Case study. Cloud Cruz is a fictional company and every number is synthetic. The program design, the systems and the decisions are my work.Fictional company, synthetic data, my real work.

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Case studyBlueprintReference

Glossary

The words this program uses, in plain terms. Each definition matches the Blueprint document it comes from; decision numbers point to the decision log.

All of this is synthetic. Cloud Cruz and its partners are invented.

The program

Term What it means
Cloud Cruz A fictional AI data platform: "the data and AI platform your apps and agents run on" (decision 13).
Ecosystem Partner Program Cloud Cruz's partner program, designed from zero in this case study.
North star Customers live through partners: Cloud Cruz customers in production with a partner as the sourcing partner, partner of record or implementer (decision 57).
Customer live A customer in production, confirmed by a usage event Cloud Cruz can see, not by a partner's word.
Activated A partner with its first live joint customer (decision 43).
Beta The 90 days before launch, Jan 1 to Mar 31, 2027, with 25 design partners (decision 15).
Design partner One of the 25 beta partners. They keep a permanent "Design partner" label in the directory (decision 98).
Go/no-go check The Mar 15, 2027 check on four must-haves before launch. Missing one narrows the launch; it never delays it (decision 95).
Guard metric One of two monthly checks that protect the running Services motion. A red month pauses the next opening (decision 100).
Program review The Jan 1 and Jul 1 reviews where rules change. Changes are announced 90 days ahead and rules hold 12 months (decision 58).
As-of date Mar 31, 2028, the end of Year 1. The data and the Salesforce sample both describe the program on that day (decision 102).

Partners

Term What it means
Services path Agencies, consultancies and SIs that build and implement Cloud Cruz for customers. Opens at launch, Apr 1, 2027.
Technology path ISVs and technology partners that embed or integrate Cloud Cruz, then resellers. Opens Oct 1, 2027 (decision 97).
Segment One of four kinds of services firm, each with its own role (decision 31): Anchor, Scale, Specialist, Builder.
Anchor Holding-company data and digital units. Invite-only, white glove, the route to large brands. The source of Elite.
Scale The digital arms of large consultancies. The enterprise route.
Specialist Independent digital and data agencies. Select and Premier targets.
Builder Boutique AI studios and consultancies. The beta cohort and the volume.
Managed partner One of the 80 partners a partner account manager works directly (decision 101).
Long tail The roughly 920 other partners. Automation does the routine work; a person steps in when health turns cold or hot (decision 46).
Partner directory The public list of partners on the Cloud Cruz site, where customers can find and match with one (decision 51).

Tiers

Term What it means
Member The free entry tier: an agreement and a named contact. 10% commission.
Select 4 certified people, 3 live joint customers, 1 public reference. 15% commission, and co-selling with account executives.
Premier 10 certified people (3 at Level 2), 10 live customers, 3 references, $175K partner-sourced revenue. 20% commission and the co-marketing fund.
Elite By invitation from the Anchor list: 25 certified people (8 at Level 3), 25 live customers, 6 references, $500K, and a joint business plan. 25% commission.
Scorecard A partner's live criteria against actuals. The partner sees the same numbers Cloud Cruz sees (decision 33).
Promotion and demotion Promotions are checked on the 1st of each month. Demotions happen only at the Jul 1 review, with 90 days' notice (decisions 92, 109).

The lifecycle

Term What it means
Stage One of eight steps every partner moves through, each with one owner, a clock and one number: 0 Develop, 1 Acquire, 2 Onboard, 3 Activate, 4 Enable, 5 Co-sell, 6 Maintain, 7 Optimize.
Onboarded All six items done: three named contacts, payout details, Slack, a sandbox, both accreditation badges, and a kickoff (decision 40).
Health Four questions, each green, yellow or red: are they selling, are their customers winning, are their people skilled, is their delivery clean. Healthy means no red (decision 54).
Activation rating Cold, warm or hot, from the time between a partner's first registration, first win and first live customer (decision 43).
Touch cadence How often each segment gets a business review, from monthly for Anchors to an automated digest for Builders (decision 55).

Scores and routing

Term What it means
Gates Two must-haves before a firm is scored: an AI or data delivery practice, and three or more mid-market B2B software clients.
Fit score 100 points for who the partner is. 70 or more is approved; 50 to 69 goes to a partner manager; under 50 goes to nurture (decisions 29, 37).
Intent score 100 points for how ready the partner is now. Signals older than 30 days count half (decision 68).
Deal in hand A partner that arrives with a real customer deal. Always urgent: a Slack alert, and the team engages that day (decision 35).
Temperature Nurture, warm, hot or urgent, set by fit times intent. Each partner development rep gets the top 8 leads a day (decision 70).
Typed-decision layer A model returns a typed answer (a choice, score or yes/no) with a probability, and Cloud Cruz's own weights turn it into points. Low-confidence answers go to a person (decision 69).

Money

Term What it means
Commission A share of collected revenue on a deal the partner sourced: 10% to 25% by tier. Earned when the customer's invoice is paid (decisions 21, 72).
Hold Every commission waits 60 days after the invoice is paid before it can be released (decision 21).
Accrual The ledger record of one commission: Earned, Held, Released or Reversed. It lives in Salesforce (decision 24).
Rate lock The rate at close holds for that deal's whole term; a demotion never cuts pay on customers already landed (decision 73).
SPIFF A one-time bonus for a milestone: $500 for a first live customer, $2,500 for a first Enterprise go-live, $1,000 for each customer retained 12 months (decision 76).
Accelerator A higher rate above a threshold. The mechanism exists; the numbers are still open (decision 76).
Co-marketing fund Money for Premier and Elite campaigns of $3,500, $5,000 or $10,000, paid against proof of performance. Never taken out of commissions (decision 77).
Implementation package Cloud Cruz pays for a partner's first hours on an Enterprise deal: $1,750, $3,500 or $7,000 by deal size. Needs a Level 2 technical person on the deal (decisions 45, 61, 91).
Contribution points Points for community answers, posts and articles. They raise a partner's rank in the directory, and Select and above need a minimum (decision 78).

Deals

Term What it means
Deal registration A partner's claim on a customer deal. Cloud Cruz answers within 2 business days, and approval protects the partner for 90 days (decision 79).
Sourced The partner brought the deal. Only a sourcing partner, or a partner of record, earns commission.
Influenced The partner helped win the deal. It counts toward tier but pays no cash; it earns first offer on the implementation (decision 74).
Implementer The partner that delivers the customer's implementation.
Partner of record The partner named on a cloud marketplace deal, paid 5% (decision 72).
Co-sell The partner and a Cloud Cruz account executive working a deal together. Select and above (decision 49).
Rules of engagement The AE owns the customer; the partner account manager owns the partner. The AE keeps full quota credit on partner deals (decision 50).
Self-serve, Premium, Enterprise Cloud Cruz's plans: under $12K a year, $12K to $50K ACV, and $50K ACV and up.

Credentials

Term What it means
Accreditation The Sales and Technical badges earned during onboarding. They don't expire (decision 80).
Level 1: Foundations An exam, a sandbox lab and a Problem Statement Canvas for a real target customer.
Level 2: Delivery Two customer go-lives, or two signed business cases with a baseline and target ROI.
Level 3: Advisor Three Readiness Reviews run, or three accounts expanded on proven ROI.
Certified person Someone with an active credential and hands-on product use in the last 90 days. Only they count toward a tier (decision 47).
Readiness Review A one-page review of a customer's setup on four pillars: Trust, AI quality, Cost, Adoption (decision 64).
Problem Statement Canvas A public framework (Marius Ursache, 2018) for describing a customer's problem: context, customer type, root problem, impact and alternatives.

People

Term What it means
Head of partner ecosystem Owns Optimize, the long tail, the program reviews, the launch checks and the guard metrics.
PDR Partner development rep. Finds firms that fit and owns each lead through signing.
Partner manager Runs onboarding, decides admissions at fit 50 to 69, and works the long tail by exception.
Partner account manager Works the 80 managed partners from Activate through Maintain, and co-sells with the AEs.
PSA Partner solutions architect. Leads up to 12 open package deals at once, largest first (decision 99).
AE Account executive, Cloud Cruz's salesperson who owns the customer.

Systems

Term What it means
Salesforce The one source of truth: partners, deals, registrations, tiers, health and the commission ledger.
introw The partner portal (PRM): courses, deal registration, co-marketing and commission statements.
Tipalti Pays released commissions and checks each partner's identity and tax details (KYC).
Credly Issues credential badges to the wallet partners already use.
Crossbeam Shows which accounts Cloud Cruz and a partner share, to find co-sell targets and avoid collisions.
Support Hub Version-controlled program docs, answered with citations by the AI Answer Engine. What it can't answer becomes a ticket.
Slack Connect A shared Slack channel between Cloud Cruz and one partner: design partners in the beta, Premier and Elite after launch.

Abbreviations

Term Stands for
ACV Annual contract value
AE Account executive
ISV Independent software vendor
KYC Know your customer: identity and compliance checks before payment
PRM Partner relationship management, the partner portal
ROI Return on investment
SI Systems integrator
SLA Service-level agreement, here the 2-business-day answer on deal registrations