Aryaka Channel Pipeline Increased 88% in 2023

Focused partnerships with technology services distributors (TSDs) and global resellers propelled sales growth for managed SD-WAN and SASE provider Aryaka in 2023, according to the company.

Channel partners accounted for 85% of the San Mateo, California-based vendor's revenue in 2023, growing from 73% the prior year. Moreover, global channel pipeline has increased 88%, with a 113% increase in North America and a 167% increase in Asia Pacific.

Actively selling partners increased 34% in North America in 2023, the vendor said.

Aryaka's Craig Patterson

Senior vice president of global sales Craig Patterson said the improvements stem from investments Aryaka has made in key partners going back to 2021. Notably, 79% of Aryaka revenue came from strategic partners in the company's Drive program. That program includes tech services distributors Avant, Telarus, Intelisys and Bridgepointe, German carrier Deutsche Telekom and Japanese technology provider SoftBank.

A Renewal

Patterson said Aryaka was generating around $250,000 in monthly channel pipeline when he joined the company in 2021. Patterson noted in a previous interview with Channel Futures that although Aryaka had established agreements with TSDs, activity had fallen off.

"We didn't have a well-defined program at all. Aryaka had a channel strategy, but they didn't really have any programs associated with it," Patterson said.

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Revamping the channel started by hiring people that Patterson said knew the channel better. Those hires included global partner marketing Nicole Steele, vice president of channel sales Matt Thompson and most recently, EMEA sales vice president Jon Selway.

Aryaka Agency Model

TSDs form a core piece of Aryaka's channel and one of the first areas of renewed investment the vendor undertook when Patterson joined the company in 2021.

Patterson said Aryaka initially focused its efforts on a targeted group of TSDs.

"We started to get very specific and focused around the TSDs that we thought were going to generate the most results. Because for companies like us, we cannot go out and try to be all things to all partners," Patterson said. "We don't have enough money. We don't have enough resources. We don't have enough time."

TSDs work with technology advisors (agents) who source services and software to business customers. Vendors such as Aryaka handle the managed services and billing, while providing a residual commission to the referring agent.

That model has seen particularly explosive growth, according to Patterson. Aryaka partner of the year Avant grew sales by 43% year-over-year, according to Aryaka. And Telarus grew its pipeline by more than 1,000%, to $3.6 million.

Aryaka shares numbers on pipeline in part because of the lengthy sales cycle of its solutions. Although the company's recent addition of a more midmarket friendly platform has made it possible for some deals to close in 90-100 days, Aryaka often services multilocation and multinational enterprises. The deal Aryaka and Spearhead Advisors closed with Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific, for example, started 18 months ago.

Aryaka one year ago announced that it was making lead generation available. The four participating TSDs nominate five technology advisors who will receive hot leads from Aryaka's business development reps.

That "Throttle" program appears to have exited its beta phase. Patterson said Aryaka will expand its business development resources to scale the initiative. That's due to the number of leads that partners are bringing to Aryaka.

"They're reciprocating at a much higher pace back to us than we have been able to generate to them. It just goes to show that if you build a partnership and build a strategy together and both sides are doing their part, the sum of the parts is greater than than a single piece of the equation," Patterson told Channel Futures in an interview.

Resellers and the Aryaka Channel

Aryaka in early 2023 announced a program dedicated to resellers, whose model works quite differently than that of agents, particularly in terms of services and compensation. The Ignyte program helped Aryaka grow relationships with systems integrators and value-added resellers in EMEA and APAC.

Approximately 138 EMEA resellers are registered with Aryaka, and Patterson said the vendor is focusing on re-onboarding those members on a one-by-one basis.

"They're starting to generate some really healthy demand-gen back to us and some healthy pipeline, he said. "You'll see more of that in our back half of the year as we continue to focus on Europe."