Dive Brief:
- Google Cloud rebuilt its partner program from the ground up to better incentivize co-selling efforts, post-sales service delivery and collaborative software development. The hyperscaler will roll out the retooled Google Cloud Partner Network in January, according to the Tuesday announcement.
- The program features three partner tiers, including a new “diamond” designation for top ecosystem providers, a separate competency framework to replace current specializations and a streamlined portal that uses AI automation to track partner achievements. Google will give existing partners a six-month window to adjust to the new program next year, per the announcement.
- “This is not an update — this is a fundamental total transformation,” Phil Larson, managing director of partner programs at Google Cloud, told Channel Dive. “We intend to leapfrog the competition in terms of the elegance of the simplicity of the co-sell and go-to-market motions so that we can strengthen field collaboration, recognize partner contributions more effectively, and ultimately drive customer outcomes faster.”
Dive Insight:
As cloud marketplaces become a nexus for enterprise technology procurements, hyperscaler partnerships are evolving.
Last month, AWS added third-party provider discounts and specific incentives for managed service providers tied to customer outcomes. Microsoft was similarly active on the partner front, announcing a badging system to reward distributors and cloud support specialists at its annual Ignite conference in November.
Google had a philosophical shift in mind to complement structural changes in its partner relationships, according to Colleen Kapase, VP of channels and partner programs. The company wanted to reward partners for pre-sales influence, co-innovation and post-procurement support, rather than business roadmaps and customer testimonials, Kapase said.
AI adoption was also part of the planning, which began two years ago.
“It's a program built with AI for AI,” Larson said. “Across the entire lifecycle of the partner experience, you're infusing AI to go engage partners and differentiate on the quality of that partner experience, from onboarding to learning.”
Google will provide AI coaching to help drive co-sales initiatives, predictive lead scoring and agent-assisted technical support.
“We're using the technology to equip partners with real-time visibility into where they stand and recommendations for how they can improve their standing over time and ultimately,” Larson said. “Nobody’s going to remember five years from now how you could do partnerships at scale without AI.”
Earlier this year, Google Cloud created an AI agent marketplace, launched the Agent2Agent orchestration protocol with support from more than 50 technology providers and doubled funding for partners’ AI initiatives.
“This is a new era for us from an AI perspective,” Kapase said. “It's not like you can just work with the CIO, deploy the technology and be done. There's some change management that needs to occur with those individual users.”
The company is now leaning on partners to bridge the gap between AI procurement and full deployment of the technology.
“We want to see who's the best at selling with us, who's the best at service delivery,” Kapase said. “It's not always the same partner. We love it when it is, but there are partners that are great at selling and others that can come in and just be pure service delivery. There's room for both of those partners to thrive in this program.”
