Broadcom is prepping the roll out its controversial VMware go-to-market partner program overhaul to its Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regions, targeting partners with specific regional sovereignty and compliance expertise.

Aytek Karagozoglu, VP for Broadcom’s EMEA Partners and Commercial Sales, in a blog post explained that the program overhaul will align “our ecosystem around partners who demonstrate” a handful of prerequisites. This includes a “proven ability to transact and support VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF),” provide “meaningful technical and services investment,” and the ability to “manage customer lifecycle engagements, not just point product transactions.”

“This focus allows us to deliver greater consistency, higher quality, and better customer experiences across the region,” Karagozoglu added.

Implementation details beyond those goals were light, with Karagozoglu only noting, “I look forward to sharing more partner driven customer outcomes as this next phase unfolds,” but the post did include a stern message for current partners in the region.

“Our expectation is clear: partners must understand the full value of VCF and help customers realize it – starting with customers’ urgent operational needs and expanding into broader platform adoption and lifecycle value over time,” Karagozoglu wrote.

Broadcom expands partner changes

The plan and tone mirror that of what Broadcom did last year for its Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Japan regions. That program change included Broadcom culling the number of partners it worked through in providing VMware services to end-users.

Brian Moats, SVP for global commercial sales and partners at Broadcom, in a blog post at that time said the move would allow Broadcom to focus on “those partners who are committed to delivering the transformative customer experience around VMware solutions, as demonstrated by their historical performance levels, technical and other relevant expertise, and ability to make the investments necessary to offer customers the levels of service they expect and deserve.”

Moats built on that during VMware’s Explore event last year in Las Vegas, reiterating during a panel discussion the importance of the program changes, which shifted more advisory responsibility and oversight to those partners.

“That advisory kind of work that needs to happen early in the cycle is key,” Moats said of that responsibility. “And as you know, not all partners are set up equally to do that, and once the customer decides to go forward with the platform, then you've got to plan that journey.”

Moats added that this journey involves deep work between a channel partner and end-user toward taking full advantage of their VMware investment, which means it requires partners with a deep understanding of VMware’s platforms.

“We’re finding that the type of partner we need has deep, technical depth, some advisory capability, ability to help customer plan that journey, and probably, most importantly, the ability to go help deliver the implementation with the customer,” Moats said.

Partner members on that panel applauded the all-in nature of the program changes, noting the new focus makes it easier for them to take VMware products to market.

“What I love about it is the focus, one platform, one solution,” Stephen Moss, SVP of managed services at Insight, said of the new VMware platform structure, later noting that it was superior “versus the kluge, Band-Aid together 20 different products that were not built to work together.”

“And if you look at the partner program, the way it's structured, how you have a very clear goal-based system for certifications, if you're looking to build and become a VMware partner,” Moss added. “If you're not, it's a great opportunity because it's very well structured. There's great options for getting your team skilled up. If you're not, there's all this training available.”

The partner support provided counter-programming to claims of partner distress.

Equity research firm William Blair noted in an “Enterprise Tracker” report last year that some enterprises and go-to-market partners were continuing to look for ways to decouple themselves from Broadcom and VMware. The report stated that value-added resellers (VARs) had noted “customers are actively strategizing how to get off VMware, and the broader ecosystem (VARs, OEMs, ISVs) is moving away from VMware.”

That last point was bolstered by the research firm noting “newfound disillusionment from partners about Broadcom squeezing them on margins,” with a specific “partner that historically could expect to make 10 to 15 points of margin on reselling VMware is now making only five to six points.”

The VMware program partners on stage with Moats at the Explore event did not appear to be that specific partner.

Bill Grismore, co-founder of 27 Virtual, said that the partner has invested time in training its team to “get the most juice out of that platform,” a move that has resulted in a significant return.

“It's been amazing over the last year,” Grismore said. “I’m not going to talk about numbers, but it's pretty crazy how you can 10x a business in 12 months.”

Broadcom’s EMEA moves

Broadcom’s upcoming EMEA changes continue a regional move by the vendor.

Broadcom last month touted a new VMware Modernization Services venture that will see TD Synnex serve as the charter distributor for Europe. That program works on three fronts: assessment, using VMware tools such as Health Analyzer (VHSA) and Optimization Assessment (VOA); implementation in migrating vSphere environments to VCF, including VMware Live Site Recovery for disaster recovery and vSAN integration for storage performance; and expansion via vSAN storage, deduplication, and compression.

Those efforts come as Broadcom has faced increased scrutiny over its licensing practices.

Karagozoglu’s latest blost post also was notably absent of any reference to VMware’s vSphere platform, which has been viewed as an entry point into the VMware ecosystem. Reports did emerge last month that Broadcom was squeezing availability of that platform from the EMEA in favor of its all-encompassing VCF offering.