Introducing the Megaport PartnerVantage Program

As he previewed last month on the blog, Chief Revenue Officer Rodney Foreman writes about Megaport’s new partner program, which will make it easy for partners to grow their businesses by selling Network as a Service.

In my previous blog post, I wrote about the work we were doing behind the scenes to develop a unique, world-class partner program that will create more differentiated value for our partners and help them grow their businesses faster. 

Today, after gathering feedback from a great many partners who want to add Network as a Service (NaaS) offerings to their cloud solutions, we’re announcing Megaport PartnerVantage, a comprehensive program we’re building from the ground up to help partners grow revenue by easily and quickly selling NaaS offerings.

 

What is Megaport PartnerVantage?

Whether you’re a data center operator, cloud services provider, managed service provider, value-added reseller or distributor, systems integrator, or master agent, Megaport PartnerVantage is designed to help channel partners sell one of the most critical services in enabling the long-term success of cloud-based initiatives: agile, reliable connectivity.

What do partners get?

We’ve put together a program that provides all the resources a partner will need to sell high-performance private connectivity for the hybrid cloud, multicloud, private cloud, or edge networking initiatives of their customers.

These resources include:

• VantageHub

A world-class, integrated partner relationship management hub where partners can manage their entire Megaport business through a single pane of glass.

• VantageTransact

A powerful, on-demand portal where partners can manage all of their customer transactions from deal registration and quoting, to ordering and provisioning.

• VantageFunds

Financial incentives that will help partners view and manage the rewards they’re earning, including front-end discounts, commissions, and marketing development funds (MDF).

• VantageLearn

Flexible, on-demand training modules that will help increase the ability of partners to sell and provide technical expertise on Megaport’s entire portfolio of services.

• VantageSelling

Access to Partner Account Managers and Solutions Architects to help identify opportunities and close deals, as well as extensive dashboards and reporting.

• VantageMarketing

Megaport co-branded campaigns, toolkits, battlecards, customer-facing assets, and other marketing materials to help partners drive demand.

Why Megaport PartnerVantage?

In talking to our partners, we realized that many were not just seeking new revenue opportunities, but also looking for new ways to drive customer loyalty and become more critical to the long-term success of the digital transformation and cloud initiatives of their customers. 

As more and more companies embrace the cloud as well as SD-WAN technologies to improve WAN performance at the edge, Megaport PartnerVantage can help providers and agents quickly develop domain expertise in cloud connectivity, virtual routing, hybrid cloud and multicloud deployments, and edge networking. IDC predicts that by 2023, 40% of partners will become “Edge experts, becoming the largest IT infrastructure repository.”

But the key differentiator of the Megaport PartnerVantage program will be its ease of use. We’ll make it simple to do business with Megaport, giving partners the ability to onboard quickly and manage their entire Megaport relationship on VantageHub. Partners will also be able to automate deal registration and quoting, and allow customers to provision their own services on VantageTransact.  

Furthermore, Megaport will provide the in-person account management, sales training, and technical support critical to partner success.   

PartnerVantage program levels

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we didn’t want to just put together a standard channel program based on Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. Keeping it simple and easy for partners, we created just two levels: Preferred and Prestige. 

When partners join, they begin at the Preferred level, and can start earning discounts and commissions quickly. Partners that perform exceptionally well, based on revenue and training requirements, can rise to the Prestige level, where they can earn even higher margins and commissions. 

Our tech alliances

Megaport has long been a partner-oriented business. Shortly after our founding in 2013, we developed major strategic partnerships with the world’s top cloud service providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as global leading data center operators such as Digital Realty and CyrusOne. This year, we’ve announced partnerships with Cisco, Fortinet, and Versa, three leading SD-WAN providers that make up over half of the global market share in SD-WAN infrastructure, according to a recent IDC report. We’ll continue to work with our partners to develop innovative joint solutions that reimagine connectivity and modernize enterprise networks. 

We want Megaport services to be critical to every CIO’s IT infrastructure strategy, whether they’re looking to improve cloud, SD-WAN, and/or edge connectivity. Megaport PartnerVantage will make it easier for more companies to benefit from our leading NaaS platform.