A new Online Partner Enablement Network (OPEN) is now available globally, Red Hat says in a recent development. According to the company, the training and accreditation platform is designed to empower partners and supply them with the reliable guidance and technical information they need to assist customers in making sound technology decisions.
The company’s partner enablement initiatives are designed to make accreditations available to partners anytime of the day without them having to leave their homes or offices. This puts training in the control of partners and can greatly reduce time and expense enhancing partner satisfaction, says Red Hat. To enable partners in these areas, the network includes several features that aim to enhance partner skills, provide expanded accreditation options, and offer a one-stop repository for technical assets.
Rachel Cassidy, Vice President, Global Partner Enablement, Red Hat says, “OPEN combines tools, content and best practices to arm our partners with the role-based expertise they need to sell and deliver Red Hat solutions. The program was built in collaboration with our partners in an effort to build a truly effective program to help them be successful in building service practices to enhance their solution offerings available to their current and target customer base.”
OPEN includes role-specific, self-paced training accreditation for sales, sales engineers, and delivery engineers; the Partner Demo System, featuring pre-configured demos for the company’s portfolio of open hybrid cloud solutions and e-learning courses; and an online Red Hat Partner Technical Library that offers tagged, searchable, and dynamic content.
It also includes training courses that are designed to focus on developing role-based expertise and skills required to sell and deliver the company’s offerings. Partners can earn accreditation by taking a prescribed combination of training courses on the network. It features dozens of courses for partners, mainly aligned to three specialised tracks – Red Hat Sales Specialist Partner Accreditation, Red Hat Sales Engineer Accreditation and Red Hat Delivery Partner Accreditation.
The partner demo system within the network also offer partners an avenue to observe online product demonstrations and practice how to perform demos. These demo sessions are created by the company’s technical and sales experts, and partners can use them as stand-alone learning exercises or in conjunction with OPEN training courses. While currently only available in North America, the company plans to roll it out globally soon.
OPEN also offers a robust online technical library. Managed by Red Hat Solution Architects, the Partner Technical Library gives partners access to the same content as Red Hat sales engineering experts, from product basics to advanced technologies and solutions. The technical library features a database of resources, available for pre-sales, post-sales, and delivery teams. Items include roadmaps, presentations and collateral, use cases, reference architectures, performance benchmarks, videos, white papers and sales guides.
