Last year, the technology sector experienced a boom of new possibilities and remarkable advancements, from new opportunities in artificial intelligence to changes in the virtualization market, and Red Hat joined its partners to meet these demands and pave the way for innovation. To help them remain agile in this dynamic sector, in 2024 the corporation introduced the first phase of updates to its partner program, offering a new modular program structure, standardized incentives, and enhanced digital tools.
This year will be no different. Anchored in a product and technology co-creation module, new distributor engagement policies, and courses focused on the importance of incentives and reimbursements to drive sales, the second phase of updates to the global partner program aims to bring further improvements to the partner side and assist them in their business journeys alongside Red Hat.
Partner Program Co-Creation Module
In 2024, Red Hat implemented a modular approach to its partner program, starting with three modules focused on Resale, Distribution, and Co-Selling, designed to help customers be more precise in their core business activities. Now, a new module, Co-Creation, will be available in the coming weeks to further reward Red Hat’s technology partners.
The Co-Creation module will be targeted at partners who certify or validate their products and develop new solutions with the company’s technologies. The course is particularly relevant for companies that identify as independent software and hardware vendors (IHVs and ISVs), system integrators (SIs), and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Interested parties in the training will earn points for activities such as co-creating solutions, validating and certifying Red Hat platforms, and developing content and go-to-market strategies to bring these solutions to customers. Accumulated points will unlock various benefits, including training, sales, marketing, and technical support within the platform.
Streamlining Distributor Engagement
The company is implementing a distribution model to encourage greater engagement between distributors and their focused partners, helping to enhance skill development and improve the execution of product go-to-market strategies. This will enable business-to-business relationships, empowering partners to choose a distributor of their preference, with whom they can develop long-term planning.
By incorporating go-to-market activities into the partner program modules to recognize value-added initiatives, such as co-creating marketing assets, customer demos, proof-of-concept development, and more. This allows partners to earn points and rewards and facilitates the progression of opportunities in generating awareness among customers. By integrating these activities, Red Hat aims to recognize partner performance through more holistic relationship approaches to achieve higher accuracy rates.
These go-to-market activities are included in all partner program modules. Therefore, regardless of how partners choose to work with Red Hat, they can be recognized and rewarded as they engage with and interact with these contents.
Expanding Incentives and Reimbursements
Following the latest updates to the global partner engagement program experience, Red Hat has been standardizing reimbursements and incentives for resale and distribution partners to achieve greater visibility and more predictable growth. This is a global implementation to provide companies linked to the corporation with clear and early insights to maximize profitability, plan sales cycles more effectively, and strengthen competitive positioning. The updated reimbursement and incentive structure complements the contract registration incentives previously announced by the organization, offering partners a greater margin of opportunity to successfully register and develop new business.
Next Steps
The transformation of the global partner program represents the company’s commitment to promoting an open approach with the alliance ecosystem, whether to deliver impactful and customized solutions to customers or to drive lasting changes in organizational structures. At the heart of Red Hat’s strategy is greater autonomy among the different parties, so that everyone benefits and has clearer growth opportunities.
Throughout 2025, members of this ecosystem will receive additional updates to develop new business flows and foster a more holistic and collaborative market vision. In the meantime, while the new features arrive, partners can find more information about the different program modules, go-to-market launch opportunities, the distributor-aligned model, and incentives in the Red Hat Content Center.
