Rubrik Velocity: Rubrik Intros First Formal Channel Program

Rubrik, a developer of automated data protection and data management technologies for hybrid cloud environments, Thursday unveiled its first formal channel program.

While Rubrik focuses 100 percent of its sales on indirect sales channels, the company has never had a formal channel program, said Bertrand Yansouni, vice president of worldwide channels for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.

Instead, Rubrik has worked with partners to develop their business in a less formal fashion, Yansouni told CRN.

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"Before Velocity, a lot of the same concepts applied, but they weren't formal," he said. “There was no formal tiering, no formal benefits. But it worked. But as a maturing company, we got feedback from our partners that they needed guidelines."

The new Rubrik Velocity partner program formalizes three different tiers. The tier a partner lands on depends on a combination of the competencies, both sales and technical, the partner has attained, and their revenue, Yansouni said.

Actual requirements for the tiers will vary among geographies and different sizes of partners to give smaller channel partners the opportunity to compete with their larger peers, he said.

"Not every partner looks the same," Yansouni said. "They have different sizes, and different territories. So we also introduced partner categories. In the U.S., we have national and regional partners. They have different levels of competency and sales. So we're creating more equal opportunities."

Along with the new tiers, Rubrik has also formalized its tiered discounts, Yansouni said. "For partners at higher tiers, we'll bring our business to them and reward them for their investments."

Also new is the Rubrik Academy, the company's first formal training program. Yansouni said Rubrik Academy offers training for partner sales agents, pre-sales engineers and post-sales engineers aimed at helping them quickly become accredited.

"This is major investment for Rubrik," he said. "I'm a huge believer in investment in enablement, especially tech enablement. The best way to gain the hearts of the channel community is via their technical people."

To augment the training, Rubrik has also built a new channel systems engineering organization with technical people in its pre-sales business dedicated to working with channel partners, Yansouni said.

"All our SEs [systems engineers] and sales leads are involved with the channel," he said. "But I wanted to ensure we had a group of technical people dedicated to our partners."

Rubrik also rolled out a series of bi-weekly webinars, called BrikCasts, to help partners gain technical or sales skills. "The best partners want to know the technology in and out," Yansouni said.

As part of the rollout of Rubrik Velocity, the company has also beefed up its partner rewards, including its first formal deal registration program, a series of quarterly or bi-quarterly contests, and rebates for the highest tier of partners.

"We originally were thinking of offering rebates for the top two tiers," Yansouni said. "But we see a group of partners going above and beyond. So we'll reward them for specific deals, maybe above a certain size, or for opportunities the partners source on their own."

Rubrik also set up its first technical advisory board as a way for channel partners to shape their business, he said.

"We also want to bring certain partners into our new-hire boot camps," he said. "This will let partners get truly embedded into the Rubrik experience. We want them to come in like they were a new Rubrik employee to learn."

Rubrik from a technology perspective has been a model of simplicity, said Manny Punzo, director of data protection and management at Technologent, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider and three-years-long channel partner of Rubrik.

"Customers look for simplicity," Punzo told CRN. "They want things [to be] less complex to manage. Rubrik hits the nail on the head for simplicity from implementation to management."

The vendor is also looking to bring some of that simplicity to its Rubrik Velocity channel program, Punzo said. For instance, he said, the program makes it easy for partners to see where they stand versus their peers.

"When we partner with vendors, we want to see where we rank," he said. "I can't measure that myself. But now Rubrik has a program in place to show from a revenue perspective where we fit and what our benefits are."

The Rubrik Academy will also be a big benefit to partners, Punzo said.

"Before the Velocity program, to get certified we had to do a few shadow deployments, then do some on our own, and then get certified," he said. "Rubrik Academy is important for getting our technical people up to speed. And it tells Rubrik how many people at our company are certified, which shows them our investment in Rubrik."

One thing the Rubrik Velocity program does not change is how easy Rubrik is to work with from the channel perspective, Punzo said.

"I can go direct to a product manager if I have a problem," he said. "There aren't 15 layers of people to navigate. Things get turned around quickly."