Exclusive Interview: Puneet Chandok, President, AWS India & South Asia

In an exclusive interview with DQ Channels, Puneet Chandok, President of Commercial Business, AWS India & South Asia talked about AWS channel strategies, new partner program, and key focus areas for 2023 in 2023.

What is the channel vision of AWS India and how is it evolving its channel strategy in India?

AWS works with hundreds of thousands of customers globally and are supported by a robust partner ecosystem. We lead with the customer first and design our strategies to enable AWS Partners to deliver high-quality AWS solutions and services to joint customers. AWS provides partners with innovative programs and services to build and grow their businesses. AWS’s growing partner network is made up of two main categories – AWS Consulting Partners, and AWS Technology Partners. Technology partners provide software or hardware solutions that are either hosted on or integrated with the AWS Cloud. Consulting partners design, build, and/or manage solutions on the AWS Cloud.

We work with our partners across our country and across all sectors. For example, AWS has worked closely with Indian software partner, WorkApps, to help Indian banks and financial services providers drive remote customer engagement and verification through their Video KYC solution. AWS supported WorkApps to enable a reduction of cost and time by 90% while enabling the scaling up of customer engagements to a million monthly customer verifications. AWS and WorkApps jointly have created and secured deals across 10 Indian banks and financial services firms in 2020 and are doing about 1 million KYCs a month in India today. Another example is Innovaccer Inc, which helps healthcare providers deliver more efficient and effective services through data analytics. To reduce costs while improving scalability, Innovaccer decided to offer cloud-based versions of its data platform. By using AWS, Innovaccer offers customers a healthcare data platform that can be scaled on demand—delivering a more cost-effective solution. Through this, Innovaccer was able to deliver an 81% saving in hardware costs to their customers as well as cut IT management costs by 75%.

Our vision is to enable our Indian partners to grow their businesses together with our customers and support them throughout their journey to become profitable businesses. AWS India aims to expand its partner network across the country by collaborating with channel partners to deliver AWS services and solutions to customers and to work with partners who can deliver a comprehensive range of services, including consulting, migration, deployment, and management of AWS workloads.

Can you give us a brief on any new partner programs?

The AWS Partner Network (APN) is the global partner program for technology and consulting businesses that leverage Amazon Web Services to build solutions and services for AWS customers. The APN helps companies build, market, and sell their AWS offerings by providing valuable business, technical, and marketing support. Here are some of the programs through which we enable our partner network:

• The AWS Partner Network (APN) Customer Engagements Program is a program that enables AWS customers to identify and engage with qualified APN Consulting Partners for specific AWS projects and workloads. By leveraging this program, customers can ensure that they have the right partner for their specific needs, and partners can gain access to new business opportunities and expand their expertise in delivering AWS services and solutions.
• AWS ISV Accelerate Program: This program is designed for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who build and market software solutions on AWS. ISVs can receive technical, marketing, and sales support from AWS to help them grow their businesses and reach more customers.
• AWS Competency Program: The AWS Competency Program validates and promotes AWS Partners with demonstrated AWS technical expertise and proven customer success. Attaining an AWS Competency helps partners market and differentiate their business to AWS customers by showcasing their capabilities in specialized areas across industries, use cases, and workloads.
• AWS Marketplace Channel Programs: Simplifies how Partners work together to sell software. Both ISV and Consulting Partners can leverage AWS Marketplace Channel Programs to expand reach, accelerate deal closure, optimize cost, and extend value to AWS Customers.
• SaaS Factory Program: For our Technology partners, we have a broad range of business and technical enablement resources to build, migrate and optimize Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions on AWS.

These are just a few examples of the new AWS partner programs that have been launched recently. AWS is continuously expanding its partner ecosystem and developing new programs to help partners succeed and better serve their customers.

How is AWS enabling partner growth through training and certifications?

AWS recognizes that partner success is key to its own success, and offers a comprehensive range of training and certification programs to enable its partners to grow and succeed on the AWS platform. Here are some of the ways that AWS is enabling partner growth through training and certifications:

• AWS Training and Certification: AWS offers a range of training and certification programs that partners can leverage to build their skills and expertise in delivering AWS solutions and services. The AWS Training and Certification program provides training courses, certification exams, and other resources to help partners build and validate their skills, and to help them differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
• AWS Partner Network (APN) Partner Training: The APN Partner Training program offers free, online training courses that are designed specifically for APN partners. The program includes courses on AWS services and solutions, as well as best practices for building and managing AWS workloads. The training helps partners stay up-to-date with the latest AWS technologies and best practices and enables them to deliver high-quality solutions and services to their customers.

AWS Certification Voucher Program: AWS also offers the AWS Certification Voucher Program, which provides APN partners with discounted vouchers for AWS certification exams. This program helps partners reduce their certification costs and enables them to demonstrate their expertise in delivering AWS solutions and services. Through these training and certification programs, AWS is enabling its partners to build their skills and expertise in delivering AWS solutions and services and to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. By investing in partner growth and enabling their success, AWS is helping its partners to deliver high-quality solutions and services to their customers and to contribute to the growth and success of the AWS ecosystem.

What are the biggest challenges facing partners in 2023?

Partners are essential in driving the ongoing digital transformation of organizations, as customers seek to enhance the speed, accessibility, security, and resilience of their systems and data. Earlier this year, our Global Public Sector partner leader Jeff Kratz predicted that specialization, solution-oriented tools, and cybersecurity are going to be important for partners. Looking ahead, we anticipate the following challenges for partners who support customers this year.

• We anticipate a rise in solution-oriented tools as organizations seek to solve problems in a fast and cost-effective manner. In 2023, we expect more organizations to seek end-to-end solutions instead of individual building blocks. AWS partners are experiencing an increase in customer demand for solutions that support critical public services such as transportation, voting, traffic, and waste management. Some AWS partners have already made significant progress in delivering these solutions.
• Specialization is crucial to stay relevant and competitive. Partners who specialize in cloud competencies will be well-positioned to meet the customer needs of tomorrow and earn their trust. AWS Competency Partners have the experience and expertise to help companies achieve key business objectives by leveraging the depth and breadth of Amazon Web Services (AWS) products and services. The AWS Competency Program validates and promotes AWS Partners with demonstrated AWS technical expertise and proven customer success in categories such as workloads (i.e. Microsoft, Oracle, SAP), industries (i.e. retail, manufacturing, etc), or use cases (such as AI/ML, analytics, migration, DevOps, etc).
• Cybersecurity needs are expected to grow in 2023, as organizations continue to move their operations to the cloud and face evolving threats from cybercriminals. To address this growing need, AWS is providing their partners with a range of tools and services to help them deliver secure solutions to their customers. AWS provides a variety of built-in security features, such as identity and access management, network security, and encryption, to help partners ensure the security of their customer's data. For example, one such service is Amazon Security Lake launched during re: Invent 2022, which brings together security data from the cloud, on-premises, and custom sources in a purpose-built data lake stored in your account. The service automates the sourcing, aggregation, normalization, enrichment, and management of security-related data across an entire organization for more efficient storage and query performance.
• Partners are expected to ramp up their adoption of AI and ML to achieve critical outcomes such as making more informed and accurate decisions by analyzing large amounts of data and identifying patterns and trends. Previously, customers primarily migrated to the cloud for cost savings and increased efficiencies by hosting websites and storing data. Today, organizations realize the additional benefits and potential of cloud computing and they are leveraging the cloud for more advanced technologies that promote innovation and drive greater efficiencies. AI and ML technology is increasingly being evaluated and adopted by organizations, not merely as a "nice-to-have," but for business-critical purposes.

By harnessing the power of the cloud, partners can assist organizations in providing personalized and efficient citizen services, fortifying their cybersecurity, and fulfilling their essential missions.

What are your key focus areas for 2023 from a partner perspective?

AWS is committed to helping its partners succeed by providing them with the tools, resources, and expertise they need to build successful businesses. One of the key ways AWS does this is by offering partner competencies, which are industry-recognized designations that validate a partner's expertise in specific areas.

AWS offers a range of programs and initiatives to help new partners get started and grow their businesses. For example, the AWS Partner Network (APN) provides partners with access to a global network of resources and support, including technical and business training, co-selling opportunities, and marketing and sales resources.

Lastly, AWS will continue to help its partners be profitable by providing them with a range of resources and programs designed to help them grow their businesses and increase revenue. For example, AWS offers a range of programs to help partners build and market their solutions, including the AWS Marketplace, which allows partners to sell their solutions directly to AWS customers.