Channel Partner Momentum on AWS Marketplace Drives Innovation and Digital Transformation for Customers

“AWS Partner Experience Transformation” is a blog series on updates to the AWS Partner Programs, AWS Marketplace, and Partner Central.

By Lauren Drigotas, AWS Marketplace Channel Program Manager – AWS

AWS Marketplace provides a new sales channel for independent software vendors (ISVs) and consulting partners to sell their solutions to AWS customers. It offers streamlined procurement, governance controls, and flexibility in pricing and payment terms that lead to time savings, cost savings, and procurement efficiencies.

We have seen more and more customers procuring third-party software and professional services through trusted Channel Partners on AWS Marketplace, enabling them to drive innovation and digital transformation. This, in turn, has led to Channel Partners accelerating business opportunities through AWS Marketplace.

In September 2023, AWS commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study to examine the business opportunity and return on investment (ROI) that Channel Partners can realize by building and scaling their AWS Marketplace practice. The TEI study found that Channel Partners are seeing larger deal sizes, net-new business, and accelerated sales cycles.

Presidio, an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and AWS Marketplace Channel Partner of the Year, has embraced AWS Marketplace and finds value in delivering third-party software and professional services to customers.

“Digital transformation doesn’t happen without procurement transformation, and AWS Marketplace provides the simplification and streamlined procurement, licensing, and invoicing our customers are looking for,” says Chris Cagnazzi, Presidio’s Chief Innovation Officer. “Presidio is excited to be recognized as the global AWS Marketplace Channel Partner of the Year for our role in helping customers drive innovation and build solutions on AWS.”

This post walks through the benefits Channel Partners like Presidio are realizing from AWS Marketplace, and highlights innovations that are leading to more momentum for all Channel Partners.

How Channel Partners Benefit from Selling in AWS Marketplace

From the TEI study, Forrester Consulting found the following key benefits reported by Channel Partners selling in AWS Marketplace:

• Richer deal sizes: Sellers reported a 4-5x increase in deal size when reselling third-party software through Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPOs).
• Increased net-new business: Interviewed Sellers saw private offers growing +133% year over year, with 40% of these private offers coming from net-new business.
• Accelerated sales cycle: Sellers reported up to 50% faster time to deal closure when selling in AWS Marketplace.

While Forrester found that AWS Marketplace had a strong impact on the top-line revenue of a Channel Partner’s business, the positive impact carried through to the bottom line as well. Sellers saw 234% ROI when selling in AWS Marketplace, which is driven by strong margins on professional services (37%) and software resale (13%).

“We’re utilizing Channel Partner Private Offers to encourage our clients to use AWS Marketplace for procurement transformation, spending analysis, and cost optimization through our PRISM FinOps AI Managed Service, as well as ease of use, consolidated billing, and visibility of Presidio’s professional services listings in the AWS Marketplace catalog,” says Chris Cagnazzi, Presido’s CIO.

In addition to the quantified benefits Forrester outlines in the TEI study, Channel Partners reported additional benefits such as reduced costs through invoicing efficiencies, ability to create new partnerships with ISVs, and an enhanced customer experience. Learn more and read the Forrester TEI study.

AWS Marketplace Innovations for Channel Partners

To continue to support Channel Partners, we are continuing to develop new initiatives and features that are increasing Channel Partner momentum on AWS Marketplace.

Onboarding New Channel Partners

These innovations support new Channel Partners that are interested in onboarding to AWS Marketplace to accelerate business growth:

• AWS Marketplace Training Academy courses: We announced role-specific courses for operations, sales, and alliance contacts through AWS Marketplace Training Academy for Channel Partners and channel-ready ISVs to learn how to transact through AWS Marketplace Channel. These courses provide on-demand enablement to make it easier to onboard teams to AWS Marketplace.
• AWS Marketplace Channel Journey: The AWS Marketplace Channel Journey provides guidance on building a strong, differentiated practice through AWS Marketplace. These resources further accelerate Channel Partners to transact and win new business through AWS Marketplace.
• AWS Marketplace JumpStart Channel Incentive: The AWS Marketplace JumpStart Channel Incentive is a 12-month performance-based incentive providing cash and promotional incentives to newly onboarded Channel Partners for achieving specific revenue goals on AWS Marketplace.

Grow and Scale Your Business

We launched these features to support Channel Partners with automation and integration, and expand their portfolio of professional services to transact:

• AWS Marketplace APIs: APIs allow AWS Marketplace Sellers to create, update, and manage products, offers, resale authorizations, and agreements. This provides the opportunity for Channel Partners to integrate the CPPO process into existing workflows and automate the offer process. These capabilities are also available with the AWS Partner CRM Connector to simplify the integration with AWS Marketplace.
• Offer-created programmatic notifications: Using Amazon EventBridge, Channel Partners can create an offer-released event to programmatically provide awareness that an AWS Marketplace offer has been created. This event communicates relevant details to appropriate stakeholders in an offer transaction, and Channel Partners can leverage this event type to scale their current business operations.

Seller Experience Enhancements

Finally, these innovations are enhancing the overall AWS Marketplace Seller experience:

• Daily disbursements: This new features enables Sellers to receive disbursements from AWS Marketplace purchases on a daily basis, rather than monthly, to reduce the time between buyers purchasing an AWS Marketplace product or service and receiving payment. This aligns AWS Marketplace payments to existing accounting processes and improves revenue recognition.
• Agreement and Renewal dashboard: The AWS Marketplace Agreement and Renewal dashboard provides a visualized reporting experience for all public and private offer agreements. It delivers the latest subscription information and provides a dashboard for Sellers to track expiring renewals to strengthen renewal motions.
• New payment options for Flexible Payment Scheduler: AWS Marketplace now offers more convenient methods of payment for customers leveraging flexible payment scheduler. Channel Partners can extend AWS Marketplace Private Offers or CPPOs to customers on any AWS-approved payment method, including credit cards, bank accounts, Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) network, or invoicing terms.

Get Started with AWS Marketplace

Channel Partners continue to see the procurement benefits of AWS Marketplace, and we are driving even more innovations to help all of our trusted Channel Partners onboard, build, and grow a successful AWS Marketplace business.

To experience the business benefits that Channel Partners have experienced on AWS Marketplace, start by checking out the AWS Marketplace Channel Journey and training your teams through AWS Marketplace Training Academy.