Strategy and Program Design

• Program design starts from partner market value, not tiers
• New functions follow Strategy, Structure, People with one priority
• Vonage grew partner revenue from $2.5M to $14M in four years
• Pipeline grows by running existing partners better
• HubSpot's agency ecosystem reaches 40% of revenue through ICP discipline
• Reseller models give way to co-sell and joint outcomes
• CxOs need ROI and benchmark data before investing

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Co-Sell and Marketplaces

• Microsoft co-sell inclusion needs vertical customer stories
• Microsoft's 60-day registration window demands documented account ownership
• Marketplace listings transact, but co-sell creates the deals
• Marvell and Utimaco show rival co-sell works on Azure
• Implementation partners before the demo close deals faster
• Seller-to-seller relationships are co-sell's lasting asset
• AWS, Azure and Google Cloud partner funding compared for 2026

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AI in Partnerships

• AI makes alliance data usable for account mapping and co-sell
• 97% of partnership teams use AI, saving managers 4.4 hours weekly
• Programs must govern partner AI agents' access and credit
• Programs need redesign for networked ecosystems, not just AI tools
• Accenture and Anthropic signal GSIs competing on the trust layer
• OpenAI partner network commitments reach $150M
• Meta's enterprise AI push for small businesses relies on partners

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Partner Operations, Enablement and Measurement

• Deltek's partner leader advises hiring partner ops from day one
• Partner-influenced revenue is least measured, yet 68% see higher close rates
• Affiliate reports should show partner types, costs and risks
• PRM shifts from portals to tools partners already use
• Enablement must speak sellers' numbers, such as MACC burndown
• 53% would remove spreadsheets first, and no vendor owns the outcome layer
• API ecosystems scale on onboarding and governance, not APIs

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Launches, Partnerships and Market Moves

• Intuitive.ai named Preferred Partner in the Claude Partner Network
• Factored becomes Claude Preferred Partner with 250+ certified engineers
• EverOps reaches AWS Advanced Partner tier
• Orca Security launches its tiered Partner POD Program
• GoodDay Software launches a formal partner program
• Accenture earns two-thirds of $74B revenue through 18 tech partners
• Insight's exit from Broadcom's VMware program shrinks VCF services capacity

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Events and Research

• Research mapping 46,000 MSPs shows government leading verticals
• AVANT SFS26 shows trust and enablement shaping AI-driven buying
• Canalys Forum EMEA 2026 shows partners need practical AI answers

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Thanks to Leslie Guido, Theresa Caragol, Patrick Finn, Heather Mason, Jonathan Lewis, Reis Barrie, Narayan Kumar, Maxime Imbert, Ghassan Lababidi, Tolu Onibiyo, Vivek Shankar, Jessica Simon, Girivasan Venkataraman, Sugata Sanyal, Kathy Bui, Cory Snyder, Becca Flach, Mark Murphy, Max Bevan, Illianna Acosta, Ahsan Shah, Jurre Klumpenaar, Su Pang, Jay McBain, Elise Carbone, Keith Townsend, Craig Booth, Charlie Coulange, Dakota Q., Kirsten Newbold-Knipp, Greg Portnoy, Laurie Kratohwil,  Nicole Dezen, Kyle Hency, Drew Heilman, Matt Jordan, Kamal Arora, Dhwani Rao, Kyle E., Stephen Koza, Tina Shen, Yousuf Imran, Roman Kirsanov, Evelyn Hsia, Dina Moskowitz, Asher Mathew, Devan Adams, Olivier Gil and everyone else who contributed insights to this edition. Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: