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A year of channel progress at Jamf
As the vendor sits down with partners this week at its event in Denver, a senior channel executive has talked of efforts made to improve its partner ecosystem
As Jamf meets with its partners, it will inevitably talk of what’s ahead and opportunities for improvement, but there is an opportunity to reflect on a year that has seen significant channel growth.
The Apple specialist hit the headlines recently due to its appointment of Exclusive Distribution, but even before that move, momentum had been building in its channel. Marc Botham, global vice-president of channel and alliances at Jamf, has been supporting that partner growth, and shared his views on the progress made and the areas where it will continue to invest in the ecosystem.
“I joined Jamf a year ago, and what I inherited was a 22-year-old company that had really tried to work in channel, has made some starting positions, but we were really transacting with them,” he said.
“In the last 12 months, we doubled the partner ecosystem and that’s significant,” said Botham. “It’s in the 1,000s, we now trade with nearly 4,000 partners. Next year, I think we’ll trade again with probably double that. The reason being is that we are moving Jamf to a channel first and channel only company. So, in the last 12 months, all new business now is transacted via our channel. We have seen a massive improvement in terms of the partnerships with our channel partners.”
The channel is now responsible for half of the ARR revenues coming through the business, and Botham and colleagues have been keen to cultivate further increases.
“What we’ve done is widen the ecosystem to cover partnerships such as carrier, GSI and hyperscaler,” he said. “Obviously, we have Microsoft relationships. We have an AWS [Amazon Web Services] relationship. We continue to be an Apple primary company. Our strength is around Apple and their operating system and portfolio.
“We’ve got a channel that now really is firing up. What’s happened is we put some very serious investments into the channel organisation and our channel partners,” said Botham, adding that efforts were continuing and the firm was providing online enablement tools that would provide flexibility to those looking to increase their skills and knowledge.
Jamf has also increased the financial rewards for partners in the past year, with a commitment to incentive those that deliver solid results for customers. “Year over year, we have given a 300% increase in the number of incentive and rebate payments,” he said.
Adding distribution
That brings the conversation onto distribution and the move to bring Europe into line with the two-tier model used in North America, with a decision to appoint distribution to support growth.
“We’re also as part of that [channel investment] scaling out our ecosystem, and the only way you can effectively do that is through distribution,” addd Botham. “We’re expanding our distribution network. Exclusive is one of our partners in the UK, and we went through a very robust six-month RFQ process with all of the leading distributors in the UK.
“Exclusive, we felt had some real value add,” he said, adding that they added security expertise alongside its portfolio, which was also a positive. “Less than 5% of all of our partners now transact through distribution, so we’ll now get this scale effect,” said Botham.
As well as working with distribution, the Jamf channel team has also been expanded over the past year, with more exercise being added to bolster the support the firm can offer partners.
Opportunities for Jamf’s channel
Apple has shown growth in the corporate market, according to Canalys PC shipment analysis, and in the comments made by Exclusive Network’s management after the relationship was struck, the distie talked of the benefits of deepening its position in the Apple market.
Botham agrees that there continue to be opportunities for its channel to tap into around Apple. “You’re seeing Apple really now start to move significantly into the corporate space, the education space, you just think about schools and colleges, and everybody’s running around with an iPad,” he said. “A lot of bring your own devices.
“They need to be secured and managed, and we’re the company that makes that our primary focus. So what you’re seeing is actually exactly what Canalys is showing, Apple are starting to take market share in those sectors.”
Jamf has lined up around those key verticals, with a mobility offering to cover phones, an education piece, as well as the corporate hardware. There are plans to add an SME stream to cover off the activity across that customer segment.
Looking ahead
Botham is proud of what has happened on the channel front in the past 12 months and the industry awards it has picked up to underline that has been recognised in the industry.
“It’s a very big team effort, and we’re very proud of what we’ve got, but also excited about where we’re going,” he said. “This is the foundation.”
Botham added that 2026 would see an enhanced partner programme and further investments in the ecosystem.
