Three tier programs are commonplace and Juniper offers a similar layout to its channel partners. Accepting terms and conditions and passing a compliance test will earn you the status of J-Reseller at which point you can place your quote requests through Westcoast and see your orders start to ship. You will also from day #1 have access to the partner centre for deal registration as well as the JMC, Juniper Marketing Concierge, enabling free to use co-branded marketing. You can lean on the BDM team at Westcoast for support with your on-boarding to get you up to speed. There is no change to this aspect of the partner program, transacting with Juniper really is this easy!
Should you find yourself wanting more from the partnership from the outset or find that it resonates well within your end user base, you may consider the need to become a more strategic partner for Juniper. In the 2018 program, the need for technical certifications has been removed and the revenue threshold of £350k PA (20% revenue attributed to services) only remains making it easier to get additional discount on all Juniper items not on promotion as well as access to further incentives including a 4% quarterly rebate on all net new business. Training and exams, however are still an effective way to make your business more able to handle Juniper inquiries self-sufficiently.
Progressing to the next tier upwards in the partner program by meeting the revenue target will grant you a select status at which point you will have 1 years’ experience, or less pending business planning, successfully pitching and selling Juniper. Juniper networks is a robust, reliable product that focuses on the key issues keeping C-level execs awake at night and you may find that as spend uplifts and your margin retention rises along with revenue you wish to align more resource to Juniper. Once your Juniper revenue has risen above £2M (20% revenue attributed to services) for UK partners you may be invited to become an elite partner for Juniper which grants the highest level standard discounts as well as additional rebates and incentives (more to follow). Compliance for elite partners necessitates at least one of the specialisations I alluded to earlier. Let’s take a look at these now.
Completion of any one of the various specialisations is mandatory for an elite partner and recommended for the select resellers. Each infrastructure specialisation track rewards its supporters with a mixture of rebates (which are additive to the general rebate for select and elite partners) and/or additional competitive advantage.
The infographic displayed shows the different infrastructure specialisations: Security, Data Centre, Services, Software Development and Vertical.
Each of these includes targeted rebates on revenue achieved with a specific product set or within a vertical. Advancing your status with Juniper can increase your profitability and complement your specific business direction, making sure you get paid for what you do best.
Service specialisms open resellers to a new way of profiting from their post and pre sales expertise and is perhaps the track I am most excited to position as the skill ceiling is high to become a certified service partner however the ability to pitch in house post-sales support and sell your professional services to channel partners can be a real sticky point for end users.
Also new to the program is the addition of the cloud partner specialisms, acknowledging the fact that some resellers are born in the cloud. With an every growing array of software and virtualised products, looking to cloud service providers to advance and evangelise the solutions was a step into the inevitable for Juniper however the move is timely. Incentivising cloud partners with their own program will see a rise in the sale of the virtual appliances ahead of the wider scale availability of the vSRX on azure available from Westcoast along with the vSRX’s already versatile range of deployments. Cloud partners at select and elite gain additional rebates from virtual firewall and router sales, both of which are available for a free trial from the Juniper.net website.
Any level of partner can benefit from working with Juniper, the Reseller gains support in their marketing function and can deal register for additional discounts. By working with distributors like Westcoast an entry level reseller can gain sales support from end user account managers at Juniper and help to win a deal from the first phone call to closing and shipping. Business planning and attaining select or elite partnership grants access to general rebates amounting to 4% on your bottom line from the vendor, you will also be able to submit your end user PO online to the partner centre at select and elite level to get individualised partner rewards ranging from household electronics to trips abroad.
The newly introduced specialisms allow reseller partners to hone their core expertise alongside a Juniper path and once more be rewarded for doing so. The 2018 Juniper partner advantage program is in a great number of ways a change for the better and for the future and is another example of how Juniper intends to be easier and more forwards looking in its approach to channel partners. To learn more you need only reach out to the business development team at Westcoast using the alias: Juniper@westcoast.co.uk and let us help you win with Juniper.