A new era of growth: How the Zoom partner ecosystem is evolving
By evolving our Zoom Up Partner Program with robust incentives, we’ve adopted a partner-first mindset that is driving expansion in the channel.
Updated on December 15, 2022
Published on November 09, 2022
Zoomtopia 2022 is just getting started! On the second day of our sixth annual user conference, we kicked off our Zoomtopia Partner Connect, which celebrates our partners’ impact, unveils new announcements, and provides insight into how we plan to double down on investments and scale programs.
With dedicated hybrid sessions for the Americas taking place on Nov. 9 in San Jose, California, and then EMEA, APAC, and Japan on Nov. 18, we’re connecting with our partners around the globe to empower this dynamic ecosystem.
Here are a few key highlights we are sharing with our partner community:
Before we look at what’s ahead for our partner program, we wanted to look back on the year that was and the progress our partners made. A few wins to call out:
As we look ahead, we’re guided by one main principle, a North Star to chart our path forward: partner centricity.
Partner centricity means that partners are at the core of our go-to-market and product launch strategy, guiding where we focus our time and resources. It means that we plan to continue investing in the ease of doing business — focusing efforts on partner profitability and value exchange, as well as building a partner-centric culture. And it means enabling partners to sell a holistic platform, not just a product.
Here are just a few ways we’re activating this principle in our programs:
The Zoom Up Partner Program: Launching earlier this year, our Zoom Up Partner Program was designed to redefine the partner engagement journey through one integrated architecture. Optimized for education and awareness, the program is ripe with training and learning solutions for partners, and has even recently expanded its in-person resources across regions to help provide more direct support.
Extending services & support through partners: Whether it’s through reselling Zoom Professional Services (PSO), a capability now expanded to partners, offering their own services and support, or something in between, our partners need the right avenues to deliver a meaningful customer experience — and we strive to equip them with the resources and tools they need to do so.
Partner differentiation: We want to celebrate how partners go the extra mile to help elevate customers’ experiences, so we’re planning to implement the following:
Doubling down on growth: We’re expanding our investments in demand generation by increasing marketing development funds (MDFs), tapping into our brand recognition, and growing our team. We’ve also put a few other initiatives in place to support growth:
Our own Ryan Azus, chief revenue officer, joined our keynote session to moderate a special partner panel. He was joined by Nikki Marsh from Lumen Technologies, Osamu Kikuchi from NESIC, Peter Arbitter from Deutsche Telekom, and Nathan Moffitt from Smarsh. During the lively panel, each partner reflected on their journey of growth with Zoom, how they serve and add value for customers, and the ways they address industry-specific challenges.
Following the partner panel, Zoom’s president, Greg Tomb, joined the stage to walk through exciting new announcements, sharing our platform vision and the opportunities it brings to our partners. From our company rebrand to the relaunch of Zoom Team Chat to the announcement of Zoom Mail and Calendar and Zoom Mail Service, Greg walked partners through what we’ve been up to recently and how we plan to help elevate our services, highlighting how our partners play a critical role in helping us shape the future of communication. Greg’s presentation was a reminder of how partners can tap into our ever-evolving product portfolio to unearth new opportunities and avenues for growth.
To show our appreciation for our partners’ dedication to delivering happiness, we handed out a few awards:
And here are the winners of our regional partner awards:
APAC:
EMEA:
Japan:
LATAM:
U.S. & Canada:
While these are just a few of the announcements stemming from our keynote, there’s a lot more happening at Partner Connect 2022. With numerous breakout sessions that are as diverse as our partner ecosystem, there’s still so much to learn and discover — and we encourage you to dive into anything you can.
Thank you for joining us at Partner Connect 2022, and to all our partners for being part of our community. We’re thrilled about the progress we’ve made together, and even more excited about what’s yet to come.