Riverbed launched its new channel partner program, ‘Riverbed Rise’ that aligns with the changing IT landscape and how partners are evolving to solve their customers’ technology needs. With the new program, Riverbed is moving away from a traditional, compliance-based program with rewards tied to certifications and revenue that needed heavy up-front and ongoing investment by partners to maintain compliance and tier status, and shifting to a new performance-based program that is designed to reward all types of partners, business models and various customer technology consumption preferences.
The changes to the Riverbed partner program are aligned to Riverbed’s new sales strategy, works more closely with partners to acquire new customers, and drive account penetration with new technologies and flexible consumption models. To support this new sales strategy, Riverbed will work with partners to focus on Riverbed’s new and existing enterprise and public sector sales accounts.
To lead these changes, Riverbed recently welcomed Bridget Bisnette as Vice President, Global Channels and Commercial Sales. Bisnette is responsible for global channel strategy and synchronizing Riverbed’s efforts through the channel, managing the partner program, focusing on enablement to drive partner productivity and integrating them into the commercial sales motions.
“I am pleased to join Riverbed at such an exciting time in the industry and in the history of the company. It’s been a very exciting six months as we solidified the commercial expansion and evolved Riverbed’s channel strategy and partner experience,” he said. “The transformation in the IT industry is being affected by changing customer expectations. Business models, sales processes and certification models, among many other things, are being impacted. This is going to be a very good thing for our industry because it shifts the focus to customer success and customer lifetime value. With the launch of Riverbed Rise and other key enhancements to our partner experience, Riverbed is poised to lead this change and deliver mutual success with partners.”
Riverbed Rise is built on simplicity, flexibility and profitability for partners. It simplifies how partners achieve and continue to maintain their status. The program uniquely adapts to multiple business models and partners’ needs. More importantly, it rewards achievement across key strategic activities and joint sales priorities. Partners began earning benefits effective January 2, and will remain at their current program level until the end of July, with the full implementation of Riverbed Rise beginning in August.