partner support.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=137

Juniper Networks

Program Name: Juniper Partner Advantage

Year Program Established: 1996

Channel Chief: Gordon Mackintosh, VP, Global Channels & Virtual Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Continued investments in Juniper’s partner program for 2022 will accelerate strong partnerships and continue the company and its partners on the path of hypergrowth.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=141

Lumen Technologies

Program Name: Lumen Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1998

Channel Chief: Dave Young, SVP, Strategic Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Lumen built a reinvigorated indirect organization with a dual focus on driving sales with partners and channel management. It also created a growth team with dedicated resources focused on improvements to grow the indirect business.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=159

Mitel

Program Name: Mitel Global Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2018

Channel Chief: Daren Finney, SVP, Global Channels

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Mitel’s 2022 goals include incorporating customer experience and customer life-cycle management into the program framework and providing partners with the recognition and tools to enable them to expand their business.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=165

Nextiva

Program Name: NeXus Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2020

Channel Chief: Marc Stein, Global VP, Channel Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Nextiva is dedicated to helping partners understand their customers, service them effectively and ensure their loyalty by supporting their needs through increased marketing programs, field sales participation and service.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=176

Poly

Program Name: Poly Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2020

Channel Chief: Nick Tidd, VP, Global Partner Organization

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: 2022 will bring even more enhancements from Poly’s investment in tools and systems, including new dashboards for tracking and forecasting rebates, as well as viewing overall partner profitability across all of front- and back-end programs.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=200

Ribbon

Program Name: Ribbon Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2019

Channel Chief: David Hogan, VP, Growth Segments

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Ribbon plans to focus on top-tier partners for co-marketing and increased self-service for lower-tier partners through its partner portal.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=212

RingCentral

Program Name: RingCentral Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Channel Chief: Zane Long, SVP, Global Partner Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: RingCentral’ s goal is to put the emphasis on people, setting its sights on continuing to build strong relationships with partners. This means focusing on the people behind partnerships and working to uphold partners’ reputations in their communities.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=213

Riverbed/Aternity

Program Name: Riverbed Rise

Year Program Established: 2018

Channel Chief: Lindsey Claypool, Sr. Director, Channel Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Riverbed/Aternity aims to motivate partners through rewards for building practices around its offerings. The company also is working to ensure top-tier partners are enabled on its advanced visibility offerings.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=214

Sangoma

Program Name: Sangoma Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1984

Channel Chief: Joel Poythress, SVP, Strategic & Enterprise Sales

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Sangoma is aiming to further streamline partner experiences and grow their business with more dedicated engagement from its teams.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=220

Spectrum

Program Name: Spectrum Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2008

Channel Chief: Michelle Kadlacek, VP, Enterprise Partner Program

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: The goals for the Spectrum Partner Program are simple: To continue automation efforts, further enhance the partner experience and mutually grow business. It will continue enhancing Salesforce communities and launch new APIs.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=249

Verizon

Program Name: Verizon Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Channel Chief: Wendy Taccetta, SVP for Nationwide Small Business & Channel Chief

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Verizon’s new partner portal simplifies how partners engage with the company. Following the portal launch, there have been 17 additional capabilities, increased automation and enhancements to improve the partner experience.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=282

Versa Networks

Program Name: Versa ACE Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2017

Channel Chief: Hemen Mehta, VP, North America Channels

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Versa Networks plans tighter alignment with strategic alliances and channels. It also aims to improve sales tools that will enable partners to manage and grow their business.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=283

Vonage

Program Name: Vonage Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2018

Channel Chief: Jim Regan, Channel Chief

Partner Program Goals And Insights For 2022: Vonage aims to increase the overall percentage of company revenue that comes through the channel, improve partner profitability and ramp up partner sales of a newly launched product and service.

Partner Program Details: /partner-program-guide/ppg2022-details.htm?c=290