Partner Trends #018
Your weekly source for news in the world of channel partners, strategic alliances, and partnerships.
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Around the Industry
Snap has acquired a Berlin-based startup, Fit Analytics, to bring more e-commerce and in-app purchases to Snapchat. Fit Analytics’ technology lets people enter their own measurements into a mobile app that uses machine learning to match the dimensions up to clothes or shoes to find the best fit. The startup has also built technology that allows customers to match clothing using images they have uploaded.
Twilio has acquired ValueFirst, India’s leading communications platform as a Service provider (CPaaS). ValueFirst connects businesses with customers over SMS and voice and chatbots, email, and other OTT channels. Last fiscal year, ValueFirst processed over 42 billion SMS messages. The acquisition gives Twilio an important presence in India, where it has seen significant growth and several opportunities in messaging, conversational AI, and marketing technology.
Cruise, GM’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary, has agreed to acquire Voyage, a self-driving car startup. Voyage currently operates in retirement communities. Cruise has made significant improvements to its self-driving technology and is uniquely positioned as the only autonomous vehicle company with the ability to produce fully integrated self-driving vehicles at a global scale. With more than 200 vehicles in its fleet, Cruise had plans to launch a robotaxi service in San Francisco initially but has yet to announce when.
Partner Program Announcements
Fortinet announced updates to its Engage Partner Program aimed to serve MSPs and SPs better. A major addition to the Engage 2.0 Partner Program includes new consumption models for FortiSIEM, FortiEDR, FortiClient, FortiSOAR, FortiAI, and FortiDeceptor products be available to partners to build new security services around that can quickly be deployed at lower costs. Other enhancements to the program include giving MSPs eligibility to receive additional discounts through the Engage Select Business Model, additional specializations to help partners further distinguish their expertise, and updates to its NSE training courses and certification program.
Facebook announced the introduction of the Workplace One Partner Program for its digital workspace platform, Workplace. The new program will be targeted towards resellers, service partners, and technology partners. Global deals that include a partner already account for over 50%, which the company hopes to increase. Partners who join the program will receive benefits such as incentives, go-to-market support, training, certification, early access to product and API information, and direct access to support managers.
iboss, the cloud-delivered network security provider, has launched its first partner program. The iboss Channel Partner Program will have three tiers, rebates and incentives, and discounts. Certain partner tiers will also be eligible for dedicated iboss resources, training, assigned account managers, and assistance with marketing efforts. iboss currently works with over 280 channel partners and expects that approximately 10 percent of them will be in the partner program’s top tier.
Dialpad announced its new Dialpad Partner Success Portal as the first update in store for its channel program. The new partner portal, built on Allbound, will enable easier deal registration, better tracking of sales and accrued revenue, and easier access to sales and marketing materials. Dialpad attributed 53% of overall sales in 2020 from their channel, resulting in 104% growth year over year.
Partnership Announcements
Alorica and Talkdesk announced a strategic partnership to deliver turnkey CX solutions that combine Talkdesk’s cloud contact center solutions with Alorica’s CX solutions, such as Alorica Anywhere. Through the partnership, customers will deliver exceptional customer interactions from an integrated operating model for hiring, training, analytics, knowledge management, call routing, and automation.
Dialpad and T-Mobile announced a new partnership to create T-Mobile Collaborate, a new solution that provides video and voice conferencing for mobile-first environments. The partnership will expand beyond the traditional reseller model and include back-end integrations that will allow both parties to take advantage of each other’s products. Along with the partnership, T-Mobile also announced that it invested in Dialpad during its Series E round in 2020.
Nokia recently announced partnerships with Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud to develop new, cloud-based 5G radio solutions for businesses. The companies will collaborate on joint solutions utilizing Nokia’s Radio Access Network (RAN), Open RAN, Cloud RAN, and edge cloud technologies. The new partnerships will allow Nokia to expand its ecosystem of partners and drive end-user business outcomes essential for monetizing 5G deployments.
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