How Extreme Networks is leveraging its partners to win enterprise deals

A revamped partner program is a key plank to expand partner network and win bigger deals.

Extreme Networks wants to win larger enterprise networking deals in ANZ with partners the key to moving up the value chain.

“From a local ANZ perspective, the partner is absolutely key,” said Joe Spencer, SVP global channel and strategic initiatives, Extreme Networks.

Its CEO directive over the last 18 months has been to move up market and take a share in larger transactions. As a challenger in the larger enterprise and government space, Extreme admits it has to “work smarter” about where it competes.

It has identified a handful of key industries where it believes it has a “strong right to win and the right fit for the customer portfolio in those sectors,” said Spencer.

“Just as importantly, we have the right partner mix to compete in those industries as well,” he added.

Extreme recently sealed a sizeable transaction with a large educational institution in the order of multi-millions of dollars. The company plans more to come.

The solutions delivers Extreme’s Platform One, its cloud-based platform that bundles networking, security, fabric and hardware, all led by the partner.

“The partner proposed the solution covering all of our portfolio and their managed services offering and they can deliver that value to the customer in a simplified way,” Spencer told CRN Australia.

Winning larger customers is one part of its three-part strategy to improve the value exchange with partners. The second element is a revamped partner program released at the start of the year.

One of the key changes in the new program is giving partners certain about exactly what they’ll earn, with SKU-based rebates tied to their tier (Gold, Diamond, Diamond Elite). Rebates will be paid every six months.

The third part of its partner strategy is to improve how Extreme’s account managers collaborate with partner account managers to better meet customer needs.

“It’s reducing the friction and increasing that collaboration between the selling partner and the seller at Extreme,” said Spencer.

Extreme recently introduced a pricing guarantee at deal registration in a bid to provide more predictability and protection for partners. The company sees it as a key differentiator with rivals, where partners have to wear any pricing volatility.

This comes as the memorys shortage continues to impact partners, vendors and disties across the globe.

“We’re not aware of another vendor that has taken this approach. Almost everyone in our industry is taking the opposite approach,” he said.

The business has secured supply and believes that puts it in a comfortable position for the next 12 to 24 months to meet customer demand and protect partners from any pricing shocks.

“We want partners to understand that we're going to hold ourselves accountable to providing the best price, even in an environment where pricing is unpredictable,” he added.

With a goal of 30 percent growth in the ANZ market in the 2027 financial year, Extreme is looking to co-invest in enablement and training with existing partners and onboard new, emerging partners to drive more growth.

“That means moving beyond some of the traditional partners that we've had in the past to embrace partners that will meet us where we need to be in those larger customers,” he said.

“Many partners are excited to go on that journey with us, and want to capture as much of that share as they possibly can,” he ended.