Unified analytics provider Databricks Thursday launched its Accelerate Impact Partner Program geared toward consulting partners and SIs.

Through the global program, partners can leverage Databricks’ “unified analytics expertise, comprehensive training programs and global team to empower customers,” the company said.

Databricks’ Michael Hoff

Michael Hoff, Databricks’ senior vice president of business development and partners, tells Channel Partners this is the company’s first partner program designed specifically for consulting and SI partners.

“Until recently, Databricks focused on cloud and software partners,” he said. “With our new program and expanded team we are now working with many of the leading global, regional and boutique consulting and SI partners. Enterprise customers know that an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven business strategy is required to survive and thrive in the market. With more enterprise customers adopting our unified analytics platform for big data and AI, we started to see that consulting and SI partners were playing an important role in defining these business strategies, influencing technology choices, and providing skilled people to deliver projects. Our program is designed to create a flywheel effect of customer and partner success.”

During the past year, Databricks has supported client engagements with more than 70 consulting partners – such as Accenture, Capgemini and Cognizant globally; Clarity and Neudesic in the United States; and Elastacloud and Big Data Republic in the EMEA; and SIs – across various markets.

“Customers typically see value within weeks of adopting Databricks compared with the months or years from complex legacy technologies,” Hoff said. “In fact, a recent Databricks survey found that it is taking businesses more than six months to go from concept to production. Our partners know the most valuable customer use cases and, in many cases, the processes and systems that are required to realize the value of big data and AI. Our partners want to be a trusted adviser to their customers.”

Databricks has benefited from rapid adoption of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, he said.

“As the leading platform for big data and AI in the cloud, we have seen overwhelming customer demand for our technology,” Hoff said. “In many cases, when we start working with partners, they have already seen Databricks land in their accounts. Once adopted, the platform expands and is used for more and more use cases across lines of business — it spreads virally in an organization. When partners identify use cases and work with Databricks, they will have access to the expertise, training and support needed to help their customers be successful.”

Databricks often sells to business stakeholders who are looking for outcomes, and it has identified the patterns in customer adoption and is working with partners to …

… “build solutions that are targeted to reach outcomes more quickly,” he said. Partners that build AI-driven industry offerings likely will dominate the market in the coming years, he said.

“We hear from partners that the biggest barrier to customer adoption of big data and AI is talent,” Hoff said. “Data engineers and data scientists are among the most high-demand skills in the market. Many customers find it nearly impossible to recruit and retain this talent. Our program includes training designed by the original creators of Apache Spark and helps partners grow these skills organically and address their customer needs.”

“Capgemini has seen rapid adoption of Databricks’ unified analytics platform with our clients,” said Goutham Belliappa, vice president of the cognitive, AI and big-data practice for Capgemini North America. “This is being driven by client demand for solutions powered by big data on AI on the cloud. Capgemini and Databricks established our partnership earlier this year to help clients modernize their digital estate for AI. We are particularly excited about the investments Databricks has made to train partners at scale and bring together cloud platforms and software partners to help customers on their journey. Together Capgemini and Databricks are best positioned to drive AI and Digital efforts at the world’s largest organizations.”