Partner strategy and operating models

• Okta's partner first overhaul swung $850M in losses to $760M+ operating income
• Factored hits a 69% close rate on partner sourced revenue
• Focus shifts from partner count to engaged, high quality partners
• Weekly partner pods are replacing the quarterly QBR
• Scaling needs executive acceptance, awareness and operating model alignment
• The least sophisticated party in path, motion and dynamic sets the ceiling
• Attribution fails without shared partner, account and opportunity IDs

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Cloud marketplaces and co-sell

• 99%+ of top AWS customers use Marketplace, and startup sales grew 100%+
• AWS AI agents now screen co-sell opportunities before humans do
• Braze mirrored AWS's vertical structure and signed a three year SCA
• Labra secured an AWS SCA after Partner of the Year and Premier status
• AWS Data Competency adds performance based benefits and two database categories
• Microsoft Frontier Accelerate replaces ISV Success and Marketplace Rewards
• Salesforce AgentExchange private offers now span 100+ partners

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AI partner programs and product launches

• Sia, Appinventiv and RevenueHoop join the Claude Partner Network
• Pisteyo earns six OpenAI badges while OXYGEN launches on OpenAI's marketplace
• Flow by ServiceNow launches with 100+ connectors on day one
• The new Microsoft Copilot widens partner scope from deploying AI to transforming work
• MongoDB calls partnerships non negotiable across AI, SI and ISV partners
• AWS cites a 7X multiplier on spend for each partner AI sale
• Build versus buy, answer engine optimization and agentic outreach reshape partner stacks

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Market data and ecosystem signals

• 65% of partners report flat to negative profits and want AI sales tools
• Chief Partner Officers rose 62% to 1,316
• Seven in ten technology partners left or stopped selling for a vendor
• HubSpot's $400 monthly partner fee drew criticism from a former partner
• Microsoft's Fabric Featured Partner ecosystem reached 414 partners
• ZoomInfo doubled listings to 190+ and cut onboarding steps from 15+ to 7
• Alvaria posted a standout Q3 with bookings across every major geography

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Events and enablement

• Catalyst and Dreamforce show intentional preparation pays at any scale
• Dreamforce meetings deepened MERGE ties with Salesforce, Contentful and Gradial
• UNBOUND confirms trust and relationships remain the differentiator
• TD SYNNEX Inspire runs October 7 to 9 with a long awaited announcement
• Cisco convenes Austin partners around Partner Value Index and co-selling
• Adobe's Melbourne session centers on commerce modernisation and agentic commerce
• ServiceNow's Sydney day covers AI readiness checks and token optimisation
• Earnix names Sistran its first reseller and starts São Paulo enablement

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Thanks to Siva Rajamani, Nelson Wang, David Tavolaro, Ira Simon, Rob Moyer, Helen Orgis, Barrett King, Kyle E., Matt Yanchyshyn, Trunal B., Roman Kirsanov, Dominic Garabedian, Greg Luciano, Chris Dally, Mark Relph, Reis Barrie, Heather Mason, Matthieu Courtecuisse, Prateek Saxena, Petra Hajal, Vishal Pawar, Tim Scheuer, Michael Park, Tarek Shamounki, Nicole Dezen, Erica Volini, Mark Haranas, Sugata Sanyal, Jay McBain, Asher Mathew, Omer Qureshi, Laraib Rizvi, Tamer Farag, Katie Landaal, Jonathan Lisak, Emir Elliott-Lindo, Jeff vonSeldeneck, Darren Shelton, Francisco Criado, Scott Parrillo, Maxim Baibakov, Tobias S., Ruth Fisk and everyone else who contributed insights to this edition. Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: