AWS re:Invent is AWS’ biggest cloud event of the year and somehow brings more energy and excitement each time. As we are still all adjusting from the pandemic and getting back to in-person events, the impact of re:Invent is increasingly clear. An organized chaos of customer and partner meetings, networking with both current and previous colleagues and friends, and conversations in every corner about best practices and learnings from the year. And of course, the big announcements and launches everyone is waiting to hear.
With no surprise to Tackle, the importance of Marketplace and co-selling was a key theme of AWS re:Invent 2023.
One of the beginning pieces shared in the Partner Keynote was around the power of Partners on the AWS Marketplace. A new Forrester study showed that AWS Partners that build and scale an AWS Marketplace practice can see a 234% return on investment, 50% faster deal closer, and 5x richer deal sizes.
AWS highlighted that in 2023, 21,000 new customer opportunities were launched by Partners, and AWS Marketplace released 30 new features (double last year!), with the promise of continued growth for Marketplace and co-selling.
Tackle was excited to see our priorities are continuing to align with AWS and the data they shared. AWS is focused on creating value for partners so they can co-create value for customers, and below are some of the key announcements to drive this:
1. AWS is continuing to invest and prioritize the AWS Marketplace, including announcing the lowering of listing fees.
When introducing the decreased listing fees in the Partner keynote, Ruba Borno, Vice President of AWS Worldwide Channels and Alliances, stated “Our mission is to make this your preferred route to market so you can capitalize on the opportunity to access hundreds of thousands of AWS active Marketplace customers.” They then announced the following listing fee updates:
- 3% private offers under $1M
- 2% private offers between $1M-10M
- 1.5% private offers greater than $10M
- 1.5% renewal fees for software and data private offers
A few Tackle customers were also highlighted, including CrowdStrike exceeding $1B in sales on the AWS Marketplace and Drata registering over 6K co-sell opportunities and closing over 1,000 Marketplace Private Offers.
Tackle has been in lock-step with AWS’ prioritization of Marketplace and co-selling and many customers are using Tackle Co-Sell to automate and operationalize.
2. Marketplace releases APIs for Sellers
AWS yet again showed the importance of Marketplace with the release of Marketplace APIs. This included a new set of Marketplace Catalog APIs for managing listings and Agreement APIs for creating Private Offers, Managing Private Offers, and authorizing Partners to take advantage of Private Offers. Tackle has worked closely with AWS since 2016 and is excited that AWS wants to make it easier for Partners to build on the Marketplace. Our product team is excited about the ability to innovate with the released APIs and to continue to build the best solutions possible.
3. Partners need tools and centralization to drive efficiency with AWS
AWS has listened to Partner’s asks for streamlining operations and has invested in ways to guide and centralize.
This includes the updated Partner Central which includes a personalized experience for users based on their roles and adding automated tasks and reminders. Alliance leads can also assign tasks to other users. The experience is tailored to the partner and where they are in their partner journey.
Additionally, Partner Matchmaking events with AWS announced multi-party collaborations to connect Partners and help build technology from multiple Partners to drive innovative solutions for customers.
4. Specialization is key for customer’s finding the right Partners to work with and AWS is prioritizing making that easier.
AWS has rebranded and consolidated the Competency, AWS Service Delivery, and AWS Service Ready Programs so they are all now under one umbrella. When you hear Specialization, it will now cover all 3 programs and will help customers more easily find those Partners. AWS also made standardized requirements across the programs to reduce the administrative work and manual burden on Partners.
Specific updates for the Program include:
- General Availability of the AWS Resilience Specialization – Partners can help customers meet their resilience responsibilities through a Standardized framework that includes design, operations, and recovery.
- General Availability of AWS Cyber Insurance Specialization – Using the AWS Security Hub, customers can quickly find insurers for the data they need to more effectively evaluate risk and security posture. Customers can find affordable policies and receive a quote within 2 business days.
5. Generative AI was everywhere. Almost every Partner on stage in the Partner Keynote was based around GenAI.
During the Partner Keynote, AWS stated that they want Partners to help as many of their customers take advantage of GenAI as possible. They launched Generative AI Center of Excellence focused on advancing customer applications on GenAI, which is now available in AWS Partner Central. It helps Partners:
- Familiarize with the wide range of generative AI offerings on AWS to maximize customer outcomes through guided learning pathways
- Specialize in developing industry specific GenAI practices and solutions. The center of excellence connects you with leaders across the APN that are already developing these applications.
- Build applications that go beyond optimization and understand considerations like fairness, privacy, and safety.
- Engage leverage data-driven insights and tools to accelerate your customers’ GenAI journeys.
In a recent Accenture survey, 97% of the C-suite indicated that they viewed generative AI as a transformative element in increasing their market share. AWS needed to figure out ways to help ISVs transform and adopt in their environment, which Accenture packaged with Amazon Que. Over the next two years, Accenture is committing to enable up to 50,000 of their developers on Amazon Que and CodeWhisper. In their encouragement to invest in GenAI, AWS also said they help Partners build their generative AI solutions with AWS faster with POCs, funding, subject matter experts, support and working backwards methodology.
Closing Thoughts
AWS re:Invent includes many announcements and updates each year. For more content, you can check out the watch on-demand page for recordings of the keynotes, innovation talks, and many of the breakout sessions that you can listen to or rewatch on your own time.
Tackle has been an AWS Partner since 2016 and works closely with AWS to help our joint customers drive their GTM through prospect scoring, co-selling automation, and Marketplace support. If you are interested in learning more about Tackle, please reach out to aws-cosell@tackle.io.
