Juniper filling up Enterprise+ ranks

Juniper is starting to fill up the numbers of partners that have been invited to join its exclusive Enterprise+ programme to reach the larger customers.

The networking player has been adding to the ranks of the invitation-only programme since it was first introduced earlier this year and is keen to work with the channel to crack a market segment it believes holds plenty of revenue opportunities.

Enterprise+ is running in parallel to the existing Juniper Partner programme for resellers and the distribution offering from the vendor.

Sander Groot, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) channels at Juniper, said that it had come up with the idea towards the end of last year and was in the process of adding partners. 

“We invented this programme at the end of December and internally launched at the end of January, and this programme is there to further drive enterprise sales and further penetrate into the enterprise market. We will do that with approximately 100 partners worldwide. In EMEA, we have 36 partners that are signed up,” he said.

Worldwide, the total number of resellers currently in the programme stands at 86, with 36 of those across EMEA, giving the firm the chance to send out a few more invites if it wishes.

“The Enterprise+ programme consists of partners that have the capability and willingness to go the extra mile with us in the enterprise segment,” he added. “It is not for every partner that raises their hand – and some will want to work in the small and medium business space, and we respect that.”

Partners are being asked to commit to a sales target of $500k on enterprise products over and above their signed-off business plan. 

The second requirement is the need for partners to embrace MIST and artificial intelligence (AI) enterprise because those are key areas Juniper is focusing on in the enterprise sector. Partners need to lead with a minimum of two of the vendor’s technologies – for example, MIST and switching.

The final ask for partners is to dedicate two resources, one on the sales side and another on the technical front, to support the vendor.

There are partners out there that have been active with the vendor in the enterprise space and others that have been selling to that customer segment but with alternative vendors that would be some of the candidates for Enterprise+.

“What Juniper will bring to the take is the following: We have shaped up our virtual sales teams in three locations in the world (Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur, and North Carolina), it is expected of these teams to collaborate with our partners and our Enterprise+ partners,” said Groot.

The vendor is also giving two training passes to every partner so they can get and remain certified, via the Juniper partner programme.

A final element is that the vendor will fund many ongoing demand-generation campaigns to support partner growth.

“We have freed up a lot of MDF, this is by far the biggest investment I have seen in the past 18 years I have been at Juniper Networks,” said Groot. The firm is in the midst of an AI campaign and it will then start to promote SD Branch in the third quarter.

“When we scan the partner base, the number one ask, particularly in these times, is ‘Can you help us with lead generation?’. We have shifted a lot of attention to virtual lead-generation campaigns,” he said.

“We can not be successful without our partners so we take teaming and collaboration very seriously, but in this programme you take teaming further with these 36 companies,” added Groot.