ServiceNow Revamps Partner Program, Promotes Erica Volini to Lead Channel

ServiceNow has tapped Erica Volini to lead the company’s global channels. In her first act as ServiceNow’s channel leader, Volini on Tuesday revealed that the company is revamping its partner program.

ServiceNow’s Erica Volini

Volini is replacing David Parsons as senior vice president of alliances and channel ecosystem. Parsons, who led ServiceNow’s channel for over four years, has a new role charting geographic expansion opportunities for the company.

ServiceNow announced the changes at its Partner Kickoff event in Las Vegas.  Volini joined ServiceNow in 2021 as senior vice president of go-to-market operations after 23 years as a senior partner at Deloitte. During her last year at Deloitte, Volini was chief commercial officer for its relationship with ServiceNow.

Volini worked closely with CEO Bill McDermott, who recruited her to join ServiceNow. “When I came over, it was clear that there was a huge opportunity to do transformation, which is my specialty, having been a lifelong consultant, and the partner world felt like a good place to start,” Volini told Channel Futures. Speaking just before the Partner Kickoff, Volini said ServiceNow is “resetting and transforming” the program, which launches on March 6.

The changes include “addressing some of the process and technology and operational gaps that we had in the partner world — everything from our deal registration process, to how we manage deployments, to what our portal looks like,” Volini said. “That includes the underlying infrastructure, process, policy and technology.”

Core Program Changes

The program lets partners classify themselves among four segments: Build, Consulting and Implementation, Resale and Service Provider. According to Volini, partners can identify themselves as one, a few or all of those segments.

ServiceNow will maintain its existing partner tiers: Registered, Specialist, Premier, Elite and Global Elite. But for Build partners, ServiceNow has created different tiers that identify them based on their platform competency.

One significant change is that ServiceNow will require partners to qualify for each tier based on their qualifications in for each segment. Until now, ServiceNow recognized a partner that reached a certain status across the different segments. “Now you’re going to have to obtain that segment status for each of the four motions,” Volini said.

Volini said the upside for partners is that they can better distinguish their capabilities. “A partner could say, ‘I really want to be Elite in Consulting and Implementation, but I’m okay to stay registered in Resell, and I’m going to become a specialist in service provider,’” she said. “It lets partners decide where they want to focus, and it’s easier for our customers and our field to find the partners they need specifically for what they need to get done.”

Partner Requirements

Within each motion, Volini said ServiceNow would measure partners based on added account contract value (ACV) from new and existing customers. Also, ServiceNow will measure customer success thresholds based on customer satisfaction scores. ServiceNow will also require partners to …