With ever-more complex IT and ongoing economic uncertainty, solution providers today need all the help they can get. That’s why IT companies’ partner programs, with their technical training and support, business development resources, and financial incentives and rewards, are more important than ever.
The Cisco 360 “go-live” marked the end of a lengthy, complex process to revamp the company’s nearly 25-year-old channel program with the goal of supporting and rewarding Cisco partners that are focusing less on sales transactions and moving toward more durable growth and helping their customers modernize in the age of AI.
“We just have to get it right,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told CRN in an interview at Partner Summit 2025. “I think the balance we have to strike is rewarding those partners who build businesses across our portfolio, who really represent the platform approach to our customers, but also recognizing that you’re going to have partners that are going to go super deep in a certain area, and you need them to be successful as well.”
While there were some controversial aspects to the Cisco 360 development, including the end of the long-cherished Cisco Gold partner designation, partners see the new program’s requirements that partners upgrade their skills and training as a positive.
“All along, [Cisco] stated their approach was to provide better capabilities to the customers and reward the partners that are investing in helping companies be successful with Cisco’s technology,” said Steve Wylie, vice president and general manager, Northeast, at Cisco partner Trace3, in an interview with CRN last month. “The world that Cisco plays in is massively more competitive today than it’s ever been [and] the last thing they probably need is people out there selling Cisco that don’t have the core understanding of the in-depth capabilities and are just trying to push quotes.
As the IT industry rapidly evolves, so must the channel. VARs, solution providers and strategic service providers rely a great deal on the IT vendors they work with to help navigate those industry changes – and vendors’ partner programs are the primary vehicle for providing that assistance.
For solution providers, VARs, system integrators, managed service providers and strategic service providers, choosing which IT vendors to partner with is a critical decision. And evaluating the channel programs operated by those companies is a major part of that decision.
The CRN 2026 Partner Program Guide offers solution providers detailed information about the incentives, training, financial assistance, technical support and other resources that leading IT companies offer their channel partners.
HPE, for example, upgraded its Partner Ready Vantage program in November with a slew of new sales incentives for partners. They included a new Triple Platinum Plus sales incentive for partners achieving triple platinum status in compute, hybrid cloud, and networking; a New Business Opportunity booster of 10 percent on focus products and six percent for standard products for winning new accounts; a hefty 50 percent increase in the rebate incentive in North America for Gold and Platinum partners for hybrid cloud products; and a simplified GreenLake Flex sales incentive of up to 20 percent.
“Ultimately the message is we are yet again doubling down on partners,” said Simon Ewington, HPE senior vice president, worldwide channel and partner ecosystem leader. “There is only upside for partners when they work with HPE.”
AI technology, and how it is sold and supported through the channel, continues to be a major driver behind changes IT companies are making to their partner programs.
In January, for example, ServiceNow expanded its channel program with the introduction of the partner business value composer, an AI-powered tool that enables partners to generate business value assessments that partners use to drive customer engagements and discovery process around ServiceNow AI offerings.
The CRN Partner Program Guide provides detailed information about the channel programs operated by leading IT vendors including program tiers and requirements, partner incentives, training and certifications, business development, lead generation, sales and marketing support, vendor-partner communications, partner portal capabilities, service delivery, recurring revenue opportunities, and more.
The Partner Program Guide is based on detailed applications submitted by IT companies that outline all aspects of their channel programs. The goal is to help the channel identify which partner programs offer the incentives, resources and assistance that channel partners need to be successful in today’s turbulent business climate and highly competitive marketplace.
To assemble the annual Partner Program Guide, The Channel Company’s research team analyzes the application data and designates some of the programs as 5-Star, recognizing an elite subset of partner programs with overall exemplary ratings. The 5-Star analysis covers partner incentives, margins and discounts, partner profitability, sales and marketing assistance, and subscription-based and consumption-based pricing availability. The criteria also include the availability of sales leads, deal registration, pre- and post-sales support, programs to help partners grow their services attach, training and education offerings, specializations and technical certifications.
Details and insights about each company’s partner program can be found here. Throughout this week CRN is also publishing slideshows with snapshots of 5-Star partner programs in specific technology categories including data center, computing, cloud, software, networking, security, MSP platform and storage.
Additional slideshows will provide samplings of channel executive answers to such questions as what goals are IT companies setting for their partner programs in 2026, what elements of their program do channel chiefs wish partners took more advantage of, and how have IT companies changed their channel programs to help partners sell AI technology.
Steve Burke, Joseph Kovar and Gina Narcisi contributed to this story.
