Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source solutions, has introduced its enterprise customer advocacy program, Red Hat Accelerators.
Drawing on its extensive community-building history, the customer-facing program serves as a natural extension of its customer-focused approach to both its open source and enterprise product portfolio, enacted to form deeper and more engaging relationships with its customers.
Red Hat Accelerators connects some of the most easy-going, fun-loving, intelligent, open source experts in the industry. There is unparalleled access to key Red Hatters, cutting edge information, technical sessions and online tools to help you grow your open source brand and ecosystem.
Red Hat Accelerators offers peer-to-peer networking with like-minded Red Hat practitioners to foster deeper learning and broaden exposure to various products, technologies, use cases and issues along with group discussions on features and functions.
Along with access to Red Hat experts and business leaders, participants receive exclusive, early access to products, which helps develop their domain expertise and build credibility. The program also contributes to individual’s personal and professional development, expanding their knowledge and skills to stay relevant and up to date in the industry, amongst peers and with the market.
Red Hat Accelerators launched as an established way to serve passionate enterprise customers who wanted to share and engage with each other around relevant IT issues, remedies and solutions.
Additionally, Red Hat experts, product teams and even business leadership were included as a way for customers to voice their critical product and solution feedback, provide the business and product teams valuable insights, and help influence and improve development. The program also integrates a continued focus on customer advocacy and maintaining an environment that encourages public advocacy through blogging, social media, speaking engagements and more.
The program draws on Red Hat’s long-established, community-driven business model of helping to form, grow and develop uncounted open source projects into solutions that customers need. According to a report by Forrester, Credible Empathetic Content Wins Over Elusive B2B Buyers, 87% of technology buyers at global enterprises said it’s important for vendors to understand their business, industry or market conditions, and 82% want vendors to understand what’s most important to their job.The program harnesses the power of real-world enterprise customer voices and gives them a direct line to help influence product development, so Red Hat can meet and exceed customer expectations.
Red Hat practitioner enthusiasts looking to make their mark in the community, provide direct feedback on Red Hat products to product owners and business leaders, elevate their status through connecting with like-minded enthusiasts, and join an elite program can apply to the program now.
Candidates should not only have primary expertise in Red Hat’s platform products and know the value of a complete, multi-technology solution, but also have an affinity for the Red Hat brand. Applicants should be hands-on practitioners willing to spend their time sharing their passion for Red Hat, looking to prioritize and uphold Red Hat’s open source and community standards of operation.
Chris Wright, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Red Hat, said, “As open source champions and community builders, Red Hat is always interested in hearing from members within its communities, and the Red Hat Accelerators community is no exception. In my experience collaborating with the Accelerators, I’ve found that substantial innovation comes from engaging real world customers and being truly receptive to their feedback. Plus, customers appreciate the continuous ability to share commentary on offerings and even influence products. With Accelerators, we cherish the opportunity to pull in some of the most passionate enterprise customers in their industries to the Red Hat fold.”
Will Darton, service manager – Enterprise UNIX Engineering, Navy Federal Credit Union, said, “Most importantly, Red Hat Accelerators connects some of the most easy-going, fun-loving, intelligent, open source experts in the industry. There is unparalleled access to key Red Hatters, cutting edge information, technical sessions and online tools to help you grow your open source brand and ecosystem. In 2019, I was able to attend Summit as an Accelerator, which brought more access to events and sessions, and it was my favorite Summit of any that I’ve attended.”
Akash Trivedi, technical architect, Softchoice, explained, “Accelerators has allowed me to stay proactively relevant in my organization. The community networking, technology demonstrations and guidance from subject matter experts at Red Hat creates an engaging environment to share cutting-edge knowledge and the opportunity to enrich discussions through contributing our own insights.”
Ashraf Hassan, senior designer, Mobile Network Services, T-Mobile Netherlands B.V., said, “Red Hat Accelerators is one very experienced family. It’s great being able to learn and benefit from others at the same time, combining work and fun in one arena. Getting earlier updates for new Red Hat technologies makes it easier for me to plan around products or features in advance. As an added benefit, having a friendly and accomplished community review my posts for Accelerators Blogging Club even gave me the courage to start my own blog.”
Thomas Spivey, storage engineering architect, Valero, informed, “Many technology companies tend to just do what makes the most sense for them. But with Red Hat, the Accelerators program allows me to have an avenue to express my opinions, concerns and needs directly to the teams responsible for developing the technology. There is a place for everyone in the program, whether you are comfortable expressing yourself in front of others or prefer to discuss your opinions in a less public way, there is always an avenue of communication.”
