New Programs, Benefits, and Tools: Empowering AWS Partners for Greater Profitability

“AWS Partner Experience Transformation” is a blog series on updates to the AWS Partner Programs, AWS Marketplace, and AWS Partner Central.

By Priya Bains, Head of Partner Brand and Content Strategy – AWS

At AWS re:Invent 2023, we announced 10 enhancements that we’re making to AWS Partner programs and services to drive partners to new heights of productivity and profitability.

Building off the AWS Partner Profitability Framework, we continue to invest in ways for partners to collaborate on innovations, deliver greater value to their customers, deepen and diversify their offerings, and boost revenue growth across various business models: business outcome solutions, technology solutions, managed services, services, and resell.

In this post, we summarize the new programs, benefits, tools, and partner experience enhancements launched to help you secure more wins, land bigger deals, and accelerate your success. From expediting migrations, enhancing managed services, driving business-focused solutions, and expanding reseller assistance, to new levers that drive demand generation and business productivity with AWS Partner Central and AWS Marketplace, and more.

Let’s jump into the key areas where we’re enhancing the AWS Partner experience.

Expediting migrations with new MAP incentives

The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) has been instrumental in facilitating customer transitions to Amazon Web Services (AWS) since its inception. We’re thrilled to announce new MAP incentives and streamlined processes, launched July 1, empowering AWS Partners to support customers migrations’ to the cloud faster and at scale.

Key enhancements include:

• Streamlined processes: Simplified funding structure and approvals to shorten sales cycle.
• Scaled funding: Expanded funding support for more migration opportunities, including investment that scales up with deal size—meaning larger incentives for larger deals.
• Strategic Partner Incentives (SPIs): Unlock incremental funding through SPIs, which offer additional funding for Greenfield migrations, customers transitioning from VMware on-premises to AWS Native or hybrid cloud, and Modernization opportunities.

We’re also introducing a new MAP template in the AWS Partner Funding Portal (APFP) that helps streamline fund request submissions and cash claims. This template automates claim milestone creation and links them to realized revenue outcomes, boosting overall efficiency.

Take action: AWS Migration Competency Partners and/or partners at the Validated Stage can unlock MAP funding. For more information, review the AWS MAP Partner Funding Benefits Guide in AWS Partner Central.

Robin Percy, CTO at OpsGuru, shares, “With these latest enhancements to MAP, we’ll be able to drive more value for customers earlier in the program by directly aligning funding with migration milestones. It mitigates the short-term ‘double bubble’ cost concern that many of our customers share while expediting the optimizations and modernizations that are the ultimate goal for any migration to the cloud. Through our MAP offerings, we’ve helped hundreds of customers enhance their technological capabilities and achieve their strategic goals. We couldn’t be more excited to roll out our next-generation services.”

Fostering business outcomes with the BOX Program

On June 26, we unveiled the new Business Outcomes Xcelerator (BOX) Program, designed to assist partners in developing and delivering solutions that address Line of Business (LOB) buyers’ needs and accelerate revenue growth.

The BOX Program equips technology and services partners across commercial and public sectors with the tools, resources, and financial incentives to build, market, and sell outcome-driven solutions in AWS Marketplace.

Key benefits include:

• Partner Matchmaking events: Connect with AWS experts and fellow AWS Partners to ideate on unique customer use cases—accelerating your solution building and go-to-market readiness.
• Financial incentives: Unlock cash and AWS credits to build product demos, explore customer needs, and develop proof-of-concept solutions.
• Ready-to-use solution building resources: Build and validate your partner solutions with self-serve Solution Building Enablement (AWS Partner Central login required), including guidance for listing in AWS Marketplace and go-to-market asset creation.

Judy Buchholz, SVP Global Partner Ecosystem at Pega, notes “AWS has helped unite Pega, AWS, and our essential GSI partners, simplifying the process for clients by delivering cohesive solutions. Now, clients no longer need to navigate the complexities of vendor collaboration; instead, we can help them focus on achieving their goals.”

Take action: The BOX Program is available to partners at the Validated or Differentiated Stage in AWS Partner Central. As first step, we encourage you to participate in upcoming AWS Partner Matchmaking events. To apply, review the BOX Program Guide in Partner Central.

Expanding ISV Workload Migration Program to migrate any on-premises workloads to SaaS

To help partners drive new business and grow their software as a service (SaaS) revenue, we expanded the ISV Workload Migration Program on June 1. AWS Partners can now migrate any on-premises workloads to SaaS, broadening the scope beyond existing customer migrations.

Key benefits include:

• Access to a larger potential market for migrating customers and accelerating cloud revenue.
• Ability to develop migration-focused sales strategies targeting new customers beyond the existing base.
• Leverage funding, technical enablement, and go-to-market support to optimize migration approaches.

Partners can now help alleviate “double bubble” costs for customers migrating to the cloud using AWS Promotional credits, boosting their monthly recurring revenue.

“The AWS ISV Workload Migration Program offers tangible financial benefits to Alvaria by enabling us to guide and migrate our clients from on-premises to cloud,” says Jonathan Lisak, Senior Director of Global Alliances at Alvaria. “WMP is another testament to AWS’ genuine interest in helping its ISV partners transition to a predictable op-ex model and it has played an integral part in our go-to-market motion with AWS.”

Take action: To qualify for the ISV WMP, partners must complete an AWS Foundational Technical Review and be at a Validated stage, offer a SaaS solution on AWS, and have a qualified migration use case. Apply for the ISV Workload Migration Program in Partner Central.

Elevating the Managed Services Provider experience with new benefits

Managed services are crucial for partner profitability and customer success. On July 1, we introduced new benefits for partners across commercial and public sectors looking to establish, promote, and expand their managed services practice.

Key benefits include:

• Managed Services Build Essentials: Self-serve enablement resources to jumpstart your MSP journey.
• Managed Services Build Workshop: Tailored workshops to engage with AWS experts and accelerate business planning.
• Discounts to offset tooling and training costs: AWS MSP Specialization Partners receive discounts and extended free trials for select third-party tools.
• AWS Partner Equip Virtual Series: AWS MSP Specialization Partners receive priority access to feature releases and industry-specific sessions from technical experts.
• Increased funding: We’re more than doubling Marketing Development Funds (MDFs) and providing AWS Rapid Ramp Credits (ARRC) to help partners engage with SMB customers.
• Sell in AWS Marketplace: To drive customer visibility and sell in AWS Marketplace, AWS MSP Specialization Partners will be featured on the Professional Services AWS Marketplace landing page, upon meeting AWS Marketplace transaction requirements.

“It is exciting to see a renewed commitment from AWS to partners who thrive in the managed services space,” says Brandon Pierce, Managing Director of Engineering Services at Ollion. “The timing is especially perfect, as the expansion of the MSP Program will directly accelerate our initiatives in 2024 and beyond as it relates to our customer support enhancement with more tools, project acceleration, and increased employee development through certification vouchers.”

Take action: Learn more about the new benefits in the AWS MSP Program Guide in Partner Central (login required).

Simplifying Services Partner Tier requirements to accelerate time to market

We received feedback from partners that they need our support to accelerate total time to market. Effective July 10, we’re updating the Services Partner Tier requirements to drive operational efficiencies, streamline progression to achieve Tiers faster, and showcase their AWS expertise to customers.

Moving forward, public references and customer satisfaction responses (CSAT) are no longer needed to maintain or upgrade from Select to Advanced and Premier Tier. We’re shifting our focus from public references to case studies that have continued to demonstrate more value for both our customers and AWS Sellers.

“Removing the CSAT and public references requirement is really good news for us,” says Laura MacDonald, Strategic Partner Manager Lead at Acuity. “Since we are 100% public sector focused, our federal customers are often reluctant to provide public references to projects we do for them and getting CSAT can be a maze of understanding who the right POC is for that. Shifting to a case study approach helps us better promote our services to customers.”

Take action: AWS Partners with Services business model can enroll in the Services Path in AWS Partner Central. Complete Tasks to achieve Select, Premier, and Advanced Tier and obtain respective partner badges. For more information, review the AWS Services Tier Guide.

Expanded support for resellers through AWS Distributors

We’re introducing key enhancements to enable partners to elevate their resell capabilities with AWS Distributor support. Effective April 1, we expanded support for resellers through AWS Distributors.

Updates include:

• Streamlined process for engaging and reselling with AWS Distributors.
• Consistent and scalable operational, technical, and business development support.
• Access to AWS Distributor services such as delivery/implementation, 24/7 support, billing and operational excellence, and migration and managed services.

For existing Solutions Providers, there’s no change to your direct AWS resale relationship. You’ll retain the option to engage an AWS Distributor and leverage support for reselling AWS services.

Callin Lindsay, Director of FinOps at nClouds, shares, “TD SYNNEX has been amazing in transitioning our account to their StreamOne platform. They have coordinated all the logistics with AWS and our customers for a smooth and seamless transition. Their cloud knowledge and AWS expertise accelerated the process by months, allowing us to focus our valuable resources on growing our resell and services business.”

Take action: AWS Partners looking to resell AWS services can enroll in the Services Path upon APN registration. We’ll recommend next steps to find an AWS Distributor and begin your resell journey.

Introducing levers to drive demand generation with AWS Marketplace

As we continue to transform the AWS Partner experience, we’re focused on scaling AWS Marketplace to help you drive greater customer demand.

In January, we reduced AWS Marketplace listing fees to help you build self-service revenue streams in AWS Marketplace and drive profitability. We launched the AWS Marketplace professional services resell feature in AWS Marketplace to enable both ISVs and channel partners to resell professional services for the first time, using Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO).

This feature unlocks the ability for:

• Channel partners to resell another ISV’s and channel partner’s professional services.
• ISVs to resell another channel partner’s and ISV’s professional services.

Additionally, we provided campaign-in-box resources for professional services to helps partners promote a joint value proposition to customers.

Tom Evans, VP of WW Channel Sales at Palo Alto Networks, says, “This collaboration offers partners an expanded opportunity to tap into the swiftly evolving security landscape. With the ability for Palo Alto Networks to authorize our professional services to be resold by partners, we can let partners furnish their clients with top-tier security solutions, safeguarding networks against the latest threats. It’s a mutually beneficial proposition, enabling partners to expand their business while delivering cutting-edge protection.”

We also made it easier for AWS Marketplace sellers to maximize customer and revenue retention by accelerating renewal strategy with two new features. The first feature is the agreements and renewals dashboard that surfaces upcoming ending agreements and provides a comprehensive list of all agreements that have the opportunity to be renewed. The second feature is future dated agreements (FDA). This capability allows partners to create a future dated agreement in the AWS Marketplace Management Portal on the private offer creation page. Sellers can specify a future start date as a part of the SaaS contract and contract with consumption (CCP) renewal private offer creation process.

To further enable partner connection with customers, AWS Marketplace now gives customers the ability to request product demos and private offers directly from sellers’ product listing pages. With this streamlined experience, customers can quickly connect with the right partner contacts—accelerating product evaluations and optimizing time-to-value for software purchases.

Take action: To start selling professionals services in AWS Marketplace, visit the AWS Marketplace Professional Services page. Utilize the customizable campaign-in-box resources to run sales and marketing campaigns. AWS Partners interested in learning how they can enable the product demo feature on their listings can visit the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide (demos and private offers).

Enhancing business productivity with an integrated AWS Partner Central and AWS Marketplace experience

Partners who have linked their AWS Marketplace and AWS Partner Central accounts are taking advantage of increased operational efficiencies, and are able to streamline their AWS Marketplace listing experience.

In June, we shared the AWS Marketplace and AWS Partner Central Integration journey map that details steps to link their accounts, solutions, and opportunities across the two experiences. With AWS Marketplace Insights dashboard integrated into AWS Partner Central under the Analytics tab, partners can now receive greater visibility and deeper insights into data to grow their business.

The Analytics and Insights Dashboard offers transparency into the data needed to evaluate and maximize business growth—reducing operational effort and time to revenue recognition. Business insights include win/loss trends, geographic strengths/weaknesses, and key attributes that drive AWS referrals.

The latest updates include:

• Consolidated AWS Marketplace insights and APN data in one location, including AWS Marketplace Collections and disbursements and AWS Marketplace Billed revenue.
• New Marketing Campaigns and Training and Certifications tabs.
• Expanded funding insights and improvements to the Opportunities and Leads tabs.

Rob Nash, VP of Consulting Services and Global AWS Alliance Lead at CGI, notes, “Having a dashboard like this means I don’t have to spend hours creating views and graphs and re-cutting the data.”

Take action: Link your AWS Partner Central accounts with AWS Marketplace seller accounts to take full advantage of these data insights. AWS Partner Central users can also connect their solutions with their AWS Marketplace product listings. Partners at Validated or Differentiated Stage can access Analytics and Insights in Partner Central via the Analytics tab. To learn more, review the Analytics and Insights User Guide (login required).

Stay tuned

As we continue to enhance the AWS Partner experience, we’ll provide innovative tools, resources, and support to help you thrive in the dynamic cloud landscape.

By aligning our programs, incentives, and enablement around AWS services and partner business models, we’re expanding your opportunities at every stage of your AWS journey to propel you across and up the AWS Partner Profitability Framework—helping you deliver exceptional value to customers.

We encourage you to explore these new benefits and programs, and to contact your AWS Partner team for support in leveraging these opportunities.

Stay tuned for more updates via the AWS Partner Experience Transformation blog series. Additionally, check out the latest enhancements to AWS Marketplace, programs, and AWS Partner Central in our What’s New posts.