In the rapidly evolving landscape of CRM, work management and collaboration, innovation and partnerships are paramount for sustaining growth and meeting modern business demands. monday.com stands at the forefront of this evolution. Recently, UC Advanced interviewed Ophir Penso, VP of Partnerships at monday.com, and Thomas Karlsson, Partner and CEO of Omnitas Consulting, a successful monday.com partner, to discuss the company’s strategic growth, thriving partner ecosystem, and significant advancements in AI.
The Vibrancy of Partnerships: Key Takeaways from the Partner Summit
monday.com has solidified its place as a leader in work management solutions, recently concluding its annual Partner Summit in London. This three-day gathering attracted over 600 partners from more than 50 countries, showcasing the company’s commitment to fostering collaboration. Reflecting on the event, Ophir remarked, “It was a great day, full of energy. So many people were invigorated.” The summit offered networking opportunities, knowledge sharing, and a deeper understanding of the resources available for partners.
During the summit, the company announced three new strategic technology partnerships with Rewind, Make, and Ziflow. These collaborations aim to enhance service capabilities – central to monday.com’s multi-product ecosystem. Rewind will offer backup solutions to ensure data continuity, Make will enhance integration options with over 2,000 connections, and Ziflow will streamline content-proofing workflows for creative operations teams. As Penso noted, “Our thriving partner ecosystem is essential to our mission of empowering organisations and driving collective success.”
The summit culminated in an awards ceremony recognising outstanding contributions from partners, further emphasising the importance of collaborative achievements. Notable winners included tiilt.io, Eligeo, and Workwise, alongside individual accolades for DocuGen’s App of the Year. In a rapidly growing partner ecosystem, these awards serve as motivation, encouraging partners to strive for excellence in their respective domains.
Partner Programmes: Tailored Solutions for the Channel
With a growing partner ecosystem, monday.com offers three distinct partnership opportunities: Solution Partnerships, Service Partnerships, and Marketplace Partnerships. Each program is designed to align with the specific needs of different partners and market segments.
Solution Partnerships focus on reselling monday.com as a product and the company currently has over 270 solution partners globally. Ophir emphasised that these partners play an indispensable role in driving engagement and broadening the platform’s reach. “It’s a big part of what the company is doing,” he stated. “Our partner program grew 24% over the year.” This impressive growth reflects the strong demand for monday.com’s solutions across various industries.
Service Partnerships are uniquely structured to equip partners with the necessary tools, training and certification to deliver high-quality service. This offering is especially significant as companies increasingly look for partners to help develop and implement custom solutions. Ophir expressed, “We see our partners as the main delivery arm of the company,” emphasising the essential role they play in addressing clients’ unique challenges. With the rising demand for comprehensive solutions, service partners have become vital in supporting organisations in adopting monday.com’s software.
Marketplace Partnerships are focused on innovation within the monday.com ecosystem. This program enables external developers to create and distribute applications that enhance the platform’s features. Thomas points out how the app marketplace can serve as a powerful sales enablement tool, stating “From a partner perspective, the most innovation is still coming from monday.com; the app connects to those strategies and helps enforce them.” By harnessing the creativity of app developers, monday.com continuously evolves its offerings, allowing partners to better serve clients’ needs.
Reflecting further on the overall structure of the partner program, Thomas noted the value of maintaining distinct roles for partners without overwhelming them. “Having this split allows smaller partners to succeed in certain areas without having to have a 20 to 3-odd staff count,” he explained. This flexibility allows partners to focus on their strengths and grow at their own pace, which enhances the overall robustness of the ecosystem.
Its always good to get an insight into a companies Partner Programme directly from one of their Partners and Thomas didn’t hold back on his praise of monday.com calling it in his view, the “best partner program for any SaaS service on the market.”
He goes on to say,” We have weekly meetings, but that’s just a formality. Some weeks I speak more with my monday.com channel partner manager (CPM) than I do with a lot of my actual employees within my company. “
When asked about other SaaS products he noted, “We tried partnering with other companies and some companies that were a lot bigger than monday.com, and we did not even get to meet quarterly with them. It felt like we were treated as lead generation, whereas the partnership with Monday.com is like our CPM, like our sales manager. That’s the kind of relationship they have with their partners.”
Thomas continued, “Going on to focus on the commercial aspect to monday.com, I’ve reviewed 20, 30, 40 other Saas service partner programs, and none of them come close to the commercial situation that you have with the monday.com partnership.”
This structured approach to partnership not only fosters growth but also cultivates an environment that encourages collaboration and shared success. With a reported 24% growth in the partner program and a 59% increase in available applications year-over-year, it is evident that monday.com is dedicated to maintaining a vibrant ecosystem that supports creativity, growth, and collaboration.
The AI Revolution: Empowering Partners and Customers Alike
In an era where technology is pivotal for operational success, the seamless integration of AI is emerging as a game changer for productivity and efficiency. Among monday.com’s recent innovations is the launch of monday service – an AI-first Enterprise Service Management platform designed to centralise service operations for organisations.
An example of the AI capabilities of monday service can be seen in how it facilitates smarter ticket resolution, automates classifications, and predicts service trends, allowing teams to focus on critical issues rather than mundane tasks. Thomas elaborated on the transformative potential of AI within their workflows, noting, “This is about eliminating manual processes and enhancing the quality of customer interactions.” The potential to enrich workflows through AI indicates a shift in how businesses can operationalise intelligence. For organisations historically reliant on manual effort, these advancements present a golden opportunity for scaling and improving service delivery. Thomas goes on to explain “It also changes the sales narrative, especially from an ROI perspective, because i used to be through automations, and how we can save time. How much time does this take? And then we quantify it. But this is like up to 5 times that as to how much value monday.com can bring to the same workflow or the same process through AI”.
Moving forward, monday.com is keen to enhance its market presence with new product offerings and a robust AI strategy. As organisations strive for streamlined operations,
monday.com’s commitment to providing AI-enhanced solutions places them as a leader in the domain of work management. They recognise that the application of AI will revolutionise business processes and decision-making.
In March, monday.com plans to launch its first AI agent, monday.com Expert. The AI agent is designed to assist with onboarding new users to the platform, providing guidance on achieving specific actions across products, and carry out tasks on users’ behalf. This innovative development speaks to the company’s overarching goal: to simplify user experiences while enabling them to maximise the potential of this sophisticated technology.
The positive implications for partners are substantial. With powerful AI capabilities embedded in their offerings, partners will be positioned to bring cutting-edge solutions to their clients, improving workflows and driving productivity.
A Future Fuelled by Collaboration and Innovation
The insights shared by Ophir and Thomas during the recent Partner Summit illuminate monday.com’s unwavering commitment to innovation, collaboration, and growth. As the company continues to expand its partner programs and integrate advanced AI capabilities, it positions itself as a leader in revolutionising how businesses manage workflows and workloads across various sectors.
Learn more about the monday.com Partner Program at https://monday.com/w/partnership.
