The Ricoh Unity Partner Programme is tailored to partner capabilities and competencies.
In September 2025, Ricoh will launch a new channel programme aimed at supporting its broad channel partner network to “better service their customers in an ever-changing marketplace.”
The Ricoh Unity Partner Programme represents the strategic culmination of extensive listening and feedback initiatives. This comprehensive exercise was designed to deepen Ricoh’s understanding of its partners’ evolving requirements and identify optimal avenues for more effectively serving their diverse needs. This unified approach marks a departure from previous practices, where numerous sales companies operated fragmented, individual programmes without European-level cohesion.
Ricoh’s partner survey revealed a need for greater recognition of partners’ contributions and the skills they bring to the relationship, as well as a desire for more consistent ongoing engagement. Ricoh also identified opportunities to improve sales and technical training, and a need for stronger brand/marketing campaigns.
In response, Ricoh has designed its new partner programme to be both customer-focused and partner-centric, with the goal of fostering profitable growth at all partner levels. It recognises that partners are under pressure to transform to XaaS models and support customers on their digitalisation and automation journey. Its core tenets are simplification, innovation and collaboration, recognising the need to deepen existing partnerships and add value without increasing their complexity.
Partner achievement, capabilities, and competencies
Ricoh has examined how its partners sell to customers and sought a deeper understanding of the customer journey.
Its programme has two models:
- Levels: based on revenue and achievement of certifications;
- Specialisms: focused on specific competency achievements in office print and graphic communications and process automation initially, expanding to workplace experience and cloud and cyber in the future.
It has built a growth-focused approach presented through the three lenses of partner revenue achievement, partner capabilities (based on the completion of capability assessments) and competencies (based on the completion of certifications by sales and technical personnel). Partners will qualify for different levels based on their performance across these three areas, with the goal of progressing through them as their capabilities, competencies and revenues rise.
The initial rollout phase will see each partner or prospective partner undertake a capability assessment covering a variety of aspects including pre-sales and sales capabilities, technical and product knowledge, service and customer support, and sustainability, among others. This will identify the level they are currently achieving and provide a roadmap for development and to bridge any gaps. This will be enabled through a partner capability toolkit incorporating a combination of webinars, workshops and digital tools.
Value-added programme benefits
Alongside commercial benefits on pricing, rebates and finance, partners will derive added value benefits for marketing and sales teams. These include events, access to pre-sales resources, marketing development funds and marketing concierge services, as well as joint business planning, sales leads and incentives, membership of partner focus groups and advisory councils, and access to Ricoh tools and infrastructure. These include automated and interactive tools designed to improve the partner experience throughout the relationship lifecycle.
Programme evolution roadmap
Ricoh has a clear vision for the evolution of the Unity Partner Programme. Launching in September, the focus will be on capability assessments and establishing the office print and graphic communications, and process automation specialisms.
Through FY26, the aim is to support partners as they build XaaS capabilities, including cloud and cyber specialisms. Beyond this, the company is targeting further specialism-based development tailored to each partner to expand service and solutions revenues.
The company emphasised its focus on the indirect channel for FY25, citing collaboration and simplification as key principles of the programme. It also underlined its aim to embrace the digital and automation transformation alongside its partners, enabling partners to increase their delivery of Ricoh’s integrated suite of workplace transformation services.
Quocirca opinion
Ricoh has taken on board feedback from its incumbent partner base and designed a programme that plays to their core strengths while encouraging them to evolve and adapt to the market as it changes. The company’s objective is to significantly expand the portfolio of Ricoh solutions that partners can offer, anticipating a strong appetite for this diversification among its established channel ecosystem.
Ricoh should actively look to developing a sustainability-centric programme that intrinsically ties environmental commitments with channel incentives and support. This would enable partners to build their own sustainable business practices, aligning with growing market demand for environmental responsibility. Such an initiative could differentiate Ricoh by enabling its partners to lead on sustainability, providing them with tools, data and co-marketing opportunities related to reducing environmental impact across the document lifecycle.
In addition, Ricoh should consider encompassing foundational AI literacy training, which Quocirca’s recent study identified as a key requirement expressed by channel partners, enabling them to effectively position and support AI-driven solutions.
The company’s overarching message of simplification, innovation and collaboration is poised to resonate strongly with partners, both existing and prospective. Given that complexity is an often common criticism of partner programmes across the industry, Ricoh’s ability to genuinely deliver on its promise of simplicity will be a critical differentiator and a key driver of traction and partner engagement.
