Services partners, from MSPs to CSPs, VARs, and even software companies, are expected to do more than just deliver great service. They’re expected to generate new pipeline, retain customers, keep up with cloud innovation, and create solutions that cut across industries and technologies. And increasingly, they’re realizing one thing: You can’t grow alone anymore.
The Pressure on Services Providers Is Mounting
Services providers face an increasingly complex environment with multiple challenges:
- Balance new customer acquisition and existing customer retention
- Keep pace with evolving cloud platforms and security demands
- Build and differentiate their own IP and GTM strategies
- Operate efficiently amid shrinking margins and rising expectations
And for those working across multiple partner ecosystems, the challenge grows. GTM motions, marketplace incentives, and partner programs evolve constantly and partners who try to “figure it out” as they go often find themselves behind by the time they catch up.
Why Ecosystem-Led Growth Works
The partners that are scaling fastest aren’t doing it alone, they’re doing it together. Through partnerships, they unlock new customers, increase stickiness with existing ones, and co-create solutions that meet more complex customer needs. This matters because in complex industries and functional areas, particularly those that are highly regulated such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, life sciences and pharma, it's almost impossible for one company to do it all.
Let's take Cybersecurity as an example. Case in point:
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AvePoint, a leading Microsoft partner, has grown consistently through its strategic alignment with Microsoft’s ecosystem priorities. As Microsoft has doubled down on security and compliance, AvePoint has leaned into co-sell alignment and marketplace offerings to meet that demand and grow globally
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Proofpoint, a cybersecurity leader, partners extensively with MSSPs, VARs, and cloud platforms to reach broader markets and tailor solutions to vertical use cases.
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In Microsoft’s own security ecosystem, the company has emphasized its commitment to growing through a partner-first security strategy, investing $20 billion over five years and relying on a community of over 15,000 partners in their security ecosystem to bring better solutions and more choices to market.
Cybersecurity: A Real-World Example
Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT function anymore, it’s a business priority. And it’s a perfect example of why services partners must work together.
No one partner can meet every security need across every customer. Instead, companies that are succeeding in this space are building coalitions of capability, combining threat detection, endpoint protection, identity management, compliance automation, and employee education and so much more under one integrated customer solution.
By partnering with software companies that offer these capabilities, services firms can:
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Bundle offerings to meet customer needs more completely
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Scale faster by plugging into existing marketplaces and incentive programs
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Share GTM efforts, demand generation campaigns, and seller networks
This isn’t theoretical. It’s what’s driving growth today across regulated industry verticals like healthcare, finance, telecommunications and manufacturing.
The Foundation Matters
The reality is that strategic growth through partnerships doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a foundation that allows partners to:
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Simplify and scale their business models and GTM execution
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Unify messaging, incentives, and marketplace strategy
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Activate differentiated co-sell plays that map to ecosystem goals
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Enable partner sales teams with the right talk tracks, assets, and support
Without that foundation, even the best services teams get lost in the noise.
Growth Comes from Alignment, Not Just Acceleration
It’s not just about speed. It’s about foundation.
Partners who grow consistently are the ones who simplify and scale their routes to market, align to ecosystem priorities, and leverage incentive models built to reward performance. They co-sell with confidence. They speak the language of their ecosystem. And they turn program complexity into a competitive edge.
That kind of growth doesn’t come from guesswork.
It comes from clarity on what your unique GTM should be, who to partner with, and how to unlock the investment already sitting on the table.
The Power of a Unified, Partner-Centric Motion
When your team, your message, and your partner motions are aligned, growth starts to feel more sustainable. You’re not overextending your sellers. You’re not reinventing the wheel with every new GTM push. You’re building durable partnerships that drive impact for customers, and help you reach new ones.
From Busy to Impactful
One of the biggest challenges we see? Many partners are “doing all the things”, listing on marketplaces, signing MOUs, building pitch decks, but they’re still not seeing traction. Why? Because they’re busy but not aligned.
Sustainable growth doesn’t come from running more campaigns or signing more partners. It comes from making the right strategic decisions:
- Who to partner with
- How to message value
- Which partners and associated programs to prioritize
- How to activate the ecosystem to maximize value for your customers and your company, quickly and profitably
🔐 Cybersecurity from the Boardroom: A Risk and Revenue Imperative
As a board director, I’ve seen firsthand how cybersecurity has moved from the IT backroom to the front of the board agenda. Today, boards are expected to actively oversee how companies manage cyber risk, not just in terms of compliance, but in protecting business continuity, reputation, and enterprise value.
And the stakes are high.
Here are just a few recent examples that illustrate why cybersecurity is no longer optional, and why strategic partnerships in this space matter more than ever:
🩺 Change Healthcare (UnitedHealth), 2024
One of the most disruptive cyberattacks in U.S. healthcare history, impacting over 190 Million individuals
🖥️ SolarWinds, 2020
A sophisticated supply chain attack impacting multiple U.S. government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, with the SEC charging four companies with misleading cyber disclosures
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Hackers inserted malicious code into a routine software update
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The breach went undetected for months and led to global fallout
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Highlighted the massive risk in partner and vendor ecosystems
🔐 LastPass, 2022
A credential management company breached via a developer’s home computer.
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Attackers gained access to encrypted password vaults
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Millions of users and enterprises affected
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Raised concerns about insider threat, developer environment security, and third-party risk
Each of these incidents involved not just a breach of data but a breach of trust, operational stability, and investor confidence. These are the exact risks boards are being held accountable for.
That’s why strategic partnerships in cybersecurity and across services are no longer optional.
They’re how companies scale solutions, manage shared risk, and demonstrate resilience to customers, regulators, and shareholders alike.
When partners co-build secure solutions, go to market with aligned messaging, and proactively address risk, they don’t just win more deals, they become trusted allies in the business of protection.
The Bottom Line
Services partners have a critical role to play in today’s cloud-first economy. But they can’t do it alone. Growth will come from building stronger alliances, leveraging ecosystem programs effectively, and aligning to customer outcomes, not just internal goals. At the end of the day, leveraging partner programs sets the foundation to simplify and scale partners’ business models and routes to market, further enhancing the partner experience while accelerating and securing the customer journey.
If you're a services partner navigating growth in 2025, here's the truth: You don’t need more products. You need a tighter ecosystem, a stronger foundation, and a partner-first GTM motion that actually reflects how customers buy and how sellers sell today.
The partners who invest in building the right foundation today will be the ones leading tomorrow.
As companies of all sizes hunt for the right suite of products and services to defend against increasingly sophisticated attacks, we know that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Through an accelerated go-to-market (GTM) strategy, we help partners like you meet customer needs and gain market share through enhanced programs. We enable partners to grow and scale through a network of deep GTM engagement and investment available through various partner programs. In addition to unifying the channel foundation, we help companies accelerate their differentiated GTM strategies through maximizing various performance-based programs, partnering with other companies to meet customer needs and through our enablement model supported by a team committed to partners’ long-term success. Balancing sales to new customers, current customer retention, and ongoing product innovation continues to be a challenge for every service provider today and working with other partners allows companies to amplify their value proposition in the market while better aligning with partner demands.
🔗 Want to discuss how to align your partner strategy for scalable growth? Let’s connect.
