Better together: A recap of this year's Box Partner Summit

Last week, over 100 reseller, system integrator, and technology partners attended our annual Box Partner Summit, which went digital for the first time. Attendees reflected the broad range of our partner ecosystem, from Fortune 50 companies to start-ups.

The focus of the event was to update partners on our joint progress, offer a sneak peek of what we're announcing at BoxWorks Digital on September 17th, and share our planned investments to build on the success of our partner momentum.

Our CEO Aaron Levie and CRO Mark Wayland kicked off the event by outlining Box's vision and strategy in a fireside chat. After thanking our partners, Aaron grounded the discussion by observing, "Most CIOs I meet with share the same four priorities: ensuring business resiliency, maximizing productivity, securing data, and optimizing costs. We know that Box solves for all. But we have to fundamentally work with an ecosystem of partners to deliver on those commitments."

Mark reiterated the importance of our partner ecosystem in these times, stating, "We often talk about the future of work. This is not something that is owned by Box alone. We need partners to be successful and jointly deliver on the vision of changing how people work, and help our customers through this challenging time."

Next up, we provided an update on Box's Partner Strategy. With recent shifts to remote work, many organizations have had to drastically adjust and accelerate their digital transformation, shortening timeframes from years to months. As part of this shift, more and more organizations recognize the need for a holistic cloud content management strategy, and Box is the leading platform that seamlessly integrates with best-of-breed enterprise IT stacks, thanks to our rich partner ecosystem.  The rich interoperability with our technology ecosystem also benefits strategic Box partners such as IBM, as well as, system integrators who leverage our technology integrations to drive transformational results for their clients.

We also provided updates to our Technology Partner Program, which now includes over 400 members who contribute to the 1,500+ Box app integrations used by millions of users each week. We are planning to build on this success in the following ways:

• Continue refining and investing in our Technology Partner Program
• Launching a new effort for emerging SaaS companies
• Maximizing partner impact by leveraging the Box app gallery

To enhance the program, we will be streamlining requirements to simplify the on-boarding process for new partners and integrations. We are also planning for additional improvements so existing partners can continue reaping benefits of the program. Enhancements slated for early next year include:

• Extending the reach of partners to our sales team by revamping our integration assets, training, and enablement 
• Providing more opportunities for partner sales and adoption through more frequent promotion of integrations to our sellers and customers
• Bolstering technical enablement through additional technical resources

As work is changing, so are the tools that our customers use. We are seeing a new crop of SaaS companies emerge that can help us extend our platform for the joint benefit of our customers. So over the next few months, we will be launching a new effort targeted at the next generation of venture-backed startups. The goal is to help support a select group of emerging companies with tailored technical assistance to accelerate and enhance their integrations and develop a better-together story. These efforts are aimed at creating opportunities to showcase and deliver their solutions alongside Box.

Finally, to bring it all together, we encourage partners to leverage the Box app gallery to reach our 100,000+ customers. We will be asking our partners to regularly review their app listings to maximize their exposure and increase the discoverability of their apps via the app gallery. For details on how to review and update apps, please see this guide.

To learn more about Box's new product announcements, partner progress, upcoming plans, and more, come join us at BoxWorks Digital - click here to register!