For the week ending April 18, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel including Nvidia, New Relic, Docusign, Infosys and NWN.
The Week Ending April 18
Topping this week’s Five Companies that Came to Win is Nvidia for its plan to work with several manufacturing partners to build complete supercomputer systems entirely within the U.S.
Also making this week’s list are observability platform provider New Relic and document management software developer Docusign for launching new channel programs that will help partners be more effective and profitable amid today’s fast-changing IT industry conditions.
IT services giant Infosys is here for a pair of strategic acquisitions while solution provider superstar NWN makes the list for inking a five-year IT transformation contract with The Kraft Group, owner of the New England Patriots.
Nvidia To Build Entire AI Supercomputers Within The US With Partners
Amid the rapidly shifting situation over tariffs, chip designer Nvidia got everyone’s attention this week when it announced a plan to build complete AI supercomputers in the United States for the first time thanks to investments it’s making with Taiwanese manufacturing partners TSMC, Foxconn and Wistron.
Nvidia said it has “commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test Nvidia Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas.” This new production capacity will allow the company to “produce up to a half trillion dollars of AI infrastructure” in the U.S. within the next four years.
Nvidia said Blackwell production has already begun at TSMC’s fabrication plants in Phoenix. The supercomputer manufacturing plants are being stood up by Foxconn in Houston and by Wistron in Dallas, with mass production “expected to ramp up in the next 12-15 months.” Nvidia also said it is working with Amkor and SPIL to handle the chip packaging and testing needs of its AI supercomputer products.
“The engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time,” Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang said in a statement. “Adding American manufacturing helps us better meet the incredible and growing demand for AI chips and supercomputers, strengthens our supply chain and boosts our resiliency.”
New Relic Revamps Channel Program, Counts On Partners For Agentic AI Drive
Observability platform developer New Relic wins kudos for rolling out a major expansion of its channel program this week, offering partners a simpler two-tier structure, more financial incentives and increased margins, expanded training opportunities, and new technical and sales certifications.
New Relic is also providing additional partner resources, including more regional and sub-regional partner sales managers – part of a four-fold increase in partner organization staff over the last six months.
The moves are the follow-through of channel veteran Larissa Crandall, who was hired as New Relic’s channel chief in September.
A major change is the program’s reduction from four tiers to just two and the addition of what Crandall called “stronger” financial incentives offered to provide partners with increased margins and improved profitability.
The partner program offers four new technical certifications and two new sales certifications that Crandall said are designed to provide partners with a solid foundation around intelligent observability, including value proposition, use cases and business outcomes. And the program offers expanded training opportunities for partner seller and technical teams across such areas as AI, observability and cloud.
New Relic has been expanding the capabilities of its observability platform to monitor and manage AI systems while at the same time building AI functionality into the platform itself to boost its effectiveness. Partners will benefit from both efforts: CEO Ashan Willy told CRN that New Relic is developing an agentic framework within the company’s observability platform that will allow partners to build their own agentic integrations for their customers.
New Docusign Partner Program Leans On The Channel For Document Management’s AI Era
Staying on the topic of partner programs, Docusign makes this week’s Came to Win list for launching a new partner program that provides more partner specializations and improved product information sharing as the company looks to the channel to help capture new opportunities with its Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform.
The new Docusign Partner Program supports partners selling the vendor’s software for electronic signatures, contract life-cycle management and the AI-powered IAM platform. It aims to assist partners serving legal departments, sales, procurement, human resources and other lines of business.
The new program offers “sell” specializations for IAM Core, IAM for Sales and IAM for CX, plus a “service and sell” specialization for contract life-cycle management.
The new program has tracks for build, sell and service partners with benefits designed for those business models, according to Docusign. Build partners can leverage custom integration applications to increase customer value with IAM. The sell partner track focuses on strategic, consultive engagements for IAM and contract life-cycle management. And the service track is aimed at partners with deep product expertise for deploying IAM and contract life-cycle management offers.
Docusign has also added more IAM accreditations, certifications and training for partners.
Infosys Buying Texas, Australia Companies In IT Services Push
Infosys this week disclosed two significant acquisitions that will expand the service capabilities of the global IT services provider and consultant.
Infosys, headquartered in Bengaluru, India, said it had signed definitive agreements to acquire The Missing Link, a Sydney, Australia-based provider of cybersecurity services, and MRE Consulting, a Houston-based technology and business consulting service provider with a focus on trading and risk management.
The Missing Link offers a full cybersecurity practice including strategic consulting, offensive and defensive security services and support, cybersecurity risk assessments, and managed cybersecurity services.
Infosys plans to combine The Missing Link’s technology with its Infosys Cobalt cloud offering.
The MRE Consulting acquisition brings Infosys new capabilities in trading and risk management, particularly in the energy sector. Infosys will gain a team of over 200 employes focused on energy and commodity trading and risk management, or E/CTRM, platforms.
MRE consulting has developed proprietary E/CTRM business process frameworks for a wide range of commodities, transportation modes, and business models, which are the foundation for commodity trading projects, vendor selection, and solution design and implementation.
NWN Wins Blockbuster Five-Year Deal With The Kraft Group To Drive AI Era Tech Blitz
Fast-growing solution provider NWN wins applause this week for signing a sweeping, five-year deal to transform the IT infrastructure for The Kraft Group and all of its businesses, including the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium.
The blockbuster deal teams NWN in a tight technology partnership with The Kraft Group and Kraft Group CIO Michael Israel with a charter to overhaul and upgrade the IT network and infrastructure for Gillette Stadium for the AI era.
The deal includes network upgrades, modernized cloud collaboration solutions and AI-enabled applications to improve the Gillette Stadium experience for fans and players of the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution soccer team.
NWN will also provide a state-of-the-art infrastructure foundation for the New England Patriots’ new training facility. That includes new AI-enabled applications for players and coaches.
The NWN deal comes with The Kraft Group planning a number of major IT upgrades as it prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
The partnership extends well beyond the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium and the New England Revolution. It encompasses all of The Kraft Group businesses, including paper and packaging businesses like Rand Whitney and International Forest Products, real estate and private equity investments.
