Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Table of Contents
Executive Summary_________________________________________________________________ 3 Introduction _______________________________________________________________________ 4 Traditional Partner Relationship Management ___________________________________________ 5 Challenging Traditional Partner Relationship Management The Information-Centric View of PRM ___________________________________________________________________________ 6 Redefining Partner Relationship Management The Information AND Transaction-Centric View of PRM _________________________________________________________________________ 6 An Expanded View of Partner Relationship Management Empowering Your Channel _________ 7 Making it Easier for Your Partners To Do Business With You While Building Partner Loyalty __ 9 Return on Investment (ROI) of a PRM Solution ________________________________________ 9 Comergent Partner Relationship Management Solution __________________________________ 10 Conclusion _______________________________________________________________________ 13
Executive Summary
According to Gartner, Inc., by 2010, 65% of revenue for Global 2000 enterprises will be driven or influenced by indirect demand network partners.1 As enterprises increasingly rely on their extended network of partners to grow their business, while reducing the cost of sales and customer service, a major priority is being placed on technology solutions that can help accomplish this. In 1998, Partner Relationship Management (PRM) vendors emerged to address this need, providing a variety of solutions to assist enterprises in improving communication with their partners and managing this extended network. Applications such as profile management, lead management, and training and certification were developed and deployed. However, these solutions have proved to be myopic in their vision of the potential value of managing partner relations. Focusing on making it easier for enterprises to communicate information to their partners, these solutions failed to empower partners to sell the enterprises products and services more effectively, while building partner loyalty. In this white paper, Comergent redefines Partner Relationship Management with a comprehensive suite of applications focused on directly impacting an enterprise and its partners joint-sales. Our market research and extensive customer interviews have determined that the key PRM solution components to accomplish this are: Automation of the lead-to-order process to reduce channel support costs, decrease missed opportunities, and increase sales Easy to use partner portal to make it easier for your partners to do business with you Comprehensive partner profile management to effectively manage partners and respond to their needs, including the distribution of partner-specific information to applications throughout the PRM system to facilitate increased leads, marketing, and sales Automatic channel inventory and sales forecasting to increase visibility into channel business activity and reduce the risk of inventory exposure Comprehensive analytics and reporting to increase the effectiveness of every partner 100% internet and message-based architecture to provide an open and flexible system that easily integrates into internal and external systems through web services
Spanning the entire pre-sales, sales, and post-sales lifecycle, the Comergent PRM solution provides these key components, enabling enterprises to keep partners informed to ensure products are positively and accurately represented, assist partners in the sale of products to drive revenue through the channel, and understand and measure partners performance to ensure the effectiveness of investments in the channel. Today, enterprises need to focus on deploying technology solutions that immediately impact their business, yielding positive results. This next generation of partner relationship management enables enterprises to accomplish this.
Robert DeSisto, Gartner, Inc., Partner Relationship Management: Optimizing the Demand Network Presentation, March 5, 2002. Comergent Technologies, Inc. 3
Introduction
Distributors, resellers, jobbers, retailers, agents, etc. according to AMR Research, today, indirect sales channels represent between 40% and 70% of most enterprises revenue.2 Whether your enterprise falls in the low, mid, or high end of this range, you are relying on your channel to drive revenue, and subsequently, your success. Today, most partner networks function independently, with limited and inconsistent support from the enterprise. And despite the emergence of PRM solutions to address these challenges, they have yet to provide the types of applications that really empower partners to sell your products and services. In this white paper, we will: Describe traditional PRM solutions, discussing their strengths as well as limitations in partner usefulness and adoption Redefine PRM with a focus on the information and tools needed by your partners to sell your products and services more effectively and efficiently Provide an expanded view of PRM, a solution designed to empower your channel, make it easier for them to do business with you, and build partner loyalty Discuss the Return on Investment (ROI) of a PRM solution Describe the Comergent Partner Relationship Management solution
Louis Columbus, AMR Research, Channel Partners for Profit, October 2001. Comergent Technologies, Inc. 4
Lead management Marketing campaign management Training and certification Funds management Measurement and Analysis Partner analysis
Redefining Partner Relationship Management The Information AND Transaction-Centric View of PRM
The goals of a partner relationship management strategy are simple: Improve your partners ability to sell your products and services Increase sales through your channel Decrease partner support costs
A PRM deployment should not be considered successful if an enterprise is merely able to distribute information and leads to partners and manage a variety of ancillary relationship issues. This approach only addresses the pre-sales stage. A high-impact, information AND transaction-centric PRM solution will address the sales and post-sales processes, in addition to the pre-sales process. By providing your partners with the tools needed to actually sell your products and services and convert leads directly into orders, the return on investment (ROI) of your PRM strategy will increase dramatically.
3 4
Robert DeSisto, Gartner, Inc., PRM Features and Business Benefits, January 31, 2001. Louis Columbus, AMR Research, Channel Partners for Profit, October 2001. 5 Gene Alvarez, META Group, Building a Framework for Channel Management, November 6, 2001. Comergent Technologies, Inc. 7
Lead management
Marketing campaign management Training and certification Funds management Sales Assisted Selling
Quote management
Order management Post-Sales Customer service management Partner measurement and analysis
Making it Easier for Your Partners To Do Business With You While Building Partner Loyalty
From extensive customer interviews, the number one reason enterprises are investing in PRM solutions is to make it easier for their partners to do business with them. Once this is accomplished, increases in revenue and decreases in costs quickly follow. By supporting your partners with the information and tools needed to sell your products and services, you are making it easier for your partners to do business with you. An information and transaction-centric PRM solution empowers your partners to more efficiently perform the day-to-day business functions such as selling your products and servicing your jointcustomers. The easier it is for your partners to do business with you and sell your products and services, the more loyal they will be.
Revenue Enhancement From Improved Selling Effectiveness No. of prospect opportunities 1,000 % of opportunities followed up by partners 50% No. of prospects to sales opportunities 500 Win rate 60% Converted opportunities 300 % of increase in average order size 0% Order size $120,000 Total Revenue Benefit $36,000,000
*Assumption: Manufacturer with 50 partners.
Robert DeSisto, Gartner, Inc., Partner Relationship Management: Optimizing the Demand Network Presentation, March 5, 2002 Comergent Technologies, Inc. 9
Figure 1: A Partners Steps in Converting a Lead into an Order Partner Portal Streamlines communication between you and your partners, providing partners with a personalized view into the information and tools they need to sell your products. Partners are able to immediately view and access their leads, quotes, orders, online assisted selling tools, sales forecast information, analytics, and more, making it easier for your partners to do business with you.
10
Profile Management Provides a comprehensive repository of all channel partners business and demographic data as well as commerce activities. This information is leveraged throughout the system to support lead distribution, partner selection and matching, sales and marketing activities, and more. Assisted Selling and Ordering Ensures your partners have all the sales and order management tools needed, at their fingertips, as they are working with customers. This includes product catalog, guided selling, side-by-side product comparisons, configuration, targeted marketing, quote management (including real-time pricing and inventory availability), and order management. In a traditional PRM solution, once a partner receives a lead, he/she has to search through and use different, disparate systems, to find product information, price, inventory availability, and complete the ordering process. Through the Comergent solution, all sales, quote, and order management capabilities are resident in a single system. Channel Inventory and Sales Forecasting Enables enterprises to collect inventory information from all channel partners, providing a global view of inventory in the channel. Sales forecasting enables enterprises to gather periodic (daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly) sales forecasts from channel partners, review forecasts by partner, region, product line, and more. Together, improving an enterprise and its channel partners sales and production planning. Measurement and Analysis Delivers comprehensive analytics on the activities and performance of channel partners to improve channel understanding and effectiveness. Out of the box reports include lead tracking by distribution and partner performance, partner transaction history, top performers, and more.
11
Through Comergent, your enterprise is able to deliver its partners a comprehensive solution to keep them informed and assist them in the sales of your products. With the order being the ultimate goal, providing a fully integrated solution to drive more orders through your channel for true closed loop lead-to-order management. In addition, Comergent provides full analytics and forecasting capabilities to help you measure your channel partners.
All Comergent applications are seamlessly integrated into an open/standards-based Comergent platform, with native support for web services, including XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI standards. This messagebased architecture enables enterprises to collaborate with their partners and customers, across the extended enterprise, supporting their entire range of external business processes, while integrating into your existing IT infrastructure to leverage information from existing systems.
12
Conclusion
PRM is, first and foremost, a business strategy aimed at improving sales and productivity between companies and their partners. With 40% to 70% of business coming through indirect channels, growth, profitability, and competitiveness depend on the strength of the relationships with partners. -Louis Columbus, AMR Research Today, enterprises need a Partner Relationship Management solution that can support the entire presales, sales, and post-sales lifecycle. Automation of the lead-to-order process to reduce channel support costs, decrease missed opportunities, and increase sales Easy to use partner portal to make it easier for your partners to do business with you Comprehensive partner profile management to effectively manage partners and respond to their needs, including the distribution of partner-specific information to applications throughout the PRM system to facilitate increased leads, marketing, and sales Automatic channel inventory and sales forecasting to increase visibility into channel business activity and reduce the risk of inventory exposure Comprehensive analytics and reporting to increase the effectiveness of every partner 100% internet and message-based architecture to provide an open and flexible system that easily integrates into internal and external systems through web services
The Comergent Partner Relationship Management solution provides the most comprehensive and visionary suite of applications enabling enterprises to directly deliver and measure results through their channel partners. Gartner, Inc. also listed Comergent in the Visionary quadrant in its February 2002 Magic Quadrant report on the partner relationship management market7. Today, Comergent is the only technology company able to provide all key PRM solution components and a proven track record of customer success.
Robert DeSisto and Claudio Marcus, Gartner, Inc., Partner Relationship Management: 1H02 Magic Quadrant, March 1, 2002. Comergent Technologies, Inc. 13
About Comergent
Comergent is a leading provider of e-business software that enables large enterprises to sell more, get closer to their customers, and make it easier for their customers to do business, all through a single system. The Comergent Distributed E-Business System includes four suites of customer- and partnerfacing software applications that enable interactive selling and marketing, order management, partner relationship management, and private marketplaces. Comergent is a privately held company. Customers include such industry leaders as Cisco Systems, DuPont, General Cable, Maytag, Seagate, Symbol, and Toro.
Comergent Technologies, Inc. Corporate Headquarters 1201 Radio Road Redwood City, California 94065 USA phone: +1.877.610.6801 direct: +1.650.232.6000 facsimile: +1.650.232.6010 http://www.comergent.com European Headquarters 200 Brook Drive Green Park, Reading Berkshire RG2 6UB United Kingdom phone: +44.118.949.7022 facsimile: +44.118.949.7222
Please recycle
2002 Comergent Technologies, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. This product and related documentation is protected by copyright and distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying, and distribution. No part of this product or related documentation may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of Comergent Technologies, Inc. The products described in this white paper may be protected by one or more U.S. patents, foreign patents, or pending applications. Comergent Technologies, Inc. 14