Case in point: Box's CEO Aaron Levie recently underscored this on a recent call:

“As we bring intelligent content workflows to the enterprise with AI, going to market with partners is also going to become increasingly critical.”

CFO Dylan Smith explained that Box is doubling down on the investments they started last year:

“We’re really standing up and making and setting up our partner ecosystem for success.”

Why? Because the partner economics works: “Our indirect customers are actually effectively just as profitable as our direct customers” - more below.

In fact Box historically had been a “mostly direct business other than Japan, which is very channel-heavy”, underscored Aaron Levie.

Now, with Japan making up ~65% of Box’s international revenue (~1/3 total ex-US), Levie wants to export that success:

“There’s a lot of lessons in Japan that we’d like to bring to other regions.”

Why is this shift now?

Box is evolving from traditional file storage into higher-value "core transformational workflows" that include moving to the cloud and "automating more business processes." These use cases "need implementation" and "bigger strategy" where partners excel.

“There's now obviously very, very relevant partners in all of these categories that help customers every single day, in every single industry with those types of transformation. So we wanna be embedded in each of those partners.’ - Levi explained

Box’s new partner motion includes:

1️⃣ Scale with GSIs – Deepening ties with Deloitte, Slalom, TCS.

“We’ll bring them into more deals... build flywheels with top GSIs, boutique, and regional firms.” Partner-led wins drove Q4 growth in the enterprise segment.

2️⃣ Multi-year investment – From dedicated partner headcount, co-marketing, and joint POCs to 10x partner revenue (see attached slide)

3️⃣ Marketplace Acceleration – Building marketplace presence on Google Cloud, etc.

Their strategy is “Being Transparent. Easy to work with. Fast moving.” with clouds.

Their GCP motion started modestly—“just get 12 deals done”—and led to winning Google’s Sales Partner All-Star. (see my previous breakdown).

Why Box’s new partner economics works?

CFO broke it down:

“Even when factoring in whatever margin or payments the partner’s getting, it still nets out to be fairly neutral…

because in a lot of cases, those customers are getting other benefits, cost leverage by working through that partner—whether it’s marketplace credits or part of broader spend with them

and tends to come in at slightly higher pricing, which offsets some of the margin impact.”

Efficiency gains are real:

“That doesn’t even speak to a lot of the other support our partners provide—on customer support, and certainly in going out and finding these customers, which is more efficient relative to our own sellers or marketing spend.”

Box three-year plan to increase its scale and reach through its partner ecosystem.

Box’s partner playbook shows a deliberate progression, increasing in complexity and impact each year (see slide above):

Year 0 (FY25) - Laying the Groundwork for Partner Success:

Actionable Investments: Box is currently making foundational investments. This includes launching targeted co-marketing initiatives to build awareness, dedicating specific headcount to support and manage partner relationships, and engaging in joint Proofs of Concept (POCs) to validate solutions and build early momentum.

Targeted Results: The immediate goal for Box is to establish robust Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies and operationalize co-delivery models, especially with key Global System Integrators (GSIs). This sets the stage for more extensive collaboration.

Year 1 (FY26) - Accelerating with "Time to Win" Initiatives:

Strategic Expansion: Box will then focus on significantly expanding its partner ecosystem to broaden its market coverage. Simultaneously, they will work on deepening their existing partnerships, transforming them into more strategic alliances.

Driving Repeatability: A critical action for Box during this phase is to develop and codify repeatable industry-specific solutions and common use-case patterns. This will enable both Box and its partners to scale their joint offerings much more efficiently.

Year 2 (FY27) - Achieving "10x it" Scale and Impact:

Partner-Led Growth: Box's strategy culminates in empowering partners to become major growth driver. They anticipate partners will be actively sourcing new deals, developing their own sales motions, and bringing in a significant number of new logos for Box.

Deep Integration & Platform Pull-Through: Box will be fostering comprehensive, 360-degree relationships that lead to joint deployments for large, complex customer opportunities. The ultimate measure of success here is achieving substantial "platform pull-through," where partner activities drive adoption and consumption of Box's core platform and services.

Throughout this playbook, Box is systematically building partner capabilities and deepen engagement. They’re moving from foundational activities to a highly leveraged, partner-driven ecosystem that significantly amplifies their market presence.