By Stefanie Chiras, Senior Vice President of Partner Ecosystem Success at Red Hat
Last year, the technology industry experienced a boom of new possibilities and remarkable advancements – from emerging opportunities around artificial intelligence (AI) to shifts in the virtualisation market, Red Hat and our partners rallied to meet these needs and pave the way for future innovation. To help Red Hat partners remain agile in this fast-paced industry, in 2024 Red Hat introduced the first phase of updates to its partner program as part of our ongoing transformation efforts, including a new modular program framework, standardised incentives and upgraded digital tooling. Since then, we have been focused on making even more enhancements to help partners more seamlessly engage and reach their business goals with Red Hat, all while addressing key customer demands.
Today, we are excited to announce the next wave of updates to the Red Hat global partner engagement experience:
Introducing the Build partner program module
In 2024, Red Hat implemented a modular approach to our partner program, beginning with three modules focused on Resell, Distribution and Sell With activities – designed to help partners more easily focus on one or more activities that align with targeted business outcomes. Now, a new Build module will be available in the coming weeks to further recognise and reward Red Hat technology partners.
The Build module will cater to partners that certify or validate their products and develop new solutions on Red Hat technologies. This track is particularly relevant for partners that identify as independent hardware and software vendors (IHVs and ISVs), systems integrators (SIs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). As part of the Build module, partners will earn points for activities such as co-creating solutions with Red Hat, validating or certifying solutions on Red Hat platforms and developing content and go-to-market plans to take those solutions to customers. The accumulated points will then unlock a range of benefits spanning enablement, sales, marketing and technical support.
Streamlining distributor engagement
Red Hat is implementing an aligned distribution model to encourage greater engagement between distributors and their focused partners, helping to enhance skills development and improve go-to-market execution. This will enable deeper business-to-business relationships by empowering partners to select a preferred Red Hat distributor, with whom they can develop strategic planning, and help distributors to more easily allocate investments with their aligned partners to drive shared business growth.
Integrating go-to-market opportunities for partners
Red Hat is incorporating go-to-market activities within the partner program modules to recognise value-add activities like the creation of co-branded marketing assets, customer demos, proof-of-concept development and more. This enables partners to earn points and rewards for critical marketing and opportunity progression that can help build customer awareness and generate demand for partner solutions. By integrating go-to-market activities within the design of partner program modules, spanning Resell, Distribution, Sell With and Build, Red Hat is able to recognise performance across a more holistic view of activities to more accurately represent a partner’s full engagement with customers and Red Hat.
These go-to-market activities are included in all of the partner program modules, so regardless of how partners choose to work with Red Hat, they can be recognised and rewarded for go-to-market activities that are aligned to their business goals.
Extending incentives and rebates
With the latest updates to Red Hat’s global partner engagement experience, we are standardising rebates and incentives for Resell and Distribution partners to achieve greater visibility and more predictable growth. This is a global implementation to provide partners with clear, upfront insights to maximise profitability, more effectively plan sales cycles and strengthen competitive positioning with Red Hat. The updated rebate and incentives structure complements Red Hat’s previously announced deal registration incentives, which offer additional margin opportunities for partners who successfully register and develop new business.
What’s next?
The ongoing transformation of Red Hat’s global partner engagement experience is a testament to our commitment in driving an ecosystem-first approach to deliver impactful, tailored solutions for customers. At the core of our strategy is providing greater autonomy for partners to benefit from more choice, clearer growth opportunities and stronger collaboration with each other and Red Hat. Partners can expect to see additional updates later this year to build upon this vision and help propel partner businesses even further, hand-in-hand with Red Hat.
