Technology Partner Program Playbook

Best Practices For Managing Your Partners

Executive Summary

Technology vendors must partner with each other to bring solutions to the market to meet market demands and customer expectations. To support these requirements, vendors establish Partner Programs to enable consistent sales and support processes. Customers want confidence that each partner fully supports the solution throughout the lifecycle.

Without a consistent method of working with Partners, the administration to maintain individual processes becomes burdensome and seemingly impossible. Then, when it’s most important, and a customer is in the balance, the process designed to enhance the customer experience fails.

TSANet solves this challenge by providing a best practices framework and allows Sales teams to sell with confidence and Support teams to provide support with confidence. This partner program playbook details how TSANet provides your organization with a plug-and-play best practices process for managing and collaborating with your many Partners.

Proven Process

Partner Journey

TSANet is collaborating with members and industry experts to develop best practices for the Partner Journey. The links below provide information about this initiative.

 

Consistent Collaboration Process

The TSANet Connect system offers a consistent approach for collaborating with other members. This system can integrate seamlessly into your existing processes, delivering an efficient means for collaboration on multi-vendor issues.

 

Onboarding and Ongoing Management

TSANet onboards your Partners to your group and verifies that the collaboration process, including escalation, is in place. TSANet also provides ongoing management in close collaboration with your Partner and Support teams.

 

Cost Savings

The table below outlines the steps required to establish a single Partner Support relationship, along with the associated time and cost. It is estimated that a minimum investment of $10,000 and a timeline of three months are necessary to establish each relationship. Ongoing management of the relationship incurs an estimated cost of $5,000 each. The chart below compares Partner Management with and without TSANet. Please refer to Partner Program costs for options and pricing.

Task Without TSANet (4 months /15k+) With TSANet (days / low cost)
Organize stakeholders 1-week TSANet provides
Define Support Requirements 2-weeks TSANet provides best practices
Agree Service Levels 1 week TSANet provides best practices and monitors compliance
Define and test the collaboration process 3-weeks (More if no existing process exists) TSANet provides
Create Legal Agreement 1 month (More if no legal template exists) TSANet provides a common legal framework
Develop, Document collaboration process and train support engineers 1 month (More if no existing method exists) AND Support engineers have to be trained on the MANY ways to working with Partners TSANet provides a single process for all Partners through TSANet Connect
Ongoing Management 1 week / year TSANet Provides

 

Types of Partner Groups

The image below summarizes the Partner Models used by Vendors and supported by TSANet.

The TSANet Partner Program relationship infrastructure is flexible and supports any workflow required between Partners. These groups can take several forms:

1. Support a Technology Alliance Program with bi-directional collaboration capability.
2. Support a Vendor Marketplace where a Cloud Provider allows customers to add technologies from other vendors to their environment.
3. Support an OEM relationship where Vendor A is responsible for Customer Support and escalates technical issues to Vendor B.
4. A Solution Support Model where three or more vendors can collaborate on a multi-vendor solution.

 

Partner Program Best Practices

Red Hat, VMware, and Nutanix shared their best practices with Partner programs during a webinar in May of 2023. View the recording below:

https://tsanet.org/tsanet-partner-program-best-practices-nutanix-red-hat-and-vmware-webinar/

This webinar highlighted several best practices found in all successful partner programs.

Cisco and Nutanix participated in case studies that highlighted how they utilize the TSANet Partner Framework within their Technology Partner Programs.

• Cisco Case Study: Multi Vendor Solution Support Delivers Results for Cisco Customers LEARN MORE
• Nutanix Case Study: Nutanix Supports Customers Confidently with Technology Partners LEARN MORE

 

Support and Partner Team Alignment

The best organizations have alignment and close working relationships between the Partner Alliance and Support teams. This allows for a common approach to onboarding and ongoing management of partners and ensures that processes are in place to deliver a great customer experience with Partner solutions. Below are a few quotes that show the common goals of these teams.

“Leveraging TSANet allows our Sales team to sell with confidence and Support teams to provide support with confidence.” – Nutanix

“Customer satisfaction is paramount; therefore, both the partner and Palo Alto Networks must work to jointly resolve integration issues identified by shared customers” – Palo Alto Networks

TSANet collaborates with both Support and Partner Managers to facilitate the necessary collaboration path to fulfill your customers’ expectations. This process involves testing and validating support cases with your partners through the TSANet Connect platform, ensuring a direct connection between you and your partner network.

 

Validated Configurations

One of the requirements for Partners is to test and maintain a validated configuration. This is necessary for maintaining a marketplace listing. These validated configurations include versions, allowing the customer to ensure that both solution components are properly updated. This information is displayed in the Marketplace for customers to view.

 

Onboarding and Ongoing Management

TSANet solves the problem of keeping your partner’s information up-to-date and ensuring the path for collaboration is functional and with a backup escalation path. TSANet works with the partner to validate the process and escalation instructions during the Partner sign-up process.

To maintain the partner program, TSANet hosts quarterly meetings with the Partner team to work on exceptions and ensure that changes in partner status are reflected in the system.

As TSANet manages numerous partner programs, changes in partner contacts or processes are proactively handled, alleviating much of the administration involved in partner updates. TSANet provides a single portal for members to engage and keep their information up to date.

 

The Requirement to Join TSANet

The requirement to join TSANet is clearly defined in the Partner Program document that the partner agrees to when they join the Members Partner Program. TSANet works with the partner manager to create marketing materials that explain TSANet and the importance of membership in supporting the joint solution. Having TSANet Membership as a clear requirement for partner compliance allows TSANet to properly represent the host and ensure that all their Partners are onboarded to the TSANet Connect Platform.

 

Partner Program Costs

During setup, the Host Member can decide how they want to pay for the Partner Program.

Member Pay

In this model, the Partner who joins the program will pay $500/year for the relationship. TSANet bills the partner during sign-up and renewal.

Host Pay

For Host Pay, the joining Partner can join for free, and the Host is billed yearly based on the number of Partners in the group. The price is discounted based on the number of Partners. Contact membership@tsanet.org for a Host Pay price quote.

 

Partner Program Decisions

Partner Program creation is collaborative between the member (host) and TSANet staff. TSANet will consult with the host to define the critical decisions before implementation.

• Define Program Name: The name of the group. Note that this is visible to Members of the group.
• Define Primary Contact: this is the key contact used to approve members and work any exceptions during onboarding.
• Define Group Type: Solution Support or Partner Program
• Define what email address should be notified when members sign-up: for example primary contact email or alias
• Define process form: You may decide to create a new contact process for members of the group as opposed to using an existing process.
• Define initial response SLAs: TSANet recommends using standard SLAs, but custom SLAs are possible.
• Define Internal User Access: TSANet recommends using Open Access, but restricted access is possible.
• Define communication template(s) and sender.
o Communication Template: email template sent to the partner during the sign-up process.
o Sender: sent from the Host or TSANet. TSANet recommends the Host.
• Define the Legal Addendum TSANet recommends utilizing the TSANet default addendum. (See appendix).

 

Marketing Tasks

TSANet will assist in marketing your Partner Program. We will create your Co-Branded Registration page. The TSANet Registration page is an automated portal where your partners can quickly join TSANet and connect with you.

On the Co-Branded Registration page, we will create a custom banner. We ask that you provide us with your partner program logo or company logo in EPS or SVG format. If you choose to create the banner on the registration page, the banner dimensions are 1468 px (W) x 300 px (H). Please send us a PNG or JPEG file.

 

TSANet will create a TSANet Benefits brief for your partners. The TSANet Benefits brief is a marketing document that provides a high-level overview of the partner program and benefits of TSANet.

 

Please note: The page title, verbiage, and URL can be customized.

 

Partner Program Onboarding

TSANet will assist in the on-boarding of new and existing members. This is a collaborative process best defined prior to implementation and customized to each host.

 

Partner Sign Up (Step 1-3)

Partner onboarding occurs via a dedicated landing page, which walks the joining member through the sign-up process, including non-members joining the alliance. This process includes joining paperwork, adding an inbound process, and paying dues if necessary. Existing members can join via the same portal and be directed to the proper paperwork path and inbound process options. After the partner signs up, the notification email is sent to the Host and the member.

 

Sign Up Approval (Step 4)

In cases where members have been pre-approved, a simple list provided to TSANet staff can bypass the host approval process. We notify the host for validation if a member has yet to be pre-approved.

 

Process Validation (Steps 5-6)

Once the partner is approved, TSANet will test the partner’s inbound process, or the host can validate the partner’s inbound process. Validation includes the partner acknowledging receipt of the test case and responding. After their support process is validated, TSANet will activate the partner in TSANet Connect. The partner is sent their credentials and will have access to the contact process to collaborate with you. If the partner’s support process fails, TSANet will work with the partner to validate the process before activation.

As an option, TSANet can coordinate a 30-minute onboarding call to test the support process and answer questions.

Please note: A payment receipt is needed for member-paid groups before the Partner is taken live in TSANet Connect.

 

Partner Program Ongoing Management

TSANet will assist in the ongoing account management of new and existing members. This is a collaborative process and can be customized to each host.

 

Process for adding and removing members

If you would like to add a partner to your group, please direct them to your Partner Program landing page (https://partner-program.connect.tsantet.org). After receipt of their sign-up form and payment (member-paid group only), TSANet or the host will validate their support process and take live in the system. Please note: TSANet can customize the ongoing management to fit your needs.

To remove a partner from the group, please contact us at membership@tsanet.org.

 

The renewal process for Member paid partner programs

TSANet will oversee the renewal process for partners who pay membership dues. Partners will receive an invoice 90 days prior to their renewal date, followed by a reminder email 15 days before the renewal date. If a partner fails to renew within 90 days, we will terminate their membership after notifying the Host.

 

Renewal Process for the Host

Hosts sponsoring their partners will be billed annually per Limited member. The fee will exclude participating Open Group Members in the Custom relationship. Billing will be based on a snapshot of Limited members prior to their annual membership fee and can be included in the overall member dues invoice. The first invoice will arrive one year after the program start date.

 

Process for escalating Limited Member issues

When a member undergoes a merger or acquisition, we will collaborate directly with both companies to transfer their data. If your partner is acquired by a company that is NOT part of your partner program, TSANet will reach out to the Host to discuss their participation in the partner program.

Onboarding issues can arise occasionally. This includes instances where a non-verified partner signs up or a partner provides insufficient or incorrect contact or support information. When this occurs, we will collaborate with the Host and the partner to address these issues.

When a Limited Member does not respond/acknowledge a TSANet Connect Case from you, TSANet will follow up with the partner to close the case.

 

Appendix

A: Default Partner Addendum

The TSANet Relationship Addendum is a part of the <legal framework> established and agreed to by all members. Specifically, the Addendum contains the elements and requirements of the relationship. The Addendum is a customizable document specific to each relationship, whereas TSANet has multiple templates for different types of relationships.

Addendums typically identify a host or sponsor and participants. In cases where multiple partners are joining, participants agree to the same code alleviating the need for separate CSAs. Elements of the Addendum include response times and are tied to the TSANet Code of Conduct, which contains confidentiality requirements. A default partner Addendum can be used as a template that most members find sufficient to support collaboration. However, TSANet members can work with TSANet staff to craft the Addendum to customize and meet members’ needs.

B: Checklist

Partner Program Decisions

• Define Program Name
• Define Primary Contact
• Define if group is Host Paid or Member Paid
• Define what email address should be notified when members sign-up
• Define process form
• Define Initial Response SLAs
• Define Internal User Access
• Define communication template(s) and sender
• Review Default Legal Addendum and advise on changes

Marketing

• Create Landing Page
• Create Banner
• Create TSANet Benefits Document
• Host Review Registration Page

Partner Program Onboarding

• Partner signs up to Landing page
• Partner completes sign-up form
• Partner is approved or rejected
• Validate Support Process
• Take Partner Live

Version 2.1 – April 2025