F5 Launches Unity+ Channel Partner Program to Help Drive Business Growth and Win-Win

Recently, F5 Networks, a global application delivery network and security service provider, announced an F5 Unity+ program, an innovative channel program designed to promote continuous growth and win-win with partners. Unity+ strengthens the incentive mechanism with partners, helps them explore new sources of revenue, promotes closer collaboration between the two parties, and helps customers complete technology transformation.

In response, F5 said that the importance of partners to the enterprise is self-evident. The plan is based on F5's current successful channel priority plan, providing partners with new ways to increase partners' flexibility through initiatives such as joint marketing activities.

“Digital transformation in Asia is rapidly changing the way customers buy and consume technology, which in turn is changing the business models of partners in the market,” said Gabriel Breeman, vice president of partner sales and alliances for Asia Pacific, China and Japan at F5. “As companies in Asia actively undergo digital transformation, we see Unity+ providing the agility and flexibility our partners need to help them quickly deliver customer experiences.”

The Unity+ program is designed specifically to meet the changes in the market, F5 and partner business models. It will effectively help partners improve profitability, encourage them to expand their revenue models beyond the traditional subscription model, and invest in new strategic areas. At the same time, partners can get support from F5's field sales team, new tools, and flexible training and business opportunities.

“The simplicity and flexibility of Unity+ demonstrates F5’s understanding of the needs of the channel ecosystem in an ever-changing market landscape,” said Joko Gunawan, Chairman of PT Mastersystem Infotama. “We believe Unity+ will provide us with the tools necessary to better respond to the diverse needs of our customers in Asia Pacific while accelerating their pace of innovation.”

The Unity+ program creates conditions for all partners to use F5's leading product portfolio to serve their respective customers. They can flexibly provide F5 solutions based on their understanding of customer needs and align the transaction model with their core business. Partners who join the Unity+ program will continue to enjoy the generous support provided by F5, such as generous bonuses and sales incentives, financial support for market development, and support from on-site channel sales teams and services.

“Partners play a key role in F5’s overall growth strategy and we benefit greatly from their deep understanding of local markets, and Unity+ reflects our long-term commitment to partners,” said Breeman. “In fact, the capabilities demonstrated in this program are the result of F5’s continuous learning from feedback from partners around the world. As a channel-centric company, we believe that partner feedback is critical to helping them better use the right tools to meet business development needs, serve our mutual customers through flexible subscription models, better handle differentiated registrations, and obtain easy-to-consume sales and pre-sales technical learning paths.

It is reported that the upgraded version of Unity+ will be officially implemented in 2020. In the next few years, as F5 and its partners develop new marketing paths and deploy sales and marketing tools, Unity+ will continue to iterate. Partners' identities from the previous year will continue to be valid, but they will determine whether they are qualified for the 2021 fiscal year based on the requirements of the new Unity+ program.