By Amotion AIA consultancy can consider the Claude Partner Network when it meets the current company criteria and is building a real Claude services practice. The official application says the company should be a registered business with 10 or more employees, operate in a supported region, and offer consulting, implementation or managed services to customers. Meeting that screen does not guarantee acceptance.
Anthropic’s current programme also separates joining from earning a public services tier. A new firm enters at Registered with a commitment to develop certified practitioners. Select, the first services tier, requires certified people, customers running Claude in production and a public customer story.
That distinction changes how you should prepare. The application is one step. The harder work is showing that your team can sell, deliver and support a defined service.
Understand what the programme measures
Anthropic describes the Claude Partner Network as a programme for firms that help customers put Claude into production. Its current Services Track announcement says new applicants start at Registered, the entry level, with a minimum commitment to 10 certified practitioners. Partnership begins at Select.
The same announcement gives three measures for services tiers:
- Active certified practitioners: people in the firm who hold a current Anthropic certification and have used Claude in the past 90 days.
- Customers running Claude in production: customers the firm has taken live with Claude.
- Public customer references: customers willing to describe the firm’s work in a published story.
For Select, Anthropic currently states at least 10 active certified individuals, two joint customers deployed in production during the previous 12 months and one public customer story. Anthropic says the Partner Hub refreshes daily and it verifies tier standing every quarter. From November 2026, Anthropic promotes firms to Certified and Select at least every month. Anthropic controls admission and tier decisions. Check the current Claude Partner Network page and application before acting because programme terms can change.
Since 2 October 2026, Anthropic also recognises a firm as Certified once three or more of its people hold an Architect or Developer certification. Select remains the first tier with customers in production and a public customer story. Compare every level in Claude Partner Network tiers and requirements.
Keep the two requirements separate. The current partner application says a company should have 10 or more employees to qualify. The Services Track announcement separately says a new Registered applicant commits to 10 certified practitioners. “Employees” describes the company eligibility screen; “certified practitioners” describes programme participation and tier readiness. One does not replace the other.
Check the current company criteria before preparing the partner case.
Decide whether the network fits your business
The network is relevant when customers pay your firm to advise on, implement or operate Claude-based work. A software company selling its own product has a different business model, even if Claude powers the product. A firm that does both should describe the services work separately from the product.
Before applying, write one sentence that names:
- the customer;
- the workflow you improve;
- what your team delivers;
- what the customer must own after launch.
For example, an illustrative consultancy might say:
We help retail support teams draft order responses from approved policies and order records. We connect the sources, test the responses, define when staff must approve them and hand over the operating checks to the customer’s support owner.
This is more useful than “we build AI agents.” It shows a buyer, a task and the boundary of the work. It also gives the team something concrete to test before discussing a customer deployment.
Build proof around one service
Prepare a small evidence pack for one service rather than a long presentation about every Claude feature.
| Question a reviewer or customer may ask | Useful evidence |
|---|---|
| Do you understand the workflow? | A current-process map, common failure points and a named business owner |
| Can you build the solution? | A reference design or working sample with its data sources and limits explained |
| Can you judge whether it works? | Representative test cases, expected results and a record of defects corrected |
| Can a customer operate it? | Access rules, approval points, monitoring, incident ownership and handover instructions |
| Can your firm sustain the service? | Named sales, delivery and support owners plus a realistic practitioner training plan |
If client material is confidential, use a customer-approved summary or an internal reference implementation with fictional data. Label it accurately. An internal sample can prove your method; it cannot prove a customer result that never happened.
Test the service before you call it production-ready
Return to the retail-support example. Start with a small set of fictional orders, approved policies and representative questions. Include ordinary cases as well as missing order data, conflicting policies and requests outside the allowed scope.
For each case, record the input, the expected behaviour and the check:
- Input: “Cancel order 8472,” but the order has already shipped.
- Expected behaviour: Claude drafts an explanation from the approved cancellation policy and does not claim the cancellation succeeded.
- Check: the response cites the applicable policy, reflects the order status and leaves the final customer action to an authorised support employee.
A fluent answer is not enough. The consultancy should also know who updates the policy source, who receives a failure report and how the team can disable or roll back the workflow. These are the details that turn a demonstration into a service a customer can operate.
Plan the certification commitment by role
The company joins the network; individuals earn certifications. Those facts support each other but are not interchangeable. Company membership does not automatically certify employees, and a person’s credential does not make their employer a services partner.
Company membership and individual certification answer different questions.
Assign learning by work:
- People who use Claude in business and project work can examine Claude Certified Associate: Foundations.
- Engineers building applications with the Claude API can examine Claude Certified Developer: Foundations.
- Solution architects designing Claude agent systems can examine Claude Certified Architect: Foundations.
- Experienced architects responsible for enterprise integration, governance and evaluation can examine Claude Certified Architect: Professional. Its July 2026 exam guide says there are no mandatory prerequisites or required courses, although Anthropic’s programme overview presents Foundations as the normal path toward Professional.
Only the Developer and Architect certifications count toward partner tiers. The Associate certification does not. See which certifications count toward your Claude partner tier.
Anthropic’s current certification overview describes these roles, states that certification exams are supervised and identity-verified, and says certification preparation and exams are available to Claude Partner Network members. It also presents foundation-level certification as the path toward professional-level certification. The current CCAR-P exam guide is more specific about eligibility: there are no mandatory prerequisites or required courses, and the recommended experience is not required. Treat Foundations as Anthropic’s progression recommendation, not as a binding CCAR-P prerequisite.
Use a 90-day preparation plan as an internal plan
A 90-day plan can help a firm organise its own work. It is not an Anthropic application timetable or a promise of acceptance.
Weeks 1–2: choose one customer workflow, appoint a business sponsor and delivery lead, and write the service boundary.
Weeks 3–6: build a reference workflow with fictional or permissioned data. Create test cases, record failures and document the human approval points.
Weeks 7–10: assign the relevant foundation learning to each practitioner. Keep a record of who is preparing for which role and why.
Weeks 11–13: review what the firm can truthfully claim. Identify the gap between an internal sample and a production customer deployment. Decide whether to apply now, ask Anthropic about eligibility, or continue building the practice first.
What to do next
If your firm meets the current company criteria, has a defined Claude service and can make the required practitioner commitment, review the official partner information and application. Anthropic decides acceptance. Ask Anthropic whether any exception applies to an unusual company structure; do not assume one.
If the service is still vague, finish one reference workflow and its test record first. That work remains useful even if the partner application waits.
Timo by Amotion AI connects certified Claude experts with enterprise AI projects. Enrolled consultants sign a consulting agreement with Amotion AI, which is Certified in the Claude Partner Network, register for their Claude exam with their Amotion AI consultant email, and use their expert profile and Timo Scout AI to find enterprise AI projects. Read the individual registration guide for the enrollment and exam registration steps. Timo consultant enrollment does not make your employer or consultancy an Anthropic partner. Anthropic controls exam eligibility and credential awards.
If you need more certified people for your team, see how to find certified consultants for your Claude partner tier.
Frequently asked questions
Does a small consultancy need 10 employees to apply?
Yes, the current official application says a company should be a registered business with 10 or more employees, operate in a supported region, and offer consulting, implementation or managed services to customers. A solo consultant or firm below that threshold should ask Anthropic whether an exception applies; this guide does not assume admission. The separate commitment to 10 certified practitioners applies to Registered programme entry and should not be confused with the employee criterion.
Does joining make the firm a Select partner?
No. Anthropic describes Registered as the entry level and Select as the point where services partnership begins. Select currently requires certified practitioners, production customers and a public customer story. A firm can first be recognised at Certified once three or more of its people hold an Architect or Developer certification.
Must every employee hold the same certification?
Anthropic’s public material does not say every employee should take the same track. Match preparation to the work each person does, and plan against the programme’s current count of active certified practitioners.
Is Claude Partner Network membership free?
Anthropic’s July 2026 certification announcement says membership is free, and its June Services Track announcement says getting started is free. Confirm the current programme terms before making a budget decision. Your firm will still bear its own training, staffing, delivery and customer-support costs.
Does a strong application guarantee acceptance or customers?
No. Anthropic controls admission and tier decisions. A readiness plan can improve the firm’s service and evidence, but it cannot guarantee acceptance, referrals or customer work.
Partner with us
If you are a Claude Partner Network member in the Registered or Select tier and would like to partner with us, DM me on LinkedIn.