New ways for Google Cloud partners to develop and demonstrate deep product expertise

Google Cloud partners are at the forefront of digital transformations. They’re working with organizations of all sizes and across all industries to apply cloud infrastructure, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) to modernize businesses and launch entirely new digital ones.

Customers are looking to their partners for strategic counsel, expert implementation services, and deep product domain expertise, and we’re on a journey with our partners to expand their capacity and expertise in each of these areas. At the start of this year, we announced an evolution to Partner Advantage to align with these needs, including new product-specific Premier levels for partners and greater incentives for partners who attain Premier status, earn more certifications on Google Cloud products, and drive customer success and growth.

Our partners have already responded. Google Cloud partners earned greater than 180% more certifications in the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2022. Just in the last several months, our consulting and systems integrator partners have committed to train more than 150,000 additional people to bring new generative AI products from Google Cloud to customers. Overall, our partners’ net promoter scores (NPS) from customers have increased, signifying the critical role that they play in delivering customer success.

Today, the opportunity for our partners is greater than ever. Our incentives and funding for partners are growing, and new product-specific Premier levels are launching on August 1, 2023. As we move forward with our partners, these new programs and incentives work together to support customer success. 

New Premier Partner badging to indicate deep product expertise

As part of our announcement earlier this year, we said that new product-family-specific tracks are coming to Partner Advantage, including new Premier badges associated with specific Google Cloud products. We’ve been in ongoing dialog with our partners over the last six months, and we’re excited that many have already attained one or more of these new Premier badges. Beginning August 1, 2023 these new Premier levels will take effect within the Partner Advantage program, and beginning in January of 2024, our partners will receive new incentives based on these new levels.

Partners can now attain and display eight new Premier badges, aligned with key Google Cloud product areas across our three Engagement Models: Sell, Service, and Build. These are:

• Premier Partner for Google Cloud in the Sell Engagement Model 

• Premier Partner for Google Workspace in the Sell Engagement Model 

• Premier Partner for Chrome in the Sell Engagement Model 

• Premier Partner for Google Cloud in the Service Engagement Model 

• Premier Partner for Google Workspace in the Service Engagement Model 

• Premier Partner for Chrome in the Service Engagement Model 

• Premier Partner for Google Cloud in the Build Engagement Model 

• Premier Partner for Google Workspace in the Build Engagement Model 

By achieving one or more of these Premier badges, partners can demonstrate to customers that they have earned the highest level of proficiency in a particular product area and have already helped multiple customers implement and see value from Google Cloud products. 

These updates were designed and implemented with input and feedback from our partners and customers, and will put Google Cloud partners in the best position to support customers’ most pressing needs, and we’re excited to see strong responses from our ecosystem:

• “Working with Google Cloud, we are helping customers modernize their businesses in critical areas using technologies including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and data analytics,” said Matt Lacey, Global Chief Commercial Officer for Deloitte’s Alphabet relationship. “We share Google Cloud’s commitment to customer success, and will continue to combine our deep industry knowledge with Google certified resources to address our clients’ most pressing cloud projects.”

• "The evolutions in Google Cloud's Partner Advantage program reflect increasing customer demand for partners who bring deep product knowledge and experience to the table." said Robbie Clews, Sr. Director of Google Cloud at Kin + Carta. “We’re fully aligned with the Partner Advantage program and are accelerating our focus on high quality services delivery.”

• “Driving digital transformations with Google Cloud represents one of the most significant and growing opportunities ahead for Quantiphi,” said Asif Hasan, Co-founder of Quantiphi. “Google Cloud’s approach to partnering, including its partner-led approach to services delivery and its focus on enabling deeply qualified partners, is aligned with customers’ needs, and we’re excited to double down on our work with Google Cloud.”

Partners can still demonstrate even further proficiency with specific products, industries, and workloads by earning Specializations and Expertises in areas like cloud migrations, application development, AI and ML, SAP on Google Cloud, and much more.

Demonstrating proven offerings with the Delivery Readiness Index

We launched the Delivery Readiness Index (DRI) in 2022 to provide partners with a consistent measure of their readiness, capacity, and offerings in services delivery. The DRI evaluates partners’ experiential knowledge and certifications and provides them with resources and support from Google Cloud to grow their experience and expertise in key areas of customer demand, including account-specific bootcamps, training, and Challenge Labs to help partners understand project requirements before engaging with customers.

With the launch of new Premier badges and deeper product and certification requirements, partners can continue to utilize the DRI to ensure their services offerings align with particular customer projects. Similarly, customers can utilize the DRI to ensure that the partners’ of their choice possess the proven expertise and capacity they need for any given project.

Growing resources and go-to-market programs with our partners

Partners are at the forefront of Google Cloud’s go-to-market and delivery initiatives across every product area, including Google Workspace, infrastructure and cloud migrations, artificial intelligence, data and analytics, and more. 

To reach more customers and to receive additional support and resources, we encourage our partners to utilize the many new go-to-market programs we have launched this year, including:

• Built with Google Cloud AI helps ISV partners accelerate AI and generative AI solutions built with Google Cloud.

• Google Cloud Ready initiatives provide support for ISV partners building applications and integrations in key product areas, including BigQuery, AlloyDB, and sustainability.

• RaMP, our program for cloud migrations, gives customers and partners everything they need to evaluate and execute large-scale migrations to Google Cloud, with a strong focus on partner-delivered services.

• Google Cloud Marketplace now offers more capabilities for resellers to transact.

• New incentives and funding for 2H 2023 is launching soon, including increased rebates for partners who source new and expanded deals or grow their SMB accounts, pre-approved discounts based on growth in Workspace seats, and additional funding for certain partner-delivered presales activities.
  

Together, these new programs, incentives, and Premier badges will ensure that customers have access to highly skilled partners with the deep product domain expertise that their transformation projects demand, while providing our partners with more resources, funding, and access to go-to-market opportunities than ever.

We’re committed to supporting our partner ecosystem, and will continue to dialog about these updates and opportunities with our partners over the coming months. I’m personally looking forward to engaging with partners at our upcoming Next ‘23 Partner Summit, and in additional meetings with partners across North America, EMEA, and JAPAC throughout the year.

For more information on these new programs and resources, reach out to your Partner Account Manager or login to the Partner Advantage portal at partneradvantage.goog.