AWS re:Invent 2023 Partner News: Marketplace, Salesforce, Certs, More
Channel Futures is sifting through the onslaught of news to bring partners the announcements most immediately relevant to your businesses.
![AWS re:Invent 2023 partner news AWS re:Invent 2023 partner news](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltc4ecf00f4e708d42/6567a5fb6778ef040a6a70a8/AWS_News.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
pixfly/Shutterstock
Recall the introduction where we pointed out the theme of simplification through automation. AWS has brought that to life for partners who sell on AWS Marketplace Private Offers and who also rely on Salesforce.
Now, instead of clicking between the two interfaces, there’s a new API that combines partners’ sales data with Private Offers.
“[Y]ou can .. manage your customer pipeline, but also manage your Marketplace private offers from within your own Salesforce using our CRM connector,” Matt Yanchyshyn, general manager, Marketplace and Partner Engineering, AWS, told Channel Futures this week.
The bottom line?
“[Y]ou can use your own tools to manage your AWS partner business without having to log into Partner Central,” Yanchyshyn said. “[T]hat’s huge, because … that sales leader, that alliance manager, could sit in front of the CRM, manage their Marketplace Private Offers, manage their sales pipeline for AWS, and maybe they have other stuff going on in the CRM … and they don't have to flip between them anymore.”
In other words, the AWS Partner CRM Connector for Salesforce lets sellers use their own workflows to send offers to AWS Marketplace buyers, avoiding the need to re-create the same offer in the seller's Salesforce environment.
Speaking of APIs, though, this isn’t the only one debuted at AWS re:Invent. There also are four new catalog APIs for operations, allowing partners to create, update, view or filter products, offers and resale authorizations. But the most exciting API is different.
If you’re a channel partner looking to “create your own experiences” and turn “highly intentioned” prospects into buyers, as Yanchyshyn put it, then keep reading.
Think about prospective customers scrolling through the many offerings on AWS Marketplace. Say someone accesses the EKS Console. This person is probably a Kubernetes expert looking to deploy a cluster.
“They're looking for a third-party solution for Kubernetes,” Yanchyshyn explained. “By the time they land on that listing, they are super highly intelligent buyers.”
The conversion rates AWS sees for such procurers falls in the double digits, Yanchyshyn said.
But conversion rates drop when a prospect gets pushed out to the larger Marketplace site to finish a purchase.
“We're gonna lose them; the churn is huge,” Yanchyshyn said.
AWS intends to resolve that problem with the new AWS Marketplace Agreement API.
Go to the next slide to learn more about the new connector and how it benefits partners.
Remember what Yanchyshyn said about partners creating their own experiences? The AWS Marketplace Agreement API supports that, primarily by integrating the selling process into the partner’s applications and workflows.
So, instead of a potential buyer being pushed back into the overall Marketplace site to finish a purchase, the prospect stays within the partner’s Marketplace listing.
This could open up all kinds of horizons for partners, Yanchyshyn said. For example, “they can start to build Marketplace-routed procurement motions, maybe on their own websites,” he said.
Get more details about the AWS Marketplace Agreement API on the next slide.
The AWS Marketplace Agreement API allows partners to list, search and filter agreements, and view terms, pricing, renewals, entitlements or invoices. It also features integrated reporting and customized notifications.
Overall, the API is a big deal, Yanchyshyn said.
“It gives our consulting partners or ISVs the opportunity to build their own mini marketplaces,” he said.
Note, though, that this does not mean a white-label marketplace.
“These APIs don't let you build a marketplace — they just let you surface Marketplace listings,” Yanchyshyn said. “That is a pretty big step for us from an API programmability [perspective], waiting to see what the customers and partners build with it.”
Next, find out what’s new around cyber insurance.
As ransomware attacks and other breaches hit companies in unrelenting waves, businesses are finding that they must now have cyber insurance. But sifting through all the terms and conditions, and landing on the right choice, poses challenges.
AWS came to re:Invent with a solution: the general availability of the Cyber Insurance Competency.
Here, certified partners including At-Bay Cyber Insurance, Cowbell Cyber Insurance, Marsh Cyber Accelerate and Measured Cyber Insurance offer affordable policies to end users (SMBs, in particular). And, the offerings comply with AWS standards.
“What we're bringing to the table is helping [everyone] speak the same language,” Ryan Orsi, worldwide head of Cloud Foundation Partners, told Channel Futures.
These insurers meet AWS’ standards for assessment and onboarding processes, and they reward customers for adhering to various security postures that meet AWS best practices. The idea is similar to the “safe driver” discounts offered by vehicle insurers.
“We would love every customer to operate as securely as possible,” Orsi said. “That's our No. 1 priority here. But their customers obviously have to run a business. So to have an extra to have a third party like an insurance company involved with us, going into the market with us, providing that financial incentive in exchange for good security and hygiene, it’s truly a win-win.”
Finally, we close out this AWS partner-news slideshow with a look at two new competencies.
Stuff’s gonna happen. Whether by human error, malicious attack, natural disaster, war or some other factor, cloud workloads will fail.
The question, then, becomes twofold: How do businesses prevent problems, as much as possible, and bounce back when something does go wrong?
AWS wants to address those issues with its new Resilience Competency. This certification brings specialized partners to the forefront. These partners deliver consulting and engineering that simulates — then remediates — failures before they actually occur, and provide solutions with high availability.
Launch partners include Deloitte, Hitachi Vantara, Accenture and Kyndryl, among a number of others. Each of these companies gets go-to-market support and subject matter experts from AWS as needed for engagements.
Note that end users can choose to team with AWS’ professional services team directly for resilience analysis and resolution.
On the last slide, find out what another new competency means for partners.
Think about deploying cloud software for your customers. The timeline can stretch into weeks or even months, largely because of configuration, operational, security and other issues.
AWS wants to reduce that lag, by a lot. And channel partners such as system integrators can take the lead.
Earning the new AWS Built-In Competency will certify partners to automatically deploy AWS services with the partner software, cutting down on implementation time because the process is fully automated.
What does that look like in practical terms?
“To put it plainly, if [partners] could do 10 Trend Micro deployments in a day, they can do 100 at the same time, using junior engineers,” Orsi explained.
Built-In Competency launch partners include CloudCheckr, CrowdStrike, IBM, Orca Security, Sumo Logic, Trend Micro, Wiz and more.
Think about deploying cloud software for your customers. The timeline can stretch into weeks or even months, largely because of configuration, operational, security and other issues.
AWS wants to reduce that lag, by a lot. And channel partners such as system integrators can take the lead.
Earning the new AWS Built-In Competency will certify partners to automatically deploy AWS services with the partner software, cutting down on implementation time because the process is fully automated.
What does that look like in practical terms?
“To put it plainly, if [partners] could do 10 Trend Micro deployments in a day, they can do 100 at the same time, using junior engineers,” Orsi explained.
Built-In Competency launch partners include CloudCheckr, CrowdStrike, IBM, Orca Security, Sumo Logic, Trend Micro, Wiz and more.
AWS RE:INVENT — The avalanche of news coming out of AWS re:Invent 2023 is, in a word, overwhelming.
To that end, then, Channel Futures is sifting through the onslaught to bring partners the announcements most immediately relevant to your businesses. This slideshow, coming on the heels of AWS channel chief Ruba Borno’s keynote speech on Nov. 29, showcases some of the more impactful developments.
One of the key thematic threads running through AWS re:Invent 2023 has to do with simplifying processes through automation. Not only can this deliver more all-in-one insight but it can make many mundane tasks obsolete for people — freeing them to focus on work that really matters. Automation also speeds up end-user deployments.
With all of that in mind, AWS re:Invent 2023 features some big developments from the automation end. For example, if you sell via AWS Marketplace Private Offers and use Salesforce, you’ll want to take note. If you implement software for customers and find that timelines can take too long, you’ll also want to find out what’s new.
But there’s much more to explore, including understanding how to turn AWS Marketplace into your own mini marketplace. There’s also news around cyber insurance for your customers and, along those lines, ways to help businesses make their cloud workloads more resilient.
As AWS re:Invent 2023 wraps up its second full day, get the scoop in our slideshow above on what the world’s largest cloud computing provider is doing for channel partners, from system integrators and managed service providers to consultants and value-added resellers.
Read more about:
MSPsAbout the Author(s)
You May Also Like