Riverbed reinforces its ‘partner first’ initiative with new program

Riverbed is moving away from a traditional, competency based program to a revolutionary, new global partner program - the Riverbed Rise program that is seen to set a new bar in the industry. Uma Thana Balasingam, Vice President, Channels for Riverbed Asia Pacific and Japan in conversation with VARINDIA shares more insights on this program and how it is going to help its partners -  
 

Digital transformation is accelerating change in technology, innovation, and cloud economics, thereby bringing a change in customer needs. Channel partners in India as well as globally are grappling with how to adapt their own business models to address rapidly changing customer needs. The tech and talent gaps that once existed between India and mature markets are beginning to close. These advances are happening primarily because of the current government’s push for digital initiatives and its subsequent investments in projects like Digital India.

Riverbed is delivering the right technology at the right time for the India market. This, combined with a compelling new partner program designed to help partners grow profitably, will enable both Riverbed and its partners to help its customers thrive in a rapidly changing and highly competitive market, capture greater market share and achieve the growth the company aspires to.

SD-WAN & Riverbed…
SD-WAN represents a significant growth opportunity for Riverbed and for its partners in India. It’s a solution that thrives in an increasingly unpredictable, cloud-based and software-defined world.Riverbed’s strategy for helping its partners thrive in this new environment is simple – 

•    Make significant investments to expand its portfolio with solutions for digital experience management and software-defined networking, in order to create new opportunities for its partners to solve some of the biggest challenges facing their customers in the digital/cloud era.
•    Throw out the book and create a unique new partner program – called Riverbed Rise that’s built to allow partners to grow profitably in this new environment via simplicity and flexibility, enabling partners of all types to respond immediately to rapidly changing customer needs.
 

“This world had effectively disrupted the IT value chain, as customers now need to consume IT in new ways. In turn, this demands a totally new approach to partnering,” says Uma Thana Balasingam, Vice President, Channels for Riverbed Asia Pacific and Japan.
 

She further continues, “To achieve the growth that it aspires to, Riverbed needs to access what is today a largely untapped segment growth opportunity for its solutions portfolio. To be successful, we have just introduced Riverbed Rise, our new partner program, and the foundation of Riverbed’s partner ‘first’ initiative, which aims to energize and reward partners who lead and drive commercial segment customer engagement in to what are effectively new accounts for Riverbed.”

Riverbed Rise Program –setting a new bar…
The goal of the Riverbed Rise program is to support partner growth and profitability by aligning rewards with strategic business priorities and sales performance. The program emphasizes flexibility to recognize and reward partner performance and capabilities across all partner types and consumption models. Further it is designed to allow partners to better plan their investments to drive growth – where, how and when to invest to transform their businesses around the Riverbed Portfolio.

Riverbed Rise aligns with the changing IT landscape and how partners are evolving to solve their customers’ technology needs. The new program is a departure from traditional, competency-based programs to an innovative, flexible dividends-based design. It aims to reward all types of partners, business models and various customer technology consumption preferences.  

“You can think of dividends like rewards points,” points out Uma.“Reward points (dividends) are assigned to recognize partner performance and capability. The more reward points (dividends) a partner earns, the greater the benefits they will receive.”

This is a significant change which seeks to take ‘first mover’ advantage of the new IT market supply chain dynamics.  Riverbed’s partner ‘first’ initiative creates a new partner relationship framework that is ‘fit for purpose’ in the cloud/digital Era. It fully recognizes the huge contribution that its partners make, and reinforces Riverbed’s commitment to its partner community.  

And so…
Riverbed is focused on delivering a totally new partner experience in 2018. This includes the new program, a new partner portal, more robust marketing tools with dedicated partner social channels, revamped programs and simplified discounting schedules.