AWS Partner Network enables success of partners

AWS is supporting enterprises' digital transformation through its AWS Partner Network

COVID-19 made serious socio-economic impacts during 2020, but the pandemic has had a forcing function at many companies to really think about how they operate differently and how they work with customers and consumers. In this situation, technology adaption is an inevitable trend with many success stories.

TechX, a technology startup focusing on cloud computing services, is among the technology solution providers gaining great success thanks to the technology transformation.

TechX was established in February 2020. Six months later, it became an Advanced Consulting Partner of AWS – a leading technology solution firm. With the support of AWS, and especially AWS Partner Network (APN), TechX has now grown from zero to a total of over 100 employees after one year of establishment, with two offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Also impressively, the TechX customer network reaches 150, including 100 small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), with many in the banking and finance sector, and powerful groups. In 2020, TechX made revenue of $4 million.

Why APN?

Hong Tran, CEO TechX

Hong Tran, CEO TechX, who has 15 years of experience in the IT industry and provides solutions for banks, financial institutions, and powerful groups in Vietnam, recalled about three years ago, when technology was nowhere near meeting demands in Vietnam. Although customers were willing to fork out millions of US dollars a year on IT, tech firms could not expand their network of clients or improve customers’ experience.

“At that time, I met with a representative of AWS in Vietnam and learned more about AWS philosophy, which was different from other technology firms at the time. AWS focuses on real customer obsession. For example, they work closely with customers in Vietnam, engaging them in daily conversation and sharing experiences so that partners can develop from zero – the way TechX did,” Hong said.

AWS' APN enables partners to provide customers with a free trial of its entire suite of services. APN also commits to being a long-term, useful partner for customers, asking them to pay for AWS only as long as they make a profit.

APN also grows with partners. Hong admitted, “In the past, when we worked with other partners, it often took us a week or even a month to get a reply. Now with AWS, TechX has immediate support.”

Moreover, APN has Go-to-Market support which helps partners with products development, marketing activities, and free trial.

“We are striving to help our partners grow and become as successful as they can. We have personally witnessed partners like TechX grow from zero employees to now well over 50 and probably even more. We will continue to help them scale their deep cloud expertise,” said Stanley Chan, head of Technology Partners, Asia-Pacific and Japan, AWS.

TechX is taking the next steps in its digital journey. In June 2021, it plans to complete Migration Competency, by July complete Managed Services, and by September complete Data & Analytics Competency, thus enabling it to become a Consulting Partner of AWS in 2021, to have a 200 per cent increase in revenue in 2021, and to increase the number of SMB customers to 5,000 by the end of the year.

How can partners benefit from AWS Partner Network?

Stanley Chan, head of Technology Partners, APJ, AWS

TechX is a typical example of how an enterprise benefits from APN. To date, over 90 per cent of Fortune 100 companies are using APN partner solutions and services. Customers like Masan, Vietjetair, and multinationals with local presence in Vietnam like Samsung and Vodafone all leverage AWS, together with a number of AWS partners to realise their cloud transformation priorities.

For partners beginning their journey starting with AWS by building and developing their practice or technology, APN offers training tools and assigns resources to help them get up and going very quickly.

Next, APN works with partners to identify their areas of strength, where they can specialise, and to differentiate themselves in the market and in the AWS sales organisation.

Next is support to partners through marketing awareness and going to market to drive new business together via digital campaigns, online tools, and sales support.

APN also offers a broad set of resources, tools, and expertise to help its partners develop the right level of marketing based on their needs and the types of clients they target. Some of these are digital, and some of these are agency based and some of these are in person, depending on the customer strategy and partners’ growth strategies as well.

Stanley Chan said, “One example is our upcoming AWS online summit for ASEAN scheduled for May 18 and 19. It will be a large-scale virtual conference where we have customers, partners, and AWS teams share with and inspire each other with their journey to cloud and their digital transformation stories.”

According to Stanley Chan, much of the growth in the number of APN members is actually happening in Asia. According to International Data Corporation (IDC),the Asia-Pacific market for cloud is estimated to reach over $80 billion in the next several years.

“We still find that Vietnam is an emerging and growing market. We are looking at driving additional enablement, including training to make sure that the companies are confident and understand how they can use cloud,” he elaborated.

Great importance is given to how new innovative use cases can be developed, specifically around analytics to better understand their existing business. “On the technology side, we actually just had our public sector general manager do a briefing to the Vietnamese press about EdStart. This is an initiative where we are looking to engage the younger population through technology and to use education software and other technology platforms to really train and upskill the population of Vietnam to be cloud-ready. So that is another big investment that we are making to ensure that Vietnam is cloud-ready and maybe cloud-first,” he noted.