At AWS re:Invent held in Vegas in early December, I was able to sit down for a conversation about AWS co-selling partnerships with Julia Chen, VP of AWS Partner Core, Specialists and Partners. Chen shared insights on AWS’s partner ecosystem and recent innovations and how AWS’s co-selling partnerships are all about helping partners drive profitable growth. Chen highlighted the critical role partners play in AWS’s business strategy and customer success.
AWS’s Co-Selling Partnerships and a Goal of Helping Partners Drive Profitable Growth, a conversation with Julia Chen at re:Invent — watch the conversation here:
Chen, who oversees the foundational aspects of the AWS partner programs, contracts, and enablement initiatives, emphasized the significant impact of AWS’s co-selling partnerships. According to AWS research, partners who co-sell with AWS see remarkable benefits: 51% higher revenue growth, 65% higher close rates, and 54% larger deal sizes. To facilitate these partnerships, AWS has implemented several tools including Partner Central and ACE, along with a new Gen AI tool that helps AWS sellers identify optimal partners for specific opportunities.
AWS SMB Competency Partner Program
Speaking of AWS sellers, in my conversation with Chen, she shared that the company realizes the critical role that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) play in the global economy, and with good reason. SMBs are responsible for 45% of the global GDP, representing a whopping 98% of business across all industries, and employ some 67% of workers worldwide. SMBs have unique needs and solutions designed to fit those needs. In January of 2024, AWS launched the AWS SMB Competency Partner program, designed to meet the specialized needs of SMBs and help them leverage the power of the cloud in general, and AWS in particular, to drive innovation, increase productivity, and grow revenue. Since the launch of the AWS SMB Competency Partner program, AWS reports that partners have increased launched opportunities by an increase of ~35 points YoY compared to partners not leveraging the competency offering.
AWS Generative AI Competency Partners
In March of 2024, AWS launched the AWS Gen AI Competency Program designed to feature savvy partners with a track record of success with customers implementing gen AI tech powered by AWS. Chen shared that these partners are leading the charge when it comes to developing and deploying gen AI technology for their customers, and supporting them is a priority. The program launched with 40+ partners and a short six months later, boasts 127 partners, including Snowflake, McKinsey, Trellix, PwC, and Pinecone, among others.
AWS Migration Acceleration Program
While the AWS Migration Acceleration Program launched in 2016 — almost a decade ago — migration continues to be a significant area of focus for customers and presents many opportunities for both AWS and partners. Not surprisingly, partners are playing an outsized role in helping customers with their workload modernization and cloud initiatives, and AWS reports that over 80% of greenfield customer migrations and the Migration Acceleration Program is playing a big role in helping partners assist their customers as they look to speed their digital transformation journeys. Chen shared that during re:Invent this year, a key announcement of this front was the elimination of the financial cap for the Migration Acceleration Program, making it even more attractive for partners to continue to serve their customers on these DX journeys.
Amazon Q Developer, Business Outcome Xcelerator, Managed Service Program, and Buy With AWS
Among the other key announcements at re:Invent, Chen expressed particular excitement about Q for Developer, a tool that modernizes legacy code and helps drive efficiencies and developer productivity. This innovation can efficiently convert various programming languages, including updating Java 8 to Java 17 and transforming COBOL to Java, potentially saving thousands of development hours.
Other significant partner-focused announcements include updates on the Business Outcomes Xcelerator program launched in June of 2024, which is designed to help spur co-innovation and accelerate growth by speeding go-to-market initiatives and meeting the needs of line of business buyers with outcome-based, ready-to-use solutions for customers. The Xcelerator program makes it easy to match AWS experts and partners offering complementary services with customers, helping speed the development of solutions, speed innovation, and get to market faster. The Business Outcomes Xcelerator program includes tools to make selling easy, like boilerplate contracts and playbooks designed to save time and also features financial incentives designed to help partners expand their customer reach within the AWS Marketplace listing.
Chen and I discussed the news of the GA of the AWS Managed Service Provider program designed to help partners migrate their smaller customers with on-prem management services to the AWS and/or provide services at any stage of their cloud journeys, including planning, design, building, migration, ops, support, automation, and optimization.
Last but not least, we touched on re:Invent news of the introduction of Buy with AWS on Marketplace, an accelerated procurement process on AWS partner sites powered by AWS Marketplace that enables partners to leverage their own storefronts for AWS Marketplace access. It’s a streamlined way to find, quickly evaluate, and buy products from the AWS Marketplace, enabling partners who sell or resell products in AWS Marketplace to more easily be discovered by showcasing their AWS Marketplace listings, creating custom storefronts, and displaying products they are authorized to resell. The co-branded, easy-to-use experience is all about making it an easy discovery and buying experience for customers as well as helping spur growth for AWS partners.
Conclusion
Wrapping up and looking toward the future, Chen shared AWS’s ambitious vision of having partners involved in 100% of their customer accounts, a goal recently articulated by Matt Garman in a CRN interview. She emphasized how partners like Datadog, MongoDB, Snowflake, Accenture, Deloitte, and Slalom develop crucial technologies and services on AWS’s platform and the benefit to customers is obvious.
Throughout the conversation, Chen reinforced AWS’s commitment to their builder community and customer-centric approach, which was a clear theme throughout the entire re:Invent event. She highlighted how partner feedback plays a vital role in product development and service improvement, reflecting AWS’s broader culture of customer obsession. This customer-first mindset permeates AWS’s culture and drives the company’s approach to solving complex challenges across various industries.
See more of my coverage here:
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