For the week ending March 20, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel including IBM, GoTo, Rapid7, Front and Check Point Software Technologies.
The Week Ending March 20
Topping this week’s Five Companies that Came to Win list is IBM for completing its blockbuster $11-billion acquisition of real-time data streaming technology developer Confluent.
Also making the list is GoTo for making a renewed push into the channel with this week’s launch of its LogMeIn Partner Network, a program aimed at deepening relationships with IT resellers and laying the groundwork for broader engagement with MSPs and global systems integrators.
Cybersecurity provider Rapid7 is here for debuting a revamped partner program that the company said boosts partner enablement and profitability.
Customer service platform developer Front expanded its channel ecosystem by enlisting leading technology services distributors to bring its cloud-based offering to a wider audience of tech advisors, agents and consultants.
And Check Point Software Technologies scored in the personnel department this week, hiring channel veteran Chris Moors as its new global channel chief.
IBM Completes $11 Billion Confluent Acquisition
IBM tops this week’s Came to Win list with the completion of its $11 billion acquisition of Confluent and its real-time data streaming technology.
IBM said the combination of the Confluent platform and its own technology portfolio creates a “smart data platform” that “gives every AI model, agent and automated workflow the real-time, trusted data needed to operate across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments at scale.”
IBM and Confluent announced the acquisition deal on Dec. 8, 2025. This week IBM said it had successfully acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of publicly held Confluent for $31 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of approximately $11 billion.
IBM said Confluent’s technology for real-time, data streaming processing tasks is increasingly in demand as enterprise AI initiatives move from experimentation to production and the need for “clean, governed and continuously refreshed data – delivered at the speed and scale AI demands,” is critical.
The two companies also announced “immediate integrations” between Confluent’s technology and IBM’s product portfolio that provide significant product synergies. Confluent, for example, can stream live data into watsonx.data, IBM’s hybrid-cloud data lakehouse platform, to provide data for AI models, agents and workflows with data lineage, policy enforcement and quality controls.
GoTo Launches LogMeIn Partner Network To Boost Channel Momentum
GoTo wins applause for making a renewed push into the channel with this week’s launch of its LogMeIn Partner Network, a program aimed at deepening relationships with IT resellers and laying the groundwork for broader engagement with MSPs and global systems integrators later this year.
The network centers on LogMeIn Resolve and LogMeIn Rescue, which focus on AI-driven endpoint management, remote support and zero-trust security capabilities. The goal of the network, according to GoTo’s Steve Shattuck, is to assist partners in stronger enablement, co-marketing opportunities and tiered financial incentives aimed at accelerating their growth.
“Honestly, this has been a long time coming,” Shattuck, vice president of global partner ecosystem, business development at Boston-based cloud communications and IT company GoTo, told CRN in an interview. “We’ve had strong products and a loyal customer base, but we hadn’t built a program that really reflects how IT partners actually go to market. This is about meeting them where they are and making it easier to win together.”
The initial rollout is focused on value-added resellers with features that include partner managers, on-boarding and certification programs, as well as joint marketing campaigns. The company is also introducing tiered incentives that Shattuck described as “aggressive but attainable.”
A lot of the program’s structure, from incentives to marketing support, was shaped through direct partner feedback and input. Looking ahead, GoTo plans to expand the network to MSPs and GSIs, with a goal of creating a unified ecosystem that aligns across different partner types and go-to-market approaches.
Rapid7 Boosts Profitability, Simplification In Refreshed Partner Program
Staying on the topic of partner program upgrades, Rapid7 this week debuted a revamped channel program with a major boost to partner profitability along with key updates around program simplification and partner enablement, Rapid7 channel chief Suzanne Swanson (pictured above) told CRN.
In an exclusive interview, Swanson said that with the updates to the PACT Partner Program, the cybersecurity vendor is focused on helping partners to more effectively target specific segments of the market at a time of rapid change, fueled by the adoption of AI and intensifying cyberattacks.
“We’ve increased the incentives around deal registration. We’re targeting our MDF expenditures to specific customers and use cases,” said Swanson, vice president for global partners at Rapid7.
Notably, in terms of boosting profitability, Rapid7 has “increased partner margins across the board for deal registration and co-sell, and increased the level of incumbency protection on renewals,” Swanson said.
Rapid7 also introduced a new Platinum tier for top-level partners. The invitation-only Platinum tier offers enhanced margin protection, custom demand generation programs, custom sales incentives and performance rebates, early access to product roadmaps and early introduction to new products, according to Swanson.
Additional updates introduced by Rapid7 for its PACT Partner Program included simplifying certain program elements to make it easier for partners to engage, Swanson told CRN. The biggest move around simplification is that Rapid7 has consolidated co-sell deal types into a single category.
Front Enlists Technology Services Distributors To Expand Market Reach For Its Customer Operations Platform
Customer service platform developer Front wins kudos this week for expanding its channel ecosystem, enlisting some of the industry’s leading technology services distributors (TSDs) in a move to bring its cloud-based offering to a wider audience of tech advisors, agents and consultants who influence IT buying decisions among mid-market and enterprise businesses.
Front announced new partnerships with Avant, Intelisys, Sandler Partners and Telarus, who in turn will make Front’s B2B customer service operations platform available to their extensive networks of technology advisors.
Through the Front-TSD agreements, the thousands of agents who work with the TSDs can now offer Front as part of their broader portfolios of customer experience, UCaaS (unified communications-as-a-service) and CCaaS (call center-as-a-service) cloud services and software
“These partnerships allow us to bring that advantage [of Front’s technology] to thousands of advisors whose clients are navigating high-stakes transformation initiatives,” said Mike Kane (pictured above), Front senior vice president of global channel sales & partnerships.
Kane took on Front’s channel chief post in December, charged with scaling up the company’s channel sales. Front hired Kane in a bid to accelerate its growth in the channel with plans to continue investing in partner training, joint marketing programs and ecosystem expansion throughout 2026. Kane has spent the early months of 2026 assembling a channel team.
Check Point Hires Channel Veteran Chris Moore As Its New Channel Chief
Check Point Software Technologies scored in the personnel department this week, hiring Chris Moore, a longtime channel executive formerly at vendors including CyberArk and HPE, as its new channel chief.
Moore, whose title at Check Point is vice president of world wide channel, joins the cybersecurity vendor as it looks to engage more partners in segments outside its core firewall business.
Most recently, Moore served as senior vice president of global channels at CyberArk starting in 2020. Palo Alto Networks completed its $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk in February.
Prior to CyberArk, Moore held top channel executive roles at Qlik and Veeam Software. Earlier, he spent more than a decade at HPE, including as director of U.S. channel storage sales from 2009 to 2011.
