Slack Can’t Do It Alone
While Slack has long worked with
technology integration partners, this “is a new type of [partnership] … focused on systems integrators and consultants,” said Rich Hasslacher, head of global GTM alliances and channels, Slack, during a No Jitter briefing.
The reason why Slack is rolling out a services partner program is simple: Slack can’t do it all. As enterprises look for ways to “change how their knowledge workers are working,” they’re driving demand for support services that “go beyond” what Slack can provide, Hasslacher said. Through the partnership, Slack customers that need help building custom workflows and integrations, managing change, or with training, for example, will be able to find expert resources, he said. Additionally, Slack plans on expanding its admin and dev certification program to include services like “value consulting,” Hasslacher added.
The First of Many
While Hasslacher hinted at more partners in the future, Slack’s preliminary list of global services partners includes three U.S., two U.K., and two Japanese regional service providers. The U.S. service providers are:
- Robots & Pencils – Long-standing Slack partner, Robots & Pencils can help enterprises build Slack platform integrations.
- Cprime – Blending Agile and cloud expertise, Cprime aims to help teams define new ways to collaborate on Slack through Atlassian integrations.
- Onix –Onix specializes in Google integrations.
U.K. region users can utilize Rainmaker and Adaptavist services, and Japan region users can receive Abeam Consulting and Ricksoft services through Slack’s partnership.
Slack plans to extend the Global Services Partner Program beyond the U.S., U.K, and Japan markets to Europe (France and Germany), Australia, and Latin America in February 2020, Hasslacher said.
Slack is also sweetening the deal for partners through a referral program. With the program, partners that refer business to Slack will receive a percentage off their first year’s annual contract. The benefits to Slack are clear; partners will serve as “pipeline” to boost Slack adoption, Hasslacher said.