Good News and Bad News:
Key Takeaways from the 2007 State of Partner Programs Survey


By Diane Krakora, President & CEO


Amazon Consulting’s 2007 State of Partner Programs survey targeted VP’s and director-level executives responsible for channel and alliance management at 250 software and hardware vendors. Though much of the data confirmed what we knew to be true, that investment in IT channel growth continues, we also learned some interesting things along the way about future looking initiatives that companies are planning and challenges they will face.

Our questions focused on three key areas:

  • Partner information
    First, we polled the vendors about general information on their partners, such as category types and value to the company. We asked about services trends, loyalty and turnover, as well as profitability and incentives.


  • Program information
    Next, the survey asked question concerning the program, specifically about revenue and spending, resource investment and program structure.


  • 2007 program objectives
    In the third area, our questions covered overall objectives and key issues, priorities in spending, as well as challenges and opportunities for the coming year.
The results of the survey reveal a considerable amount — we are still swimming in data. For more on this see our recent entry on The Current, and have just started the process of producing a series of reports. The respondents were primarily based in the U.S. with a global business focus with more software companies responding than hardware companies. Most have built relationships with a modest 500 or less partners in the US and less than 5,000 worldwide. Many of the respondents are planning on expanding the numbers of partners and the program elements as well as increasing the amount of revenue through the channel in 2007.

We are very happy to report that overall the study shows a positive and upbeat view into the state of the high technology channel and the partnerships that exist between vendors and partners today. Initially, there are three key takeaways from all of the data:

1. Partners remain highly relevant for high technology vendors today, both in terms of percentage of revenue and the actual dollar amounts they produce.

2. Technology companies are investing significantly in their partners and are planning on continuing to increase their investment in partners.

3. These organizations are focused on the partners and what they can do to help them grow—through partner readiness, making it easy to do business, and simplifying processes—rather than concentrating on more vendor-focused issues such as partner loyalty and cross selling.

Read more.


SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT







Make it easier for your partners to engage in your co-marketing programs by automating the marketing funds request and claim process. Market Development Funds, commonly referred to as MDF, is another key program component vendors use to engage resellers in the demand creation process. The PartnerPath MDF Management Solution enables your partners to easily register and track their marketing activities.

Our MDF Management Solution easily enables the entire MDF process for your partners from transitioning their pre-approval to a claim once the marketing activity is completed, to uploading copies of their receipts and proof-of-performance in order to speed validation and reimbursement. The PartnerPath MDF solution also allows for customizations and integration with other sites and applications such as CRM, SFA or ERP solutions to pass partner data and fund usage information.

To view an on-demand tour of the MDF Manager solution, click here.

To view the a datasheet on this solution, download here.

For more information on all available PartnerPath solutions, go to www.partner-path.com












INDUSTRY EVENTS



Amazon Consulting at ChannelFocus 2007

April 24 - 25, 2007
La Jolla, CA.

Join Amazon Consulting at this year’s Channel Focus North America. The only industry conference specifically geared towards vendor channel education and knowledge share. Meet your peers from throughout the industry and stop by our display to view a demo of our PartnerPath solutions.

For conference information, visit the event here.


Amazon Consulting at CompTIA Channel Education Summit 2007

April 16, 2007
Oak Brook, IL.

Join Amazon Consulting at this year’s Channel Education Summit. Channel education has been one of the most significant issues for most IT manufacturers. Even major manufacturers that have a large channel struggle with identifying the right mix of partner targets and education content - a fact complicated by limitations in funding and mindshare from channel partners that have other manufacturer relationships.

For conference information, visit the event here.



Amazon Consulting at SLAM 2007

June 6 - 7, 2007
Denver, CO.

Join Amazon Consulting at this year’s Sales, Licensing, Alliances & Marketing conference. Join software companies of all sizes who wish to strengthen their relationships with exisiting partners to increase software sales.

Dean Madsen, Amazon Consulting's Manager of Business Development, will be presenting "Best Practices for Increasing Software Sales thorugh Partnering".

For conference information, visit the event here.



UPCOMING WEBINAR

"Partner Training Best Practices" - special guest NetExam

Wednesday, March. 21, 2007
11am - 12noon PST

It’s a fact that well-trained partners sell more products. Why then do so many vendors neglect to invest more time and resources into the development of their partner training efforts? In this new web seminar we will discuss best practices around partner training program development, resource investments, curriculum development, methodology, delivery and automation.

Register today for this live event.


ONLINE EVENTS

Ziff Davis Virtual Tradeshow - Managed Services

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
11am - 4:30pm (EST)

Join Amazon Consulting and other channel experts in an interactive webcast forum discussing a new generation of tools and technologies geared for delivering managed services.

For more information, click here.