Does Your Partner Program Pass the Four Year Test?

A bChannels client asked me recently to look at their partner program, with a view to benchmarking it against competitive engagement models. Let’s call that company Teknologics. As always, the first thing I did was to get a copy of the Teknologics program guide, to understand how it all works. There was a copy on line. I spent an hour or so reviewing the program structure as presented in the Teknologics guide to partnering.

It was only when I got to the end of the document that I realised that what I was reading was the 2012 program guide for Teknologics. It was not up to date. So I asked my contact at Teknologics for their most recent program guide.

Here’s what struck me. How little had changed. The 2016 program was very much like the 2012 program. They had introduced partner specialisations, but other than that the two program guides were pretty much interchangeable. That got me thinking.

Four Years of Change

Harold Wilson, a former UK Prime Minister, once said that “a week is a long time in politics”. And four years is for sure a very long time in technology.

Windows 8 was launched during 2012, and it represented a major shift towards use of mobile devices for mainstream computing. Most of us were still using Windows 7. In 2012 Apple launched the iPad Mini, and Microsoft launched the Surface, which used Windows RT designed specifically for ARM-processer mobile devices, and now discontinued.

In other words we were at the beginning of what is now referred to as the Mobile Computing Revolution.

Four Years of Mobile Devices

In 2014 the global number mobile device users for internet access exceeded for the first time the number of fixed device users (1). In that year also for the first time, internet users referenced tablets as “the most important device for internet access” over laptops (1). Smart Insights said in 2014 that “we are now past the mobile tipping point, it’s no longer a case of asking if mobile marketing is important. We know it is.” (1)

Four Years of Cloud Data

As devices have gone mobile, data has moved to the cloud. Dropbox had 50m users in 2012, now it has 500m users (2). Over the same period Amazon Web Services has grown from being a business with $1bn in revenue, to being a business with $7bn in revenue (3).

All this signals a fundamental shift the behaviours of technology users, at home and at work. It’s a shift that is touching every aspect of our on line lives, from buying a book, to replacing a corporate CRM system.

Four Years of Partnering

For technology companies that go to market through indirect channels it means a re-invention of the partner relationship.

• An ecosystem is emerging where channel partners move seamlessly from being resellers, to being service providers and developers, adding value to the core offer in different ways.

• Marketing to channel partners is shifting towards a digital model, where good data can differentiate a company in its market, and where an ‘omni-channel’ experience is the norm (4).

• Social tools and on line communities are a baseline for communication, in business as well as at home. Traffic is shifting from email and website interaction to the ‘enterprise social network’ (5).

So we must be seeing a significant shift in the way that technology companies engage their channel partners, right? Hmmm. Not so much.

The 2012 and 2016 Partner Program

Let’s get back to those Teknologics partner program guides. What has remained the same from 2012 to 2016?

• The Teknologics partner program in 2012 featured three levels, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Taking the US as an example region, the 2012 requirements for Platinum were $2.5m revenue per year and eight certified technical and sales personnel. The US 2012 requirements for Gold were $1m revenue per year and four certified technical and sales personnel.

• The Teknologics partner program in 2016 features the same three levels, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The 2016 US revenue requirement for Platinum is $2m per year (it’s come down from 2012). The 2016 US revenue requirement for Gold is $1m per year (unchanged).

The key change is around technical and sales certifications, which have gone, and specializations, which have come in.

• The 2016 program requires two specialisations for Platinum, and one specialisation for Gold. Specialisations are achieved with technical and sales certifications, and a history of relevant customer engagement. There are three specialisation options.

The Teknologics 2016 program guide looks and feels a lot like the 2012 program guide. A “wide range of sales and marketing tools, with access to co-marketing” are available today, as they were in 2012. The tables of requirements and benefits remain in place for 2016, as they were in 2012.

Upgraded but Outdated

Many vendors have introduced specialisations to their partner program, and the introduction of specialisations to the Teknologics program is clearly a positive change. But Microsoft moved firmly to a specialisation model in their program relaunch as the Microsoft Partner Network in 2010, the same year they launched the program page on Facebook. The Microsoft Partner Network Twitter account has more than 170,000 followers.

Over a period of four years, four years of significant change in our market, we’ve got to look for much more fundamental program evolution. Requirement and benefit grids look dated, and tiering based on revenue and skills – albeit within a specialisation framework – looks like something that was invented for a partnering model that the industry is growing out of.

Reading the 2016 Teknologics program guide, you see an outdated framework that has been upgraded to meet the needs of today. Not a program of our time. The fact is that too many vendor programs look this way.

The Four Year Test

How do you spot the danger signals? Try the bChannels Four Year Test. If you score less than four points when you answer the questions below, then perhaps it’s time to worry.

SCORE A POINT FOR EACH POSITIVE ANSWER YOU CAN GIVE TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

• Revenue tiering requirements have become less important to us than measures of partner commitment, including investment in skills, marketing and sharing sales pipeline.

• End customer experience is a key factor in the way that we assess partners, so our customer satisfaction program is linked firmly to our partner program, and is used in tiering.

• As part of our program we provide the best partners with access to our customer data, including installed base and service renewals, so we can work collaboratively on opportunities.

• The language that is used to describe our program has evolved over recent years, as we recognise the importance of ecosystems, networks, collaboration and influence.

• We know that our partners interact with us using multiple devices and channels, so we are evolving our program infrastructure and process to take account of these trends.

• Social tools and on-line communities are overtaking our program website as the main way we communicate with companies enrolled in our program, so we invest in this area.

NOW DEDUCT A POINT FOR EACH POSITIVE ANSWER YOU CAN GIVE TO THE FOLLOWING

• Partners enrol in our program based on their type, so we have a track for resale, a track for developer and a track for service provider, each with its own requirements.

• Most of our channel partners would not share sales pipeline with us as they would be concerned about the role that we might want to play in the sale, and issues around channel conflict.

• Marketing investment is primarily based on revenue performance, so we accrue co-marketing based on revenue, and we have rules that allow partners to spend on approved campaigns.

• If you read our program guide, the grid of requirements and benefits has changed little over recent years, though we have tightened up on certain aspects, and we continue to review.

Scored less than four? We’d be glad to talk to you at bChannels about areas for focus, and to go deeper on the channel program of the future.

• http://arcticstartup.com/article/mobile-computing-revolution/

• http://www.statista.com/statistics/261820/number-of-registered-dropbox-users/

• https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/07/amazons-aws-is-now-a-7-3b-business-as-it-passes-1m-active-enterprise-customers/

• http://deliverthefuture.com/making-sense-of-omni-channel-in-enterprise-sales/

• http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-online-communities-are-faring-in-2016/

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