Looking to both reward its channel partners and make their implementations go smoother, Juniper Networks has released what it is calling an Implementation Specialization—a quick reference guide to developing and deploying specific Juniper technologies.

The "playbook," created from the best practices of Juniper engineers and select Elite J-Partners, creates a standardized way to implement Juniper technologies across many different environments. 

"I don't care how big you are, there is always a value in this kind of standardized implementation guidance," said Philip O'Reilly, CEO of Solunet, a $100 million services solution provider based in West Melbourne, Fla. "It captures best practices, and if you do an implementation by the playbook, you know it's going to go smoothly,"

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The Implementation Specialization is offered free to qualified J-Partners, according to Juniper.

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Juniper channel executives said the playbook was just the first of a series of offerings designed to help partners. Others on the horizon include an Education Specialization and a Consulting Specialization

"Beta partners that have validated this said it reduced their implementation time by one to two days of manpower and effort," said Lori Cornmesser, vice president of global channels, services and support at Juniper.

"The thing that makes the channel model more costly is inconsistency," said Steve Pataky, vice president of channel development and programs at Juniper. "There are different customer conditions and a different customer landscape wherever you go. This playbook adopts a consistent way of doing things. With this you have predictable profitability."

The creation of the specializations began about 18 months ago with services advisory councils, according to Cornmesser.

"This whole specialization concept is about embracing partners as part of the value chain," she said. "This is just the first of many things to come."

Juniper has provided the playbook to four partners in the Americas region and four partners in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). The goal is to offer it to "hundreds, not thousands" of partners in order to not "oversaturate" the channel.

"We are not trying to convert every channel partner we have," Pataky said. "It's by invitation only. At the same time we encourage partners that have these capabilities but haven't leveraged Juniper yet to come forward."