From Left: Jeff McCullough, Evelyn Phang (NCS), and Sandeep Mehra at the launch event of SolarWinds Transform Partner Program in Singapore.
Building on its strong existing partner relationships, SolarWinds recently launched the SolarWinds® Transform Partner Program, enabling its partners to evolve, transform, and become more successful through the program’s focus on expanded investments, growth, and profitability.
According to IDC research, organisations are looking to digital transformation as a way of building resiliency and preparing to weather the various economic storms ahead. With18% year-on-year growth in digital transformation spending across APAC in 2022, growing from US$543 billion in 2022 and reaching $US1.05 trillion by 2026, the opportunity for partners is now.
Enhancing collaborations with partners so they can successfully assist their customers in building and executing on their strategic objectives in the changing APAC tech landscape has been identified as a core priority for SolarWinds going forward.
“We now have a roadmap on how to go from a good to a great partner, not only in what we think but in how partners define their own successes—how they can maximise the opportunity with their customers and build a profitable business,” SolarWinds Vice President of Worldwide Partner Sales, Jeff McCullough, said in an exclusive interview with Foundry.
The blueprint for partner success—moving from good to great
The most successful value-added resellers (VARs) blend sales, technical capabilities, and consulting services to help generate greater demand and deliver superior customer experiences. Understanding the unique needs of customers and their go-to-market strategies is instrumental in taking digital transformation to market. Just as the VAR and partner need to understand their customer, SolarWinds has structured the Transform Partner Program around partners’ unique needs and seeks to elevate partners to the next level.
“In Singapore, for example, there are restrictions in how you work with the public sector, and certain customers need support and services capabilities,” Sandeep Mehra, director of channel sales, international at SolarWinds, said. “Our sales and training certifications will become key in addressing certain verticals and creating opportunities for us. It’s something we’re driving specifically at right now.”
An area in which the new SolarWinds Transform Partner Program has been further fine-tuned is the Elite Partner tier, which is measured not only by sales numbers but by the skills and capabilities a partner has with SolarWinds technologies. The intention of this is to drive deeper skills and engagement with SolarWinds in each market, allowing SolarWinds partners to take greater ownership of their relationship with customers by providing skills, training, channel resources, and experience in the marketplace directly.
Under the new SolarWinds Transform Partner Program, partners are divided into five core groups—distribution partners, VARs, global system integrators (GSIs), and the newly added categories of cloud service providers (CSPs) and managed service providers (MSPs).
With digital transformation leading to consumption-based expenditures, preferable during economic uncertainty, MSPs are now a core part of the SolarWinds partner ecosystem.
The SolarWinds Transform Partner Program focuses on three key pillars:
- Expanding investments with improved field coverage, better enablement tools, and unifying different partner engagement models into a single worldwide partner program framework
- Achieving mutual growth through the new SolarWinds Platform and Hybrid Cloud Observability offerings and subscription options
- Increasing profitability through an annuity margin model, a new service program and products, and program-aligned benefits
The SolarWinds Transform Partner Program has also been built with the over-arching understanding that one size does not fit all, and every partner in every category needs to have tailored engagement with SolarWinds to be able to deliver for their customers. According to McCullough, this flexible approach also means the program will continue to evolve, adding more tools, capabilities, and features as the SolarWinds business grows and the needs of its partners in each region across APAC continue to change.
“While consistency is important at the top level, tailoring is essential on the ground. We have many types of partners, from large MSPs and GSIs to smaller VARs. There will always be nuances in the different types and sizes of partners we work with, and we will work with them to achieve the ultimate “Win-Win,” Mehra said.
“At SolarWinds, our partners’ success is equivalent to SolarWinds success.”
For more information on the SolarWinds Transform Partner Program, click here.
Credit: SolarWinds 
