VMWARE
VMware | August 19, 2022
VMware, Inc. announced the next evolution of VMware Partner Connect – the company’s singular, unified, global partner program. Partner Connect’s new framework aligns to today’s cloud, services, and solutions-centric business models, and will help partners drive better business performance and profitability today while transforming their businesses for tomorrow. The evolved VMware Partner Connect program will deliver a flexible framework to support partners’ go to market with VMware, accelerate partner growth, and reward partners for the totality of their achievements and capabilities. VMware is delivering several immediate benefits, with additional capabilities and enhancements to be made available in the future.
VMware has identified three core profit drivers that show up consistently within the company’s most profitable partners: Services, Lifecycle Profit, and Stickiness. Each pillar is synergistic and interconnected to create revenue and profit opportunities. For partners focused on these three areas, the results are tangible. When comparing VMware’s most profitable partners to the worldwide averages: more than 80% of revenue from their VMware practice is driven from services (cloud, managed, professional); services profit is 1.5X higher; and professional service days revenue is more than 2X higher.(1)
“VMware has applied learnings from thousands of partners to drive the next evolution of Partner Connect and help partners perform while they transform. VMware is well positioned to help partners capture on the massive and growing opportunity in multi-cloud,” said Tracy-Ann Palmer, vice president, Partner Experience, Programs and Investments, VMware. “We now have one unified partner program that will be more flexible and efficient, with simpler paths to progression and more tools to help manage partners’ VMware business. We’re optimizing incentives and programs to help partners take their SaaS and subscription businesses to another level and capitalize on cloud-centric business models and economics.”
Elevated Partner Experience with a New Partner Connect Structure
With the next evolution of Partner Connect, VMware partners will benefit from a new flexible point system, simplified tiering, a business model orientation, and add more self-service and automation to further improve partner efficiency and profitability. Partner Connect will reward partners for different ways they create value, including both performance and capability activities. Progression in the program will be based on the new points system rather than a complex mix of IT pathways. Partners that progress to the new Pinnacle tier will experience even greater financial benefits and VMware engagement, including managed account coverage, joint business plan development, and access to big bets programs.
Additionally, Partner Connect will now support four different business models under a single program: Solution Services, Solution Builder, Cloud Solution Provider, and Solution Reseller. Creating this flexible, collaborative framework across these four business models enables VMware to unify support across all business models. VMware will deliver a new self-service dashboard that provides partners easy-to-access visibility into where they stand in the Partner Connect program. Partners will be able to better track their progression, incentives earned, competencies achieved and other valuable telemetry for managing their VMware business.
Accelerating Partner Business Transformation to SaaS, Services, and Solutions Selling
Customer Success practices are critical to helping customers realize continuous value from the cloud, SaaS, and subscription offerings. They are also a key component of the Lifecycle Services identified by VMware as a core profit driver. With the new Partner-Led Customer Success Specialization, partners now have three options to execute Customer Success. Partners can build their own comprehensive offering through the Specialization, collaborate with VMware on Customer Success activities, or resell VMware Success 360. These options enable partners to guide customers through all the stages of their multi-cloud journey with VMware solutions, while providing a consistent method of working with customers to help them continually realize value and achieve outcomes faster.
VMware has launched the Go-To-Market Play System (GPS) for VMware partners to meet the twin goals of delivering customer outcomes and partner profitability. Centered on transformational business challenges (Strategy Plays) and discrete focused IT solutions (Velocity Plays), GPS provides defined solutions with unified enablement and incentives to increase value and reach, as well as digital marketing support. With GPS for partners, VMware is transforming fragmented GTM programs into a unified approach directed at customer outcomes. These GPS plays are central to VMware’s outcome-oriented partner enablement and go-to-market evolution, driving end-to-end alignment beginning with partner capability development all the way to customer success.
VMware is now making the VMware Ignite program more broadly available to partners and has aligned it with the Go-To-Market Play System and partner-led services initiatives. VMware Ignite is a unique partner practice activation and development program featuring a rigorous, proven methodology providing structured development paths to build capabilities across technical, sales, services, and marketing functions; access to trainings and VMware experts to support sales and practice development; and a variety of development paths for new and committed partners and distributors.
The new VMware Ecosystem Solutions Partner Studio, which includes Solutions Lab and Solutions Hub, empowers partners to create and co-innovate on use-case-focused solutions to drive partner growth and global market differentiation. Solutions Lab is a facilitated co-innovation framework that helps partners take "Big Ideas" to market through guided assistance and support from VMware experts. With Solutions Lab, partners can deliver differentiated solutions that are repeatable and tailored for market-fit. Solutions Hub is an integrated digital self-service platform that streamlines the content creation, orchestration, and go-to-market process for partners’ solutions. Solutions Hub provides the digital tools to activate and publish curated solutions to VMware Marketplace today and additional third-party marketplaces in the future; measure pipeline, adoption, and penetration effectiveness; and accelerate time-to-market through automation.
“We love that this new points-based system for progression will recognize and reward partners like Insight for the results-based strategic growth we achieve with our shared customers, The recognition of our total achievements and capabilities as part of the VMware Partner Connect Program is a key driver for the continued investment in growing our VMware solutions business.”
Joyce Mullen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Insight Enterprises
About VMware
VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. As a trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware software gives businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to building a better future through the company’s 2030 Agenda.
Read More
VIRTUAL DESKTOP STRATEGIES
Sangfor Technologies | July 18, 2022
Fiber-optic internet service provider Surf Broadband Solutions has completed an extensive rebranding effort, reflecting the evolution of the company, as well as a renewal to its corporate mission and values. At the heart of this rebrand is a change of the company name to Surf InternetSM and an update to the corporate logo.
"This transformation reinforces Surf's commitment to elevate the customer experience as we illuminate communities throughout the Great Lakes region, Today's announcement is just the beginning of many more good things to come. Our team is excited to build on Surf's foundation of a customer-first mindset and comprehensive range of business and residential internet service offerings."
Chief Marketing Officer Lana Frank
Initial elements of Surf's brand evolution include:
New Name, Logo, and Brand Colors: Surf's new name clearly communicates the company's core service offerings. The logo's blue arch inserted above the "S" bends like light and is symbolic of connection and expansion. The color palette has been slightly updated to include hues of blue, orange, bright green, and purple, retaining familiarity while also lending a more contemporary, dynamic, and cutting-edge look.
Expanded Mission Statement: "We believe that high-speed, reliable internet service is the great equalizer. We're on a mission to transform the future of our region by building an unparalleled network and providing an unsurpassed customer experience for the communities where we live, work, and serve."
About Surf Internet
Surf Internet is an innovative fiber-optic internet company that serves as the essential gateway to connectivity across the Great Lakes region of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. The company is building a bridge to the wide-open future by delivering high-speed, reliable internet to homes and businesses in underserved, rural communities. Surf's 100-plus person team is local, giving them an edge when it comes to customer care and advocacy for the region. Headquartered in Elkhart, Ind., Surf also has offices in La Porte, Ind., Byron Center, Mich., and Coal City and Rock Falls, Ill.
Read More
STORAGE
Service Express | July 05, 2022
Service Express, a leader in global data center and infrastructure solutions, announces the acquisition of managed services provider iTech Solutions Group and cloud hosting provider iInTheCloud. The acquisitions bring expanded IBM-specific offerings and IBM Gold Business Partner status to Service Express customers in the U.S. This deal replicates the company's existing IBM services, expertise and IBM Gold Business Partner status in the U.K. to bring comprehensive solutions to customers internationally.Based in Connecticut, iTech has over 20 years of experience offering expert solutions as an IBM Gold Business Partner. The company has worked alongside financial services, manufacturing and retail organizations, helping customers leverage IBM i infrastructure strategies. The acquisition of iTech brings a team of certified technical consultants, IBM i system administrators and skilled technicians with a deep understanding of IBM Power® Systems.
At iTech, we take pride in our dedication to the success of our people and customers, said Pete Massiello, President of iTech Solutions Group. Joining Service Express gives us the ability to expand our service offerings to existing and new customers, which was challenging as a smaller organization. I'm looking forward to working with the Service Express team to create synergy and bring our solutions to more companies around the globe.
In addition to hardware solutions, consulting and managed services, iTech provides customers with IBM i cloud hosting solutions by utilizing iInTheCloud infrastructure. iInTheCloud is a cloud hosting provider with Tier III data centers built on IBM Power Systems to deliver secure, scalable and resilient solutions for companies running IBM i, AIX and PowerLinux.
iInTheCloud allows organizations to host production, test, development or replicate environments to support disaster recovery and business continuity. The company's Michigan-based data centers grant companies access to redundant power, cooling and communication feeds ensuring environments are highly available.
"My focus has always been on creating flexible, reliable, and scalable solutions for IBM i and Power System customers around the Midwest," said Larry Bolhuis, Co-President of iInTheCloud. "With Service Express' headquarters only minutes from our data centers, the company has been the go-to service provider for many of our customers, as well as for iInTheCloud since its inception. I'm excited to expand our support options and capabilities for our new and existing customers."
Service Express offers an extensive portfolio of solutions, including data center maintenance, managed and infrastructure services designed to help customers maintain and evolve their digital IT strategies.
"The acquisition of iTech and iInTheCloud accelerate the expansion of our managed and infrastructure service offerings to the U.S., We anticipate strong company growth as we continue to broaden and diversify our solutions, bringing a wider portfolio of services to customers in the U.S. and U.K."
-Ron Alvesteffer, President and CEO of Service Express
About Service Express
Service Express is an industry-leading data center solutions provider specializing in global multivendor maintenance, hybrid cloud, managed and infrastructure services, hardware solutions and more. Companies around the globe trust Service Express to deliver reliable end-to-end support. Service Express' flagship technology, ExpressConnect®, helps IT teams automate support with monitoring, ticketing, integrations and account management. For more information, visit serviceexpress.com.
About iTech Solutions Group
iTech Solutions, an IBM Gold Business Partner, helps organizations get the most performance, utilization and return on investment from existing or new IBM Power® Systems running IBM i, while ensuring critical business data is secure. Offerings include IBM Power Systems and storage, managed administration and OS subscription services, IBM i cloud hosting, OS Upgrades, PTF maintenance, HMC and FSP Upgrades, security assessments and remediation, HA replication solutions, DR testing, tape and disk encryption, virtual tape libraries, and more. For more information, visit itechsol.com.
About iInTheCloud
iInTheCloud specializes in IBM i cloud hosting solutions by leveraging IBM Power® and IBM Flash Systems in its Tier III data centers. The company works alongside organizations to deliver secure, scalable and resilient solutions to meet specific system requirements. With iInTheCloud's secure cloud, companies can consolidate workloads, increase server utilization, reduce capital costs, lower management costs, virtualize and provision memory, processor, and I/O resources. For more information, visit iinthecloud.com.
Read More