ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

If your organization has built a patched-up partner management system by adding applications (or objects) to your existing CRM infrastructure, then it’s likely you are investing enormous resources to answer basic business questions. This is where a purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) platform can significantly improve your business performance while reducing cost. How does it work? That’s what we will explore in this article.

Until recently, most companies selling through the channel relied on automating their partner management workflow by using their existing CRM infrastructure instead of deploying partner relationship management (PRM) automation. However, when you try to manage certain program-related activities—things like marketing, lead management, incentives management, training and so on—with this kind of patched-up infrastructure, you will encounter three main problems.

Lack of data flow – When you use an object-based (i.e., application-based) approach to expand your current CRM system as a PRM platform, it makes the flow of records—and therefore business intelligence—very hard to develop. This, in fact, is the fundamental reason you are not realizing your business performance, because your infrastructure is failing to give you the right information at the right time.

Enormous maintenance costs – Every time you want to make any addition or change to a part of the platform, you have to worry about what components you will end up breaking. Also, limited IT resources prevent you from making the changes you need to keep moving forward as your channel evolves and changes are required. This can quickly make your organization’s channel infrastructure obsolete.

Poor partner experience – If you have six different applications (yes, we have seen it) patched to an existing CRM infrastructure, it is highly likely that each of these applications have their own business logic flow and therefore different user interfaces. It becomes a nightmare for a partner to learn all these different apps.

If you are reading this, nodding your head and saying, “Yes that's us, but we can never get out of this mess”—well, the reality is that you can get past the mess, provided you have courage, vision and true commitment. But how?

Courage – To truly get out of the tangled web that you have woven over the years, you first need to muster organizational courage. Yes, I know. It's not easy, but the best approach is to engage multiple executive sponsors (cross-functional) and have this conversation. Lay out examples of poor partner experience, IT costs and change-management issues, but most importantly explain how these issues are affecting the organization’s ability to make the right decisions and perform at an optimal level.

Vision – Once you have been able to muster executive support to start an evaluation process of what the end state could be, reach out to vendors like ZINFI and analyst firms to build a vision of what your PRM infrastructure should look like. Focus the discussion on key business questions you need to answer on a dynamic basis and the objectives you need to satisfy. Don’t get carried away looking at PRM features. Instead, begin by prioritizing key processes that are ripe for automation.

Commitment – This is where a fully funded plan can make your vision a reality. When you have cultivated executive sponsorship, and you have created a vision of the end state and how it can drive profitable growth and a much better partner experience, now you need to focus on how to get there step by step. Your CRM didn’t get tangled up overnight; likewise, you can’t expect to untangle it in a quarter. Have a clear four-to-six-quarter implementation plan and then go at it in a focused manner.

Once you have a migration plan to transition from your existing patched-up CRM system to a unified partner management framework using PRM, then you will need to focus on a few additional details regarding the sequence of the upgrade process, the logic behind it and your approach to problem-solving when you hit roadblocks.

Rip and replace – Start with the least disruptive application. While this approach may not be intuitive, and though the temptation is always to go after the biggest pain point, the reality is you need to minimize risk. Therefore, begin by undoing one application and moving it to a purpose-built PRM platform, and learn from that initial step.

Build a sequence – Once you have determined the first application, then focus on the next one and the next, beginning with less disruptive applications and continuing until you eventually get to the most impactful and highly used applications. Each organization is different and each has a different set of applications, so it makes little sense for me to suggest a specific application sequence and pretend it will work for every situation. We will discuss that topic in another article

Turn on, wait, then turn off – Once you have laid out a sequence, then you need to figure out the migration plan for each application in detail. However, don't try to focus on what you will be doing six quarters out. Focus on the immediate quarter, because your plan will evolve as you migrate the first applications. Also, don't switch all partners instantly to the new application. Turn on your PRM, migrate a few partners, observe, tweak and take stock. When any problems have been worked out, then fully migrate all partners, and then turn off your CRM application.

Run parallel – While this is an exception rather than a rule, you may end up deciding to keep certain partners for a while on your old CRM. Yes, you will have two infrastructures running parallel for a while, but be pragmatic: The time your organization will save on the new PRM will easily compensate for the complications of running a second system for a while.

Improvise and improve – Each deployment environment is different. If you have different partner tier systems in different regions, then you have to figure out how to deal with that. If you are in the middle of an acquisition, you have to take that into account. Here’s the bottom line: As long as you have people with specific domain expertise involved, improvise a plan, write it down and then commit to improving on it as you move forward quarter by quarter, you will ultimately succeed.

I know that migrating your entire infrastructure over from a patched-up CRM to a purpose-built PRM seems like a daunting task, but what choice do you have? If your current system is not giving you insights on how to run your business better, and if you are experiencing poor partner adoption, tepid engagement and low satisfaction levels, then business considerations alone should be driving this change. However, change is hard. There will be many in the organization who will question such a move despite executive sponsorship and raise issues with any new system. After all, very few people like switching to new software, no matter how much easier it may be in the long run. Functions may change, automation may reduce resource requirements and budget priorities, and ownership may shift. So you need to be strong and courageous, have a clear vision of the end result, work hard to secure leadership commitment and then relentlessly execute. With all this said, you are not alone. There are many resources for you tap in to make this CRM-to-PRM switch a reality. Analysts and consulting organizations are good places to turn to. Another place to turn is to vendors like ZINFI, who have been serving a full range of business environments, from the simplest to the most complex. (The details of making your PRM transition a reality is a topic we will soon cover in a separate article.)

I want to conclude by reassuring you that—once you finish migrating your patched-up applications to a unified PRM platform—you will see dramatic improvements in your business performance. You will understand why certain partners are delivering results, and why others are not. You will be able to figure out what programs are most effective, and how to scale those programs globally without losing momentum. And, before you know it, those four-to-six quarters will be over, and you will be where you always wanted to be, even if you thought you could never get there.

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If your organization has built a patched-up partner management system by adding applications (or objects) to your existing CRM infrastructure, then it’s likely you are investing enormous resources to answer basic business questions. This is where a purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) platform can significantly improve your business performance while reducing cost. How does it work? That’s what we will explore in this article.

Until recently, most companies selling through the channel relied on automating their partner management workflow by using their existing CRM infrastructure instead of deploying partner relationship management (PRM) automation. However, when you try to manage certain program-related activities—things like marketing, lead management, incentives management, training and so on—with this kind of patched-up infrastructure, you will encounter three main problems.

* Lack of data flow – When you use an object-based (i.e., application-based) approach to expand your current CRM system as a PRM platform, it makes the flow of records—and therefore business intelligence—very hard to develop. This, in fact, is the fundamental reason you are not realizing your business performance, because your infrastructure is failing to give you the right information at the right time.

* Enormous maintenance costs – Every time you want to make any addition or change to a part of the platform, you have to worry about what components you will end up breaking. Also, limited IT resources prevent you from making the changes you need to keep moving forward as your channel evolves and changes are required. This can quickly make your organization’s channel infrastructure obsolete.

* Poor partner experience – If you have six different applications (yes, we have seen it) patched to an existing CRM infrastructure, it is highly likely that each of these applications have their own business logic flow and therefore different user interfaces. It becomes a nightmare for a partner to learn all these different apps.

If you are reading this, nodding your head and saying, “Yes that's us, but we can never get out of this mess”—well, the reality is that you can get past the mess, provided you have courage, vision and true commitment. But how?

* Courage – To truly get out of the tangled web that you have woven over the years, you first need to muster organizational courage. Yes, I know. It's not easy, but the best approach is to engage multiple executive sponsors (cross-functional) and have this conversation. Lay out examples of poor partner experience, IT costs and change-management issues, but most importantly explain how these issues are affecting the organization’s ability to make the right decisions and perform at an optimal level.

* Vision – Once you have been able to muster executive support to start an evaluation process of what the end state could be, reach out to vendors like ZINFI and analyst firms to build a vision of what your PRM infrastructure should look like. Focus the discussion on key business questions you need to answer on a dynamic basis and the objectives you need to satisfy. Don’t get carried away looking at PRM features. Instead, begin by prioritizing key processes that are ripe for automation.

* Commitment – This is where a fully funded plan can make your vision a reality. When you have cultivated executive sponsorship, and you have created a vision of the end state and how it can drive profitable growth...

Budget is tight everywhere. Investment dollars in infrastructure are particularly hard to come by, especially when it comes to channel marketing automation investments. Partner relationship management (PRM) is a necessary starting point for any organization trying to reduce costs and increase partner productivity and ramp up sales. However, most organizations today are still running on yesterday’s channel marketing infrastructure, and are not able to secure executive support for such an investment. The status quo may be frustrating, but change is even harder, so most organizations—despite enormous need—fail to understand and are unable to articulate how new investments can drive channel productivity and growth. In this article, we will explore how you can champion such investments in PRM software and associated automation and secure executive support.

When you step back and look at your channel with an eye toward increasing partner productivity, your first task is to figure out what the overall organizational directions and objectives are. Most companies have specific organizational goals every year. These may be essentially a continuation of goals from the past year or they may comprise a new set of initiatives going forward. These initiatives may be related to recruiting new partners, training existing partners better with a new product that is being launched, or leveraging a recent acquisition the company may have made. The goals might be tied to lead management and tracking, or perhaps enabling partners with better marketing programs and other assets. The point is, you have to figure out what the key initiatives are, and then find one or two core initiatives that you can start digging into deeper to enhance your understanding, so you are in a better position to articulate a direct relationship between organizational goals and the many benefits of PRM automation.

In general, PRM software automation helps with three core areas:

Increase partner revenue. Automation can drive more revenue per partner through efficiencies like better engagement, ease of doing business and better training. What you measure is what you get, and automating your channel workflow gives you great visibility into what you are doing well and what isn’t working. Because PRM software provides this kind of business intelligence, you can use it to make the right decisions as you try to figure out which aspects of your channel programs need to be changed. This may include recruiting different partners, increasing training or perhaps changing your incentive programs. With automation, you will be able to make all of these judgements based on the data and insights that your PRM software dynamically gathers for you instead of basing decisions on gut feelings or anecdotal evidence.

Reduce operating costs. For most organizations seeking savings and efficiencies in their channel marketing processes, operating costs represent another big missed opportunity. It is a proven fact that software can eliminate costs by automating repeatable steps and providing a more streamlined set of activities. This has already happened in nearly every aspect of most businesses—whether you are talking about financial accounting, customer relationship management, manufacturing or inventory control—but for the most part it hasn’t happened yet in channel management. PRM software can have a huge impact in eliminating costs related to channel sales and marketing operations, and it typically drives nearly instant return on investment.

Increase predictability and scalability. Perhaps the biggest challenge in channel management today is the inability of organizations to accurately forecast what will happen weeks or months down the road. However, proper PRM automation can provide complete visibility into the progress of partner recruitment, training, demand generation, lead management, incentives return and other key measurements, and it can show the trends related to these metrics in a very clear and concise way. This capability allows organizations to scale—to do more with less. Because PRM software allows you to easily automate programs and process steps, you can also use it to replicate programs across various countries in a seamless way, once you know what is working and what is not.

We all know most manual processes really don’t work very well in today’s hypercompetitive, face-paced business environment. Manual processes inevitably introduce human error, and every time an organization introduces changes, workflows based on manual processes must also be relearned, which takes time, increases errors and has a negative impact on productivity. Also, because there is little or no visibility into the effectiveness of processes performed manually, you often have a “blind leading the blind” scenario, which makes effective process improvement nearly impossible. Manual reports are not dynamic and timely; therefore, teams at various levels are not empowered to make the right decisions. Investing in channel management automation and deploying PRM software can solve these problems almost immediately, providing instant return through increases in partner revenue, reductions in operating costs and increased predictability and scalability.

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Budget is tight everywhere. Investment dollars in infrastructure are particularly hard to come by, especially when it comes to channel marketing automation investments. Partner relationship management (PRM) is a necessary starting point for any organization trying to reduce costs and increase partner productivity and ramp up sales. However, most organizations today are still running on yesterday’s channel marketing infrastructure, and are not able to secure executive support for such an investment. The status quo may be frustrating, but change is even harder, so most organizations—despite enormous need—fail to understand and are unable to articulate how new investments can drive channel productivity and growth. In this article, we will explore how you can champion such investments in PRM software and associated automation and secure executive support.

When you step back and look at your channel with an eye toward increasing partner productivity, your first task is to figure out what the overall organizational directions and objectives are. Most companies have specific organizational goals every year. These may be essentially a continuation of goals from the past year or they may comprise a new set of initiatives going forward. These initiatives may be related to recruiting new partners, training existing partners better with a new product that is being launched, or leveraging a recent acquisition the company may have made. The goals might be tied to lead management and tracking, or perhaps enabling partners with better marketing programs and other assets. The point is, you have to figure out what the key initiatives are, and then find one or two core initiatives that you can start digging into deeper to enhance your understanding, so you are in a better position to articulate a direct relationship between organizational goals and the many benefits of PRM automation.

In general, PRM software automation helps with three core areas:

* Increase partner revenue. Automation can drive more revenue per partner through efficiencies like better engagement, ease of doing business and better training. What you measure is what you get, and automating your channel workflow gives you great visibility into what you are doing well and what isn’t working. Because PRM software provides this kind of business intelligence, you can use it to make the right decisions as you try to figure out which aspects of your channel programs need to be changed. This may include recruiting different partners, increasing training or perhaps changing your incentive programs. With automation, you will be able to make all of these judgements based on the data and insights that your PRM software dynamically gathers for you instead of basing decisions on gut feelings or anecdotal evidence.

* Reduce operating costs. For most organizations seeking savings and efficiencies in their channel marketing processes, operating costs represent another big missed opportunity. It is a proven fact that software can eliminate costs by automating repeatable steps and providing a more streamlined set of activities. This has already happened in nearly every aspect of most businesses—whether you are talking about financial accounting,

Last updated: September 2026

PRM (Partner Relationship Management) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) are the two most important software systems for any company with both a direct sales team and an indirect channel program. Both are built on similar SaaS architectures, manage relationship records, and automate workflows — but they serve entirely different users, sales motions, and operational goals. This guide explains the core similarities and differences between PRM and CRM, provides a side-by-side comparison, and explains why the most effective channel organizations integrate both rather than choosing between them.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

CRM manages direct relationships with end customers; PRM manages indirect relationships with channel partners — resellers, distributors, MSPs, and referral agents.

Both share a similar three-tier SaaS architecture, but their functional modules, pricing models, and workflows are purpose-built for different sales motions.

Using a CRM alone for partner management leads to manual workarounds, limited partner engagement, poor channel visibility, and higher total cost of ownership.

PRM and CRM are most powerful when integrated: partner-sourced leads sync to CRM, deal registrations flow into the opportunity pipeline, and revenue attribution covers both direct and indirect channels.

ZINFI's Unified Partner Management (UPM) platform is purpose-built to integrate with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics 365, rated 97/100 on G2 — the highest in the PRM category.

What Is Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Software?

Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software is a purpose-built SaaS platform that helps companies manage and scale their indirect sales channels — the resellers, distributors, MSPs, systems integrators, referral agents, and strategic alliances that sell a vendor's products or services to end customers. Where a direct sales team owns the relationship with the buyer, channel partners act as independent intermediaries. PRM provides vendors with the operational infrastructure to recruit, onboard, enable, incentivize, and measure partners at scale.

Core Capabilities of a PRM Platform

Partner Portal: A role-based, multi-tier online hub that gives partners access to sales materials, training, deal registration, and co-branded campaign tools — all within vendor-defined brand and compliance guidelines.

Partner Onboarding & Training: Automated onboarding programs, SCORM-compliant learning modules, certification tracks, and structured onboarding journeys that reduce time-to-first-deal for new partners.

Deal Registration Management: Partners log and protect their sales opportunities directly in the PRM, preventing channel conflict and ensuring accurate credit attribution.

Market Development Funds (MDF): End-to-end workflows for requesting, approving, and tracking co-marketing funds, including campaign kits partners can launch directly from the portal.

Through-Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA): Co-branded email sequences, social syndication, microsites, and digital advertising tools that partners execute within vendor-defined brand guidelines.

Partner Performance Analytics: Dashboards tracking partner-sourced revenue, deal velocity, training completion, certification status, engagement levels, and ROI across the full partner program.

Incentive Management: Automated calculation and distribution of commissions, rebates, SPIFFs, and other performance-based incentives with transparent partner dashboards.

What Is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software manages the direct relationship between a company and its end customers. It consolidates customer information from every touchpoint into a unified record — contact details, interaction history, purchase history, open support tickets, and communication preferences — and provides sales, marketing, and customer service teams with the workflows to act on that data. Leading CRM platforms include Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Core Capabilities of a CRM Platform

Sales Automation: Lead capture, opportunity management, pipeline forecasting, quote generation, and order processing for direct sales teams.

Marketing Automation: Campaign management, lead nurturing sequences, audience segmentation, and marketing analytics for customer-facing teams.

Customer Service & Support: Case management, knowledge base, SLA tracking, and customer feedback collection.

Reporting & Analytics: Dashboards and reports on pipeline health, campaign ROI, customer satisfaction, and sales team performance.

Account & Contact Management: A unified record of every customer relationship — the central hub for direct sales, marketing, and service activity.

CRM is one of the most horizontal software categories in enterprise technology. Because of that breadth, major workflow customization is typically required after initial deployment, and adding partner-specific functionality requires either expensive professional services or additional third-party applications — contributing to a higher total cost of ownership for channel use cases.

PRM vs. CRM: Core Similarities

PRM and CRM share foundational architectural and workflow characteristics. Understanding the overlap helps channel teams make the case for investing in both systems rather than forcing one to cover both use cases.

Three-tier SaaS architecture: Both PRM and CRM are built on modern web services infrastructure using a database layer, application layer, and web presentation layer — and both are typically delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS).

Core records structure: Both systems manage a central record — partners in PRM, customers in CRM — with identical foundational fields (contact name, company, address, role) and support for custom field configuration to match each organization's operational requirements.

Application framework extensibility: Both platforms allow additional modules to be integrated. A CRM can be extended with quoting software or CPQ; a PRM can be extended with an LMS or incentive management engine. ZINFI's Unified Partner Management platform integrates all of these capabilities natively.

Workflow automation: Both PRM and CRM automate internal processes — lead routing, approval workflows, pipeline reviews, training assignments, and incentive calculations — reducing manual work and accelerating deal cycles.

Business intelligence and analytics: Both platforms provide configurable reporting and analytics. The most important area of similarity is the shared goal of optimizing automated processes through data, identifying what is working, and redirecting investment toward higher-performing activities.

PRM vs. CRM: Key Differences

Despite their architectural similarities, PRM and CRM diverge significantly in purpose, user base, pricing model, and functional depth. The table below provides a direct side-by-side comparison across the dimensions that matter most for channel program decisions.

Dimension

PRM (Partner Relationship Management)

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Primary Purpose

Manage indirect channel partners — resellers, distributors, MSPs, referral agents

Manage direct relationships with end customers

Primary Users

Channel managers, partner-facing teams, external partners

Direct sales reps, marketing, customer service, RevOps

Pricing Model

Unlimited-use, partner-scaled licensing (e.g., ZINFI)

Per-user, per-seat licensing

Partner Portal

✓ Role-based, multi-tier, external-facing

✗ Not purpose-built for external partner access

Deal Registration

✓ Native — with conflict detection and approval workflows

✗ Not available natively

MDF Management

✓ Native — request, approval, campaign-to-reimbursement

✗ Not available

Training / LMS

✓ SCORM-compliant, certification gating, onboarding paths

◑ Some platforms include internal training; not built for external partners

Through-Channel Marketing (TCMA)

✓ Co-branded campaigns, social syndication, microsites

✗ Not purpose-built

Incentive Automation

✓ Commissions, rebates, SPIFFs, tier-based incentives

◑ Commission tracking possible; not designed for multi-partner incentive structures

Multi-Tier Partner Hierarchy

✓ Vendor → Distributor → Reseller hierarchies supported

✗ Not available

Global Support Model

Channel-specific deployment, domain expertise, concierge support

Product support; limited channel-specific deployment knowledge

Total Cost of Ownership

✓ Lower — purpose-built, unlimited use, integrated modules

◑ Higher for partner use cases — customization and add-ons required

Best Fit

Organizations with indirect channel programs, reseller networks,...

The acronym PRM stands for partner relationship management; CRM stands for customer relationship management. PRM and CRM are quite similar in nature, both architecturally and in terms of their functionality. However, there are some fundamental differences between the two types of platforms. Let’s begin by discussing some of the similarities between PRM and CRM, and then we will discuss the differences between the two.

Core Similarities between PRM and CRM

Here is a high-level summary of how PRM tends to behave like a CRM, mostly from an architectural and workflow perspective:

* Architecture – Both PRM or CRM use software that is built on the latest web services technology. Both employ a three-tier architecture (database layer, application layer and web presentation layer). They also tend to run on software as a service (SaaS) infrastructure.

* Application framework – Both PRM and CRM have a core platform which houses records—records of partners in the case of PRM, and records of end users in the case of CRM. However, additional applications can be plugged into this framework to do more. A common example is quote-processing software that you can plug into a basic CRM application, allowing the sales rep to send quotes directly from the CRM to the client. Similarly, with PRM you can plug in a learning management system (LMS) or partner incentives management (PIM) software to keep track of partner training or incentives programs.

* Records structure – The records structure for both PRM and CRM are pretty much identical at a core level, including fields for things like contact name, title, company name and address. Like a state-of-the-art CRM platform, a best-in-class PRM platform also allows records customization and the addition of various customizable fields. This is essential to allow adaptation of a basic record structure into a specific organization. Since each organization is different, chances are most of the fields that are used and tracked are also going to be different.

* Workflow – Both CRM and PRM provide a logical workflow where you can automate various internal activities, such as lead management, pipeline review, authorization of pricing, quotes, training, incentives, etc. As I noted earlier, fundamentally a PRM works just like a CRM in many aspects, especially when it comes to workflow. If you are considering investing in a PRM platform, make sure it flows like your CRM.

* Business intelligence – One of the most important areas of similarity between CRM and PRM is analytics. Any state-of-the-art PRM or CRM platform should allow users to run customized reports and analytics. Both types of platforms are designed to automate an organization’s workflow, but running analytics allows them to optimize their automated processes by identifying what is working and what is not.

When you are picking a PRM platform you need to make sure the fundamentals are sound and will work seamlessly with your CRM platform.

Core Differences between PRM and CRM

With the similarities in mind, let’s now focus on what’s different between CRM and PRM platforms.

* Purpose-built – A CRM system is, by definition, designed for customer relationship management, so in most cases the way accounts are set up is designed for a direct sales team to prospect,

Partner relationship management (PRM) is an important set of activities in channel management. Over the past decade, multiple SaaS vendors like ZINFI have brought significant innovation to market in the PRM software segment to enable a vendor selling through the channel to automate partner relationship management activities. In this article we will explore some of the basic capabilities that your PRM software must have to give you a solid start.

When you think about channel management and selling through a partner base, one of the most important factors is keeping partners informed and involved in your company’s programs and activities. Getting mind share from a channel partner is the first hurdle. The next hurdle is to generate interest and engagement—ideally, leading to a transaction. This is where a start-of-the-art partner portal is essential. Your PRM software should come with a set of core capabilities allowing you to set up a dynamic partner portal.

With that in mind, here are the key criteria that your PRM software must satisfy to make sure the partner portal you set up will address all of the core requirements:

Personalized access – It’s very important to make sure the content and application modules (such as incentives, planning, marketing and sales) that you provide to partners are highly focused and personalized to specific partner types or characteristics, including partner tier, specialization, geographical location, and so on. This is a fundamental requirement for your PRM software—it must be able to link content to the partner profile.

Mobile responsiveness – Why is mobile responsiveness important? Because your partners are always on the move, and more than 50% of portal access is now achieved via mobile devices. Therefore, your PRM software must be able to provide mobile-responsive web content in an application user interface that is optimized for mobile devices.

Personalized communication – We’ve already mentioned the importance of personalized access to web content and application modules. Similarly, when engaged in outbound communication, you need to make sure all touches (email, calls, direct mails, campaigns, etc.) are highly personalized. For example, you don’t want to be sending information or appeals to your silver partners that are actually relevant only to your gold partners. That’s a waste of effort and resources, and will only frustrate your partners. That’s why your PRM software must be set up to allow you to personalize communication.

Localization – One of the most important features of your PRM software should be to allow complete localization of applications, content and the user interface. In order for you to provide truly personalized and mobile-responsive access to your partners, you need to make sure that you can offer content and a seamless user experience in key languages other than English.

Access and utilization tracking – This is a critical requirement for your PRM software, allowing your sales and marketing team to figure out what programs and assets are working and what are not —and to track success metrics by various partners groups, types, locations, geographies, etc.

In other articles we have emphasized the need for your PRM software to provide several core applications—like partner onboarding, training, marketing and sales enablement, and incentives management. As you can see from the brief list above, it is also crucial that your PRM software can be customized to different partner types or profiles, with features like personalization, mobile access in a localized environment, and the ability to track asset and application utilization for your internal sales and marketing stakeholders.

Once you have the right applications and right capabilities in your PRM software, you can truly begin to automate your channel management activities end to end. We at ZINFI live and thrive by the creation and leadership of Unified Partner Management (UPM) capabilities. Our UPM platform has fully configurable PRM software which not only provides you with all of the right applications, but also gives you the ability to fully personalize and localize content and applications, provide them in a highly responsive way, and track everything that is working or not working in a dynamic fashion to truly drive partner engagement.

If you want to know more, please go to our site for more details.

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Partner relationship management (PRM) is an important set of activities in channel management. Over the past decade, multiple SaaS vendors like ZINFI have brought significant innovation to market in the PRM software segment to enable a vendor selling through the channel to automate partner relationship management activities. In this article we will explore some of the basic capabilities that your PRM software must have to give you a solid start.

When you think about channel management and selling through a partner base, one of the most important factors is keeping partners informed and involved in your company’s programs and activities. Getting mind share from a channel partner is the first hurdle. The next hurdle is to generate interest and engagement—ideally, leading to a transaction. This is where a start-of-the-art partner portal is essential. Your PRM software should come with a set of core capabilities allowing you to set up a dynamic partner portal.

With that in mind, here are the key criteria that your PRM software must satisfy to make sure the partner portal you set up will address all of the core requirements:

* Personalized access – It’s very important to make sure the content and application modules (such as incentives, planning, marketing and sales) that you provide to partners are highly focused and personalized to specific partner types or characteristics, including partner tier, specialization, geographical location, and so on. This is a fundamental requirement for your PRM software—it must be able to link content to the partner profile.

* Mobile responsiveness – Why is mobile responsiveness important? Because your partners are always on the move, and more than 50% of portal access is now achieved via mobile devices. Therefore, your PRM software must be able to provide mobile-responsive web content in an application user interface that is optimized for mobile devices.

* Personalized communication – We’ve already mentioned the importance of personalized access to web content and application modules. Similarly, when engaged in outbound communication, you need to make sure all touches (email, calls, direct mails, campaigns, etc.) are highly personalized. For example, you don’t want to be sending information or appeals to your silver partners that are actually relevant only to your gold partners. That’s a waste of effort and resources, and will only frustrate your partners. That’s why your PRM software must be set up to allow you to personalize communication.

* Localization – One of the most important features of your PRM software should be to allow complete localization of applications, content and the user interface. In order for you to provide truly personalized and mobile-responsive access to your partners, you need to make sure that you can offer content and a seamless user experience in key languages other than English.

* Access and utilization tracking – This is a critical requirement for your PRM software, allowing your sales and marketing team to figure out what programs and assets are working and what are not —and to track success metrics by various partners groups, types, locations, geographies, etc.

In other articles we have emphasized the need for your PRM software to provide several core applications—like partner onboarding, training, marketing and sales enablement, and

The partner portal is possibly the single most important tool for a vendor selling through channel. While channel programs, policies and people are all very important ingredients for partner relationship management, in our digital world a properly built, state-of-the-art partner portal can make the difference between a successful channel program and one that fails. However, the majority of partner portals today never realize their full potential of serving the needs of the channel partners and enabling a vendor to scale its business globally. Why is that? Let’s examine some of the primary reasons behind this failure.

Portals are not localized. Most companies that are selling globally today may have some localized web content, but typically the user interface of the partner portal is not localized. As a result, partners that are more comfortable doing business in English are absolutely fine, but in countries where English is a secondary language or where partners are simply not comfortable using English, those partners can be very hesitant to use the partner portal. At ZINFI, we have observed that localizing the portal consistently increases utilization by 30% to 40% on a worldwide basis.

Lack of mobile responsiveness. We know most partners are out and about seeing their customers. While some of the technical staff may be using the partner portal via the web on a desktop computer, most individuals at partner organizations today access the partner portal via a mobile application. Therefore, the partner portal needs to be—at the very least—mobile responsive. Ideally, vendors will provide a mobile app that delivers some core functionalities tied to things like partner onboarding, training, lead management, deal registration, incentives management and some basic reports. While the goal is not necessarily to replicate the entire partner portal in mobile form—an unrealistic and ultimately be overwhelming objective—there are several core features and functionality that it makes sense to deliver via a dedicated mobile app.

Confusing content distribution. A typical vendor that generates a few hundred million dollars in revenue selling through a partner base may carry anywhere from ten to several hundred product lines. Each product or solution is associated with specific content in the form of product data sheets, service sheets, pricing guidelines, competitive positioning, and so on. How is this content actually categorized, tagged and distributed? That’s an incredibly important variable. Another crucial consideration is how new content within the partner portal is tagged and separated from older, less immediately relevant material. For example, if there’s a new launch of a specific product or service, all of the content related to that should be promoted through the partner portal so it’s easy for partners to find as soon as they log in, and is both web responsive and mobile responsive.

Lack of robust search capabilities. When partners come to your partner portal, they are already busy. They are carrying multiple product lines and are likely accessing multiple partner portals. When it comes to the partner portal, they do so with a specific purpose in mind. Our data shows that the number one reason a partner logs in to the partner portal is related to customer support: Either they’re creating tickets or checking the status of their tickets because they want to monitor how they’re doing in helping their customers. Other common reasons for logging in include learning about different products and services offered by the vendor, and accessing marketing and sales materials. In each of these scenarios, the partner is thinking of a specific purpose and a specific solution. The partner portal is rich with content, but if specific content is not easy to find via a quick keyword search, it defeats the purpose of having the content and the partners get frustrated and leave. That’s why having great search capabilities within the partner portal is absolutely critical.

Lack of training. You may have a great partner portal, but if partners are not trained how to use it in the most effective way, then it becomes just another form of communication that remains underutilized. Vendors need to hold regular training sessions using some form of marketing concierge and actually walk partners through what’s available in the partner portal, what’s new and what’s on the horizon. They should also make recordings of training sessions available in “bite size” chunks (read our article - How to Provide Partner Marketing Concierge Help in Bite-Sized Chunks) of two to three minutes each in a “Help” section or a “How to Use the Partner Portal Effectively” section. Without that content, partners may become lost and they won’t know who to call. Without a marketing concierge infrastructure that offers training sessions and help videos, partners are left essentially to their own devices to figure out how to use the partner portal. Don’t let that happen. Make bite-size videos available in every section of the portal (sales, marketing, etc.) that explain how to use that section. Teaching partners how to use the portal will drive up usage. It’s that simple.

Lack of a simplified program layout. This is a very important consideration. If you’re deriving most of your revenue from the channel, chances are you are recruiting new partners or recruiting existing partners into new programs. There is an area for that in your partner portal that focuses on onboarding. Or you may have partner training tied specifically to marketing, sales, incentives or technical products and services. The content that informs your partners about these different areas needs to be laid out in a simplified way so partners can quickly and easily access what they need. While most vendors spend large amounts of money on infrastructure and people to ensure the partner portal is properly supported and developed, many partner portals remain essentially an extension of a past in which partner-related functions were managed through a patchwork of multiple systems and programs. That kind of fragmentation inhibits usage of the portal. Vendors need to rethink the user experience and optimize how the programs they wish to promote are presented in the partner portal.

Lack of program alignment. Vendors typically offer a lot of programs tied to incentives. One of the most effective ways to drive partner program utilization is to promote specific programs—not just through emails or telemarketing aimed at end buyers, but by driving partners to specific parts of the partner portal, promoting those programs with incentives and providing related content right where they need it. For example, if you are running a specific campaign where a reseller can earn extra points or a sales rep can earn extra dollars, create a landing page that describes the campaign and the incentives offered, and make sure that training related to the solution you are promoting, as well any marketing programs and tools you are making available in conjunction with the solution, are visible from that landing page and easily accessible. Rigorous alignment of programs with content from various parts of the portal can drive up portal utilization substantially.

In summary, very few vendors actually take a formal, organized approach to driving utilization of the partner portal through strategic program usage and alignment. Don’t forget, if you have a successful program, you can actually use that success, promoting it to increase partner engagement through your partner portal, but many vendors fail to take advantage of that opportunity. To do so successfully, however, user-centric considerations like localization, content layout, search functionality and mobile functionality all need to be carefully thought through. If you have a highly compelling solution that partners love to sell, or you’ve recently launched a new product line or you’ve just required a hot company, by all means promote that through your partner portal. But be careful you don’t use that opportunity just to promote the portal or the product being promoted; instead, use it as a vehicle to get your partners trained on the portal. Having an integrated, strategic approach to driving partner engagement through the partner portal can significantly increase utilization across your entire partner base, and also drive your profitable revenue growth forward.

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The partner portal is possibly the single most important tool for a vendor selling through channel. While channel programs, policies and people are all very important ingredients for partner relationship management, in our digital world a properly built, state-of-the-art partner portal can make the difference between a successful channel program and one that fails. However, the majority of partner portals today never realize their full potential of serving the needs of the channel partners and enabling a vendor to scale its business globally. Why is that? Let’s examine some of the primary reasons behind this failure.* Portals are not localized. Most companies that are selling globally today may have some localized web content, but typically the user interface of the partner portal is not localized. As a result, partners that are more comfortable doing business in English are absolutely fine, but in countries where English is a secondary language or where partners are simply not comfortable using English, those partners can be very hesitant to use the partner portal. At ZINFI, we have observed that localizing the portal consistently increases utilization by 30% to 40% on a worldwide basis.* Lack of mobile responsiveness. We know most partners are out and about seeing their customers. While some of the technical staff may be using the partner portal via the web on a desktop computer, most individuals at partner organizations today access the partner portal via a mobile application. Therefore, the partner portal needs to be—at the very least—mobile responsive. Ideally, vendors will provide a mobile app that delivers some core functionalities tied to things like partner onboarding, training, lead management, deal registration, incentives management and some basic reports. While the goal is not necessarily to replicate the entire partner portal in mobile form—an unrealistic and ultimately be overwhelming objective—there are several core features and functionality that it makes sense to deliver via a dedicated mobile app.* Confusing content distribution. A typical vendor that generates a few hundred million dollars in revenue selling through a partner base may carry anywhere from ten to several hundred product lines. Each product or solution is associated with specific content in the form of product data sheets, service sheets, pricing guidelines, competitive positioning, and so on. How is this content actually categorized, tagged and distributed? That’s an incredibly important variable. Another crucial consideration is how new content within the partner portal is tagged and separated from older, less immediately relevant material. For example, if there’s a new launch of a specific product or service, all of the content related to that should be promoted through the partner portal so it’s easy for partners to find as soon as they log in, and is both web responsive and mobile responsive.* Lack of robust search capabilities. When partners come to your partner portal, they are already busy. They are carrying multiple product lines and are likely accessing multiple partner portals. When it comes to the partner portal, they do so with a specific purpose in mind. Our data shows that the number one reason a partner logs in to the partner portal is related ...