Google Added New Tier to Its Apps Channel Reseller Program

Companies are always striving to improve their channel partner programs, and major player Google is one of those companies. Taking a queue from its partners, Google analyzed feedback and used that information to revise its reseller program.

CRN announced that the new and improved Google partner program now affords a new reseller tier: premier. This tier is geared for partners that are high-performing in specified areas: Google Enterprise; Google Apps, Google Maps, and Google Earth.

Google’s reseller platform is global, consisting of 3,000 resellers and covering 70 countries. Channel Insider reports that the company has boosted its partners by 50 percent thanks to its channel program initiatives.

Several months prior to the enhanced reseller program, Google implemented its Google Apps certification training program. CRN mentioned that the Apps program was structured to recognize cloud value-added partners that not only sell Google Apps Cloud Productivity Suite, but also deploy and support it. It was also put in place to acknowledge those partners for their expertise.

Enterprise’s global partner programs department member Jim Chow recently posted on his blog about the new tier. He advised that partners looking to move up from the authorized tier to the premier tier are required to reach and maintain specific guidelines, including minimum revenue, technical skills, and customer satisfaction and success.

Chow explained, “As our reseller partners continue to help customers succeed, we hope these new standards will help them strengthen their business by providing clear benchmarks for them to strive for and meet.” He added that authorized resellers are and will remain a main focus of Google’s reseller program, “we will continue to invest in resources, tools and training to help [them] succeed.”

Keeping focused and moving forward, Google will add new categorizations to aide customers in finding resellers that are expert in specific Google products. The stratification of resellers will permit “authorized and premier partners to inform customers of their expertise throughout the product sets.

The enhanced channel program also allows for authorized and premier resellers to attain status for the SMB or enterprise categories. Partners in the SMB category work with businesses that have 250 workers and under. The enterprise category consists of resellers catering to businesses with 250 workers and upward.

Requirements of the premier Google Apps partners are:

• Management of at least 15 business accounts
• Minimum of 150 end-user accounts
• Minimum of one certification in Google App

Premier level channel incentives include:

• Admission to Google’s NDA roadmaps
• Discounted pricing for in person and online certification training
• Invitation to guest blog on the company’s blog