**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of April’s important channel-program changes you should know.**

Salesforce, the cloud computing giant, is unifying its partner programs to more easily distinguish partners that consistently deliver under their respective tiers and enhance the customer experience.

Marketing Cloud resellers, referral partners and consulting partners are moving into the Salesforce Consulting Partner Program. Also, HubExchange partners are moving into the Salesforce ISV Partner Program and onto the AppExchange business apps marketplace.

Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, Salesforce’s senior vice president of partner programs and marketing, tells Channel Partners the transition will increase opportunities for Marketing Cloud partners to expand sales with other Salesforce products, “while also being able to highlight to customers their unique expertise with Marketing Cloud solutions.”

“We’re making these changes based on customer and partner feedback,” she said. “Customers have asked for more insight into partner capabilities and for more consistency across partner programs so that it’s easier for them to find the right partner for a given project, which have become more cross-product and transformational. Salesforce has built the largest enterprise cloud ecosystem in the world, and as we’ve grown, our partners have asked for more clarity on program tiers, more enablement tools and support, and more ways to distinguish their unique capabilities in the marketplace.”

Partners moving into the Salesforce Consulting Partner Program will benefit in three primary ways: new opportunities, new designations and new program benefits, such as Sales Cloud licenses, technical support case packs, go-to-market support and eligibility for Fullforce initiatives and Fast Forward Enablement Boot Camps delivered in person, in key cities globally.{ad}

“By becoming a Salesforce ISV partner, they’ll gain access to the world’s leading business apps marketplace,” Taychakhoonavudh said. “Eighty-five percent of Fortune 100 companies have installed at least one AppExchange App and 79 percent of customers use partner apps.”

By June 30, all Marketing Cloud partners will automatically become provisional members of the Consulting Partner Program, with a one-year period to fully transition into the program. Also, former HubExchange partners will begin to transition to the Salesforce ISV Partner Program over the coming months.

“Partners play a key role in delivering customer success and we’re seeing incredible innovation and momentum across our ecosystem,” Taychakhoonavudh said. “According to IDC data, by 2018, Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners will create 1 million jobs and generate $272 billion in gross domestic product impact worldwide.”