Juniper Networks Demands Partner Commitment for New Enterprise+ Program

Juniper Networks just introduced its “biggest program ever” in a bid to increase enterprise sales.

The Enterprise+ program will run alongside the main Juniper Advantage Program (JPA), but will focus specifically on the enterprise.

Sander Groot is head of EMEA channels at Juniper.

Juniper Networks’ Sander Groot

“We have an enormous potential in the enterprise market. But we want to grow faster, and we want to have better reach,” said Groot.

The Juniper Networks Enterprise+ program launched with 86 partners worldwide, with 36 in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), and will stay capped at this figure. The main requirement is that partners sign up to a US $500,000 product target, over and above their signed-off business plan.

“This is the biggest program that we have ever launched, with the biggest funding that I’ve ever seen,” said Groot. “It’s a big commitment for the partners — this requires two companies to have very serious skin in the game and a willingness and capacity to drive lift in the enterprise space.”

The partner also needs to allocate two people to qualify: one for the pre-sales, technical side, and one for sales. They must also lead with Mist Systems, the AI-based, cloud-based wireless networks specialist which Juniper acquired in April 2019.

“We want them to be active with at least two Juniper specialisations, of which one must be Mist,” said Groot.

Partner Account Managers

In return, Juniper has strengthened its virtual sales operation, which will link every Enterprise+ partner with an allocated sales rep. The partner account manager will “quarterback” the entire engagement, but the rep will be “front and centre” on activity on non-named deals and lead generation.

The vendor will give partners two free all-access training passes, so they can train and recertify.

Juniper also is offering extra MDF investment linked to lead-gen campaigns around Mist/AI-driven enterprise, SD branch and data center.

Groot said most Enterprise+ partners will come from its Elite partner tier, but it only requires them to be Select partners.

Partner in the Enterprise+ program across EMEA include Computacenter, Insight, Hardware Group, Softcat, Axians, Infradata, Telent, nLogic and Bechtle.

Juniper also is keeping an open mind when it comes to potential enterprise customers.

“We value every type of input and we respect every type of view every type of customer,” said Groot.

“We want to penetrate further into the enterprise space, we want to drive more business. What we’re not looking for is to further strengthen the service provider business under this programme. This is us trying to get stronger in the enterprise market.”