Monday Morning Impact – March 27

Datto Launches New Partner Program for MSPs

Datto, the Norwalk, CT-based security vendor, has launched a new global partner program for the managed services provider community.

The new program includes business planning, commercial and technical education sessions, enhanced training and onboarding best practices, as well as access to Datto’s business continuity, disaster recovery and managed networking solutions. The program structure benchmarks partners by monthly recurring revenue in four new tiers: Business, Professional, Enterprise, and Blue.

Program highlights include advanced sales tactics training; a marketing automation platform with pre-built promotional campaigns, co-branded and customizable collateral, and streamlined social media content; benchmark analysis that enables partners to evaluate their businesses against new research and benchmarks from top Datto partner performers; and an NFR program.

“This new program allows us to engage with our partners on a much deeper level, empower them with the tangible tools and resources they need to be successful, and motivate them with fresh, new benefits,” said Sue MacGregor, director of partner marketing at Datto. “Our partners have grown at a tremendous pace and it’s a necessity that our enablement programs evolve in lockstep to further support their business growth and success.”

Channel Impact^®
Adding fresh features to meet the needs of a wide variety of channel constituents is always an important element to preserving and building successful partnerships.

Ingram Micro Cloud Referral Program Available Globally

Ingram Micro has announced the global availability of its cloud referral program.

The Ingram Micro Cloud Referral Program enables current Advisor partners to continue earning commissions on existing Microsoft Office 365 Advisor subscriptions, while also having the opportunity to sell net-new Office 365 subscriptions through Ingram Micro with the same level of commitment they had via the Office 365 Advisor Program.

“Designed for partners looking for quick and seamless entry into the cloud services market, recurring revenue streams, or a way to establish a Microsoft Cloud practice without the financial investment, the Ingram Micro Cloud Referral Program delivers the expertise, resources and tools to convert existing website traffic into cloud sales,” said Nimesh Dave, executive vice president, Global Cloud, Ingram Micro. “We are pleased to now expand our Cloud Referral Program globally and provide reseller partners even more ways to profit in the cloud.”

Through the program, partners can place unique web banners or e-commerce URLs on their website linking directly to Ingram Micro Cloud’s referral store, where end-customers can make purchases of cloud products like Office 365. For every end-customer sale, the referring partner earns commission, which can be tracked and managed in a portal that features end-client details and transactional reporting. Ingram Micro handles the direct customer billing, provisioning and post-sales support.

The Ingram Micro Cloud Referral Program is now available in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

Channel Impact^®
The move is likely to free-up partner staff to focus on higher-touch, more profitable initiatives by offloading a high volume, relatively straightforward transaction.

Rackspace Delivering Managed Services for Google Cloud Platform

Rackspace has become the first managed services support partner for the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as the two companies collaborate on a new managed services offering expected to launch later this year.

The managed support services will offer GCP customers added cloud architecture support, onboarding, data migration expertise, as well as ongoing operational support for customers, to help ensure optimal cloud application performance.

“The strategic relationship with Google is an exciting launch that addresses a growing market need,” said Patrick Lee, general manager of the Google business at Rackspace. “The momentum around GCP is building, and as businesses move workloads to this platform, they’re looking for expertise and a support partner to help with that journey.”

The two companies are currently working to extend on-call engineering support to their shared customers. Rackspace already has Google Certified Professionals on staff.

Channel Impact^®
The alliance may be instrumental in helping Rackspace to build stronger momentum in a highly competitive industry environment.