Helping partners find and achieve success is a top priority for all of us at Infoblox. From our CEO, Jesper Andersen, to our channel account managers in the field, we wake-up everyday thinking of ways to make the Infoblox BulidingBLOX channel program better for partners.
As you’ve probably noticed, we here at Infoblox rarely talk about ourselves. Sure, we’ll talk about our great products (see what I did there), but not often about our individual and internal achievements. We’re deliberately modest because our work is about you. Your success is our success. However, sometimes the stars align where the success lines of Infoblox and our partners intersect, allowing us to break our silence.
One of those rare moments happened recently when CRN awarded the Infoblox BuildingBLOX channel program with a prestigious 5-Star Award Winning Program. This award is no small feat, as the honor doesn’t come easy. Only 60% of the more than 270 programs considered earned the top rating in CRN’s annual Partner Program Guide.
I’m particularly proud of this achievement, as I’ve made it my priority since joining Infoblox more than three years ago to develop, launch, and continue to evolve the BuildingBLOX program so partners have a better chance at achieving success. Over the past year, we’ve focused squarely on simplifying processes to make it easier for partners to do business with us. We know that ease of doing business is a significant contributor to partner success. A few of the things we’ve done to improve partnership simplicity include:
- Simplifying Product Discounts: Reduced the number of discount product categories from 12 to 4, making it much simpler for partners to understand discount structures and opportunities. This included the simplification of subscription pricing.
- Simplified Deal Registration: Streamlined the process and reduced the amount of information required to register a deal to receive opportunity protection and additional compensation. As a result, we’ve seen partner satisfaction with our deal registration program soar.
- Simplified, Automated Tiered Discounts: Partners and sales reps no longer guess about what the discounts will be in general sales. Infoblox now applies discounts automatically to opportunities based on a partner’s tier and deal registration status in the BuildingBLOX program.
- New Partner Portal: We launched a new portal driven by input from our partners on the key functionality they need.
Our simplification and program improvement efforts are having an impact. We recently asked The 2112 Group, a channel research and analyst firm, to conduct a partner satisfaction study on our behalf. The results are reassuring and encouraging that we’re doing the right things. Partners gave Infoblox positive ratings for loyalty, brand affinity, deal registration programs, and sales support effectiveness. Moreover, 100% of our fastest growing partners praised Infoblox for its efforts on program simplicity, which they said is a significant growth factor.
Now, I’ve done a fair amount of tooting the Infoblox horn. However, as I stated before, this 5-Star recognition is more about our Infoblox partners than Infoblox itself. Without the dedication, investment, hard work, and loyalty of our partners, Infoblox wouldn’t have the inspiration or necessity to nurture our BuildingBLOX program. The CRN 5-Star rating is about our solution providers, first and always. For that, we thank you.