ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

We frequently see vendors and providers struggling to figure out what would be the right set of programs to use Market Development Funds (MDF) or Co-operative (Co-op) Marketing Funds effectively to drive value for their partners and agents, and also provide high level of marketing ROI. In fact, there are a few insights that make it easier to do the right things right.Over the years we have seen organizations that can sell through a channel in almost a sure fire way and increase their return on investment from Market Development Funds (MDF) by focusing on a core few programs. These seven programs and ideas certainly do not rule out the opportunity to innovate in other ways, but a good approach would be to allocate more significant portion of your MDF budget across these areas first while setting aside the remainder as discretionary budget for other, creative marketing programs.* Partner Training – If you have a fee-paid certification program in place, one way to increasing return is to allow up to 80% reimbursement of strategic training programs. This can certainly vary quarter by quarter, as you emphasize certain business lines or product lines, but overall, running promotions to waive certification fees is a great way to increase competencies with your partner organization. It also helps create sales momentum as fully trained technicians can engage their internal sales resources to generate demand.* Installed Base Sales – Organizations with large number of end customers and a broad channel at times struggle to deploy Market Development Funds (MDF) to drive demand. However, the easiest way to drive near term return is to create upgrade promotions and add-on campaigns for your installed base. In this way, you enable your channel to drive focused campaigns. If you have the ability to track point-of-sales data from your sales organization or your channel teams (distribution, etc.), you can very quickly track return on investment from these programs.* End User Webinars – Webinars are the most cost effective way to generate demand – yet very few vendors effectively uses this mechanism. If you have the right Channel Marketing Automation platform, you are better equipped to drive high levels of attendance to centralized webinars. The Channel Marketing Automation platform allows the vendor to present a centralized webinar, while partners are able to drive their existing base of customers and prospects to attend. Security settings mean they don’t need to worry about losing those records to the vendor’s sales team or other partners. Creating a regular webinar series where you present, but partners drive traffic and follow up to close can provide tangible ROI.* Appointment Setting for SME and Enterprise Campaigns – To get return from your tele-campaigns, the average selling price needs to be at least 20-30x of the program cost. You don’t want to spend telemarketing or tele-prospecting budget on SMB campaigns, as the average transaction cost tends to be higher in mid-market and enterprise solutions. So, if your tele-campaign cost per partner varies from $2,000 to $10,000 (depending on the activities and countries where you are running the campaign) then you have to be able to close one or multiple deals in the $40,000 to $300,000 range. Therefore, handpicking the campaigns that you want to fund is critical to drive near term results.* SMB Roadshows – Allowing partners to run modestly funded lunch-and-learn events (20 people attending with $1,

We frequently see vendors and providers struggling to figure out what would be the right set of programs to use Market Development Funds (MDF) or Co-operative (Co-op) Marketing Funds effectively to drive value for their partners and agents, and also provide high level of marketing ROI. In fact, there are a few insights that make it easier to do the right things right.

Over the years we have seen organizations that can sell through a channel in almost a sure fire way and increase their return on investment from Market Development Funds (MDF) by focusing on a core few programs. These seven programs and ideas certainly do not rule out the opportunity to innovate in other ways, but a good approach would be to allocate more significant portion of your MDF budget across these areas first while setting aside the remainder as discretionary budget for other, creative marketing programs.

* Partner Training – If you have a fee-paid certification program in place, one way to increasing return is to allow up to 80% reimbursement of strategic training programs. This can certainly vary quarter by quarter, as you emphasize certain business lines or product lines, but overall, running promotions to waive certification fees is a great way to increase competencies with your partner organization. It also helps create sales momentum as fully trained technicians can engage their internal sales resources to generate demand.

* Installed Base Sales – Organizations with large number of end customers and a broad channel at times struggle to deploy Market Development Funds (MDF) to drive demand. However, the easiest way to drive near term return is to create upgrade promotions and add-on campaigns for your installed base. In this way, you enable your channel to drive focused campaigns. If you have the ability to track point-of-sales data from your sales organization or your channel teams (distribution, etc.), you can very quickly track return on investment from these programs.

* End User Webinars – Webinars are the most cost effective way to generate demand – yet very few vendors effectively uses this mechanism. If you have the right Channel Marketing Automation platform, you are better equipped to drive high levels of attendance to centralized webinars. The Channel Marketing Automation platform allows the vendor to present a centralized webinar, while partners are able to drive their existing base of customers and prospects to attend. Security settings mean they don’t need to worry about losing those records to the vendor’s sales team or other partners. Creating a regular webinar series where you present, but partners drive traffic and follow up to close can provide tangible ROI.

* Appointment Setting for SME and Enterprise Campaigns – To get return from your tele-campaigns, the average selling price needs to be at least 20-30x of the program cost. You don’t want to spend telemarketing or tele-prospecting budget on SMB campaigns, as the average transaction cost tends to be higher in mid-market and enterprise solutions. So, if your tele-campaign cost per partner varies from $2,000 to $10,000 (depending on the activities and countries where you are running the campaign) then you have to be able to close one or multiple deals in the $40,000 to $300,000 range. Therefore, handpicking the campaigns that you want to fund is critical to drive near term results.

* SMB Roadshows – Allowing partners to run modestly funded lunch-and-learn events (20 people attending with $1,

There’s a pot of gold waiting for IT solution providers – and technology vendors are almost uniformly frustrated in getting their channel to make use of it. Vendors who sell through a channel or an agent network allocate between 1 and 2% of their top line revenue as Market Development Funds for their partners. However, for the most part, these Market Development Funds (MDF) fail to realize their potential. There are many reasons, chief among which are the lack of organized ways to allocate funds, track activities and measure outcomes. As a result, MDF is notorious for yielding the worst return in comparison to other direct marketing activities. Through our years of engagement in channel programs around the world, we have observed that companies who take the following steps to get the highest return from their MDF programs.

Understand where MDF will be relevant – Vendor companies provide clear directives for their direct marketing teams that, in turn, should dictate how funds are allocated across business lines, product lines and activities. Some of these direct marketing budgets may be allocated for branding, with a portion also reserved for demand generation. This is an important dividing line. In a B2B environment, MDF initiatives focused on branding rarely produce good return, until and unless a large – possibly huge - amount of fund is allocated. The ‘Intel Inside’ campaign, which is based solely on generating brand awareness, is an example of the behemoth branding approach. On the other side of the line, focused demand generation activities with specific sales or lead generation goals and defined time windows are more likely to produce measurable results.

Set a clear strategy – Once you have determined where to allocate your funds, you need to determine where and how you want to drive return: marketers always need to begin with an end in mind. Identification of markets, business lines, products, customer types and partner capabilities are all critical elements. The majority of vendors open their MDF programs to all partners and offer a 50 to 80% reimbursement rate for approved activities - but often the funds are wasted in unproductive activities, or unused because partners can’t get beyond the planning stage. A better approach would be to pick a tightly defined solution or product set, focus on a market area, narrow the partner qualification criteria, and work within those boundaries with proven programs that you know will drive results.

Stick to tried and tested campaigns – Marketing is a blend of art and science, and new campaigns often need adjustment in the initial stages. The road to success takes experimentation with campaign targets, messaging, methods and offers. Since partners are invariably time-constrained and lack marketing resources, using the partner network to experiment with new campaigns and programs is a sure way to fail. Yes, there are exceptions, but if you want to ensure return, test new programs with your direct sales teams, and only then promote successful campaigns via your indirect channel.

Set guidelines and reporting requirements – We often see organizations allocate MDF, roll out programs, pay out on MDF claims and then move on to other initiatives without requiring partners to report back on activities and results. An effective MDF process requires a structured plan approval followed by an equally structured proof of perform and ROI reporting process. These must be enforced if the MDF program is to succeed. Channel account management team members need to have regular reviews with the partner base to make sure partners understand that they are not only responsible for driving execution, but also are on the hook for reporting results. Otherwise, you will not be able to track ROI.

Deploy localized, automated tools– We are all busy, but there is way to create more time: by strategically deploying Channel Marketing Automation tools to reduce workload and streamline tracking and reporting. Without an automated MDF management process, both vendors and partners end up spending an enormous amount of time via email, spreadsheet, phone calls, and meetings to approve a marketing plan, track results and pay out funds. This not only drains organizational effectiveness, but can also have a negative psychological impact on the partner, who will not be energized by a time-consuming planning and claim process.

Promote success– Once you have picked a clear strategy, defined programs, rolled them out to a group of partners and started to track results, get out the megaphone. It’s important to aggressively promote successes across your partner base both locally and globally. Success breeds success, and never more so than in the channel.

Do it again – Marketers are creative by nature, and always challenged to try something new. However, before you switch horses, make sure your campaigns and programs have really run out of their potential. If a campaign is still working, let it roll. Developing a successful campaign through the channel takes at least six months – three months to ramp and roll out, and another three months to execute and track. Many marketing programs, including MDF-funded programs, run successfully year after year. So, before you give up and move on, make sure that a change is warranted and that you’re not killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

ZINFI’s Partner Relationship Management (PRM) platform can provide you with a complete set of integrated Channel Marketing Automation platform. ZINFI’s PRM platform comes with an easy to use fully configurable Market Development Funds (MDF) management capabilities, which can support multiple currencies, exchange rates and local languages. Full integration with ZINFI’s Market-Through Partner Marketing Automation capabilities allows end to end tracking of campaigns and results.

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There’s a pot of gold waiting for IT solution providers – and technology vendors are almost uniformly frustrated in getting their channel to make use of it. Vendors who sell through a channel or an agent network allocate between 1 and 2% of their top line revenue as Market Development Funds for their partners. However, for the most part, these Market Development Funds (MDF) fail to realize their potential. There are many reasons, chief among which are the lack of organized ways to allocate funds, track activities and measure outcomes. As a result, MDF is notorious for yielding the worst return in comparison to other direct marketing activities. Through our years of engagement in channel programs around the world, we have observed that companies who take the following steps to get the highest return from their MDF programs.* Understand where MDF will be relevant – Vendor companies provide clear directives for their direct marketing teams that, in turn, should dictate how funds are allocated across business lines, product lines and activities. Some of these direct marketing budgets may be allocated for branding, with a portion also reserved for demand generation. This is an important dividing line. In a B2B environment, MDF initiatives focused on branding rarely produce good return, until and unless a large – possibly huge – amount of fund is allocated. The ‘Intel Inside’ campaign, which is based solely on generating brand awareness, is an example of the behemoth branding approach. On the other side of the line, focused demand generation activities with specific sales or lead generation goals and defined time windows are more likely to produce measurable results.* Set a clear strategy – Once you have determined where to allocate your funds, you need to determine where and how you want to drive return: marketers always need to begin with an end in mind. Identification of markets, business lines, products, customer types and partner capabilities are all critical elements. The majority of vendors open their MDF programs to all partners and offer a 50 to 80% reimbursement rate for approved activities – but often the funds are wasted in unproductive activities, or unused because partners can’t get beyond the planning stage. A better approach would be to pick a tightly defined solution or product set, focus on a market area, narrow the partner qualification criteria, and work within those boundaries with proven programs that you know will drive results.* Stick to tried and tested campaigns – Marketing is a blend of art and science, and new campaigns often need adjustment in the initial stages. The road to success takes experimentation with campaign targets, messaging, methods and offers. Since partners are invariably time-constrained and lack marketing resources, using the partner network to experiment with new campaigns and programs is a sure way to fail. Yes, there are exceptions, but if you want to ensure return, test new programs with your direct sales teams, and only then promote successful campaigns via your indirect channel.* Set guidelines and reporting requirements – We often see organizations allocate MDF, roll out programs, pay out on MDF claims and then move on to other initiatives without requiring partners to report back on activities and results. An effective MDF process requires a structured plan approval followed by an equally structured proof of perform and ROI reporting process. These must be enforced if the MDF program is to succeed. Channel account management team members need to have regular reviews with the partner base to make sure partners understand that they are not only responsible for driving execution, but also are on the hook for reporting results. Otherwise,

There’s a pot of gold waiting for IT solution providers – and technology vendors are almost uniformly frustrated in getting their channel to make use of it. Vendors who sell through a channel or an agent network allocate between 1 and 2% of their top line revenue as Market Development Funds for their partners. However, for the most part, these Market Development Funds (MDF) fail to realize their potential. There are many reasons, chief among which are the lack of organized ways to allocate funds, track activities and measure outcomes. As a result, MDF is notorious for yielding the worst return in comparison to other direct marketing activities. Through our years of engagement in channel programs around the world, we have observed that companies who take the following steps to get the highest return from their MDF programs.

* Understand where MDF will be relevant – Vendor companies provide clear directives for their direct marketing teams that, in turn, should dictate how funds are allocated across business lines, product lines and activities. Some of these direct marketing budgets may be allocated for branding, with a portion also reserved for demand generation. This is an important dividing line. In a B2B environment, MDF initiatives focused on branding rarely produce good return, until and unless a large – possibly huge - amount of fund is allocated. The ‘Intel Inside’ campaign, which is based solely on generating brand awareness, is an example of the behemoth branding approach. On the other side of the line, focused demand generation activities with specific sales or lead generation goals and defined time windows are more likely to produce measurable results.

* Set a clear strategy – Once you have determined where to allocate your funds, you need to determine where and how you want to drive return: marketers always need to begin with an end in mind. Identification of markets, business lines, products, customer types and partner capabilities are all critical elements. The majority of vendors open their MDF programs to all partners and offer a 50 to 80% reimbursement rate for approved activities - but often the funds are wasted in unproductive activities, or unused because partners can’t get beyond the planning stage. A better approach would be to pick a tightly defined solution or product set, focus on a market area, narrow the partner qualification criteria, and work within those boundaries with proven programs that you know will drive results.

* Stick to tried and tested campaigns – Marketing is a blend of art and science, and new campaigns often need adjustment in the initial stages. The road to success takes experimentation with campaign targets, messaging, methods and offers. Since partners are invariably time-constrained and lack marketing resources, using the partner network to experiment with new campaigns and programs is a sure way to fail. Yes, there are exceptions, but if you want to ensure return, test new programs with your direct sales teams, and only then promote successful campaigns via your indirect channel.

* Set guidelines and reporting requirements – We often see organizations allocate MDF, roll out programs, pay out on MDF claims and then move on to other initiatives without requiring partners to report back on activities and results. An effective MDF process requires a structured plan approval followed by an equally structured proof of perform and ROI reporting process. These must be enforced if the MDF program is to succeed. Channel account management team members need to have regular reviews with the partner base to make sure partners understand that they are not only responsible for driving execution, but also are on the hook for reporting results. Otherwise, you will not be able to track ROI.

Most organizations who sell through the channel have both productive and unproductive partners. One of the easiest ways to grow revenue is to figure out how to transform some of the partners from unproductive into productive. Partner profiling is an excellent way to unlock this potential.

If you have a channel that has hundreds or even thousands of partners, it is reasonable to assume that majority of your sales come from a small, core group of partners. While there are exceptions to this rule in some specialty cases (like niche vertical solutions resellers or those working with early stage companies), the majority of the time a significant portion of the partner base only sells once or twice a year, rather than regularly or even every day, as the most productive partners do.

Over the years we have performed many channel partner profiling studies and the results show that there are three primary reasons why a partner is not productive:

Lack of engagement - Vendors don’t have the resources to engage with all partners equally to provide the same level of support:  it's just not realistic. As a result, most vendors’ sales and technical efforts tend to be focused on a core group of high-performing partners - some vendors call this group ‘managed partners’ or ‘premier partners’. With this structure, a significant portion of the channel is left untouched and unengaged.

Lack of business focus - Most partners tend to have core areas of focus competence. If we use the burger, fries and coke analogy then the vendor needs to clearly understand into what category their products fall for different partners. Partners tend to sell products that are core (burgers) to their business in a very different way, than when they sell solutions to which the vendor’s products are add-ons or options (fries or coke). The partner support process needs to vary according to the partner's business focus.

Partner maturity - Sales people sell what sells. So for example, if a partner has been selling storage and virtualization solutions over the past five years, it's a significant investment for them to add new categories, e.g., wireless infrastructure or security. They may have customer access, but lack of competence in other areas gets in the way of building sales success and velocity outside their niche specialization.

This goes to show that engagement with partner base in a monolithic way really doesn't work to unlock the true potential. The best way to do this is to undertake a partner profiling campaign, using both primary and secondary data and then truly segmenting that information to understand who the partners are and how they can be helped.

A proper Channel Marketing Automation tool is a powerful way to enable an organization to carry out partner profiling in a consistent fashion, and tier their partners on the basis of potential – not just sales out. Currently, most organizations structure their partner profiling into monolithic tiers like platinum, silver and gold, basing the rankings on sales velocity alone. Recently, some organizations have started to add other elements to their partner structures, e.g., technical certification or segment specialization, but this needs both a cohesive approach, and constant management. Just as an organization manages its human resources through a constant performance management process, a similar approach is needed via regular partner profiling and partner management. ZINFI’s unified Channel Automation platform has two core application sets: the first for Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and the second for Partner Marketing Management (PMM). ZINFI’s PRM application set has a profiling engine that allows companies to actively profile and manage their partner base by using multiple parameters and criteria. This can also be substantially augmented by ZINFI’s Partner Marketing Concierge services that can significantly reduce organization internal workload by performing high value, time-intensive tasks such as phone surveys and call out campaigns to collect key information from partners that may be missing from secondary sources.

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Most organizations who sell through the channel have both productive and unproductive partners. One of the easiest ways to grow revenue is to figure out how to transform some of the partners from unproductive into productive. Partner profiling is an excellent way to unlock this potential.If you have a channel that has hundreds or even thousands of partners, it is reasonable to assume that majority of your sales come from a small, core group of partners. While there are exceptions to this rule in some specialty cases (like niche vertical solutions resellers or those working with early stage companies), the majority of the time a significant portion of the partner base only sells once or twice a year, rather than regularly or even every day, as the most productive partners do.Over the years we have performed many channel partner profiling studies and the results show that there are three primary reasons why a partner is not productive:* Lack of engagement – Vendors don’t have the resources to engage with all partners equally to provide the same level of support:  it’s just not realistic. As a result, most vendors’ sales and technical efforts tend to be focused on a core group of high-performing partners – some vendors call this group ‘managed partners’ or ‘premier partners’. With this structure, a significant portion of the channel is left untouched and unengaged.* Lack of business focus – Most partners tend to have core areas of focus competence. If we use the burger, fries and coke analogy then the vendor needs to clearly understand into what category their products fall for different partners. Partners tend to sell products that are core (burgers) to their business in a very different way, than when they sell solutions to which the vendor’s products are add-ons or options (fries or coke). The partner support process needs to vary according to the partner’s business focus.* Partner maturity – Sales people sell what sells. So for example, if a partner has been selling storage and virtualization solutions over the past five years, it’s a significant investment for them to add new categories, e.g., wireless infrastructure or security. They may have customer access, but lack of competence in other areas gets in the way of building sales success and velocity outside their niche specialization.This goes to show that engagement with partner base in a monolithic way really doesn’t work to unlock the true potential. The best way to do this is to undertake a partner profiling campaign, using both primary and secondary data and then truly segmenting that information to understand who the partners are and how they can be helped.A proper Channel Marketing Automation tool is a powerful way to enable an organization to carry out partner profiling in a consistent fashion, and tier their partners on the basis of potential – not just sales out. Currently, most organizations structure their partner profiling into monolithic tiers like platinum, silver and gold, basing the rankings on sales velocity alone. Recently, some organizations have started to add other elements to their partner structures, e.g., technical certification or segment specialization, but this needs both a cohesive approach, and constant management. Just as an organization manages its human resources through a constant performance management process, a similar approach is needed via regular partner profiling and partner management. ZINFI’s unified Channel Automation platform has two core application sets: the first for

Most organizations who sell through the channel have both productive and unproductive partners. One of the easiest ways to grow revenue is to figure out how to transform some of the partners from unproductive into productive. Partner profiling is an excellent way to unlock this potential.

If you have a channel that has hundreds or even thousands of partners, it is reasonable to assume that majority of your sales come from a small, core group of partners. While there are exceptions to this rule in some specialty cases (like niche vertical solutions resellers or those working with early stage companies), the majority of the time a significant portion of the partner base only sells once or twice a year, rather than regularly or even every day, as the most productive partners do.

Over the years we have performed many channel partner profiling studies and the results show that there are three primary reasons why a partner is not productive:

* Lack of engagement - Vendors don’t have the resources to engage with all partners equally to provide the same level of support:  it's just not realistic. As a result, most vendors’ sales and technical efforts tend to be focused on a core group of high-performing partners - some vendors call this group ‘managed partners’ or ‘premier partners’. With this structure, a significant portion of the channel is left untouched and unengaged.

* Lack of business focus - Most partners tend to have core areas of focus competence. If we use the burger, fries and coke analogy then the vendor needs to clearly understand into what category their products fall for different partners. Partners tend to sell products that are core (burgers) to their business in a very different way, than when they sell solutions to which the vendor’s products are add-ons or options (fries or coke). The partner support process needs to vary according to the partner's business focus.

* Partner maturity - Sales people sell what sells. So for example, if a partner has been selling storage and virtualization solutions over the past five years, it's a significant investment for them to add new categories, e.g., wireless infrastructure or security. They may have customer access, but lack of competence in other areas gets in the way of building sales success and velocity outside their niche specialization.

This goes to show that engagement with partner base in a monolithic way really doesn't work to unlock the true potential. The best way to do this is to undertake a partner profiling campaign, using both primary and secondary data and then truly segmenting that information to understand who the partners are and how they can be helped.

A proper Channel Marketing Automation tool is a powerful way to enable an organization to carry out partner profiling in a consistent fashion, and tier their partners on the basis of potential – not just sales out. Currently, most organizations structure their partner profiling into monolithic tiers like platinum, silver and gold, basing the rankings on sales velocity alone. Recently, some organizations have started to add other elements to their partner structures, e.g., technical certification or segment specialization, but this needs both a cohesive approach, and constant management. Just as an organization manages its human resources through a constant performance management process, a similar approach is needed via regular partner profiling and partner management. ZINFI’s unified Channel Automation platform has two core application sets: the first for

Most partner portals today are a reflection of how the world used to be versus how they need to be. As we talk to our client base and their channel partners, we hear a high level of dissatisfaction with vendor portals, whether it's the technology platform, ease of use or how the content is uploaded, managed and used. Yet in every aspect of portal management, huge opportunities exist to drive more ROI by lowering cost and increasing usage by making it relevant to partners.

We have been doing partner research for the past few years to understand what would improve usage of partner portals, and make them a true value added tool for channel partners. Across all partner types we have consistently found demand for a core set of capabilities that would rapidly drive up portal and content utilization. Here is a two-part summary of our findings:

Localized Experience – While most large vendors tend to have somewhat localized partner portals and user interfaces, the majority of the vendors today do not provide a fully localized experience. English tends to be the language of choice, and it does work for about half to two thirds of the worldwide market, but products that are sold globally through a large channel network really need to have a completely localized user interface, as well as localized content. While content localization is relatively easy, most portals do not take that extra step of providing a localized user interface and experience. To achieve this, it’s essential to pick the right Partner Relationship Management platform offering localized software user interfaces for key languages.

Single-Sign-On (SSO) - Since most current portals are built up over years, using multiple discrete point solutions, these portals essentially end up acting as a gateway to various other tools, e.g., learning management systems (LMS), marketing development funds (MDF), Deal Registration, Sales Rewards, Rebates, etc. While a vendor may not be ready to switch to a completely new platform that provides all integrated tools in one platform, they should at least consider working with their other platform vendors to provide SSO connectivity. Why? Simply because partners do not remember passwords to all of these standalone platforms, so utilization rates go up instantly when you provide SSO.

Unified Platform – If you are starting early in the game (like many early stage start-ups) or organizations that have recently decided to provide a state of the art partner platform, then you are already thinking about what a change you can make to partners’ experience. Look for a Partner Relationship Management (PRM) vendor with a good reputation in the market place, and that has successfully completed small, mid and large size deployments. Size matters because use cases vary a lot, so while you may be a large organization you may be working with countries that have smaller set up needs. Therefore, a vendor that only addresses large markets in the English language may not be the right for you if smaller, lucrative countries like Korea or Poland are not properly supported.

Mobile Responsive – Most partners are out of the office at least fifty per cent of the time, and therefore access emails, websites and documents over their handheld devices – be it a smart phone or tablet. Therefore, making sure partner portals and the tools to which they connect are fully mobile responsive is absolutely critical. Data from our in-house research shows that mobile responsive partner portals experience three times more access and usage.

ZINFI’s Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Partner Marketing Management (PMM) applications give you a state of the art platform with solid performance records from dozens of localized deployments that can address your partner portal needs in a holistic way. Please read more in Part 2.

Most partner portals today are a reflection of how the world used to be versus how they need to be. As we talk to our client base and their channel partners, we hear a high level of dissatisfaction with vendor portals, whether it's the technology platform, ease of use or how the content is uploaded, managed and used. Yet in every aspect of portal management, huge opportunities exist to drive more ROI by lowering cost and increasing usage by making it relevant to partners.

We have been doing partner research for the past few years to understand what would improve usage of partner portals, and make them a true value added tool for channel partners. Across all partner types we have consistently found demand for a core set of capabilities that would rapidly drive up portal and content utilization. Here is a two-part summary of our findings:

Localized Experience – While most large vendors tend to have somewhat localized partner portals and user interfaces, the majority of the vendors today do not provide a fully localized experience. English tends to be the language of choice, and it does work for about half to two thirds of the worldwide market, but products that are sold globally through a large channel network really need to have a completely localized user interface, as well as localized content. While content localization is relatively easy, most portals do not take that extra step of providing a localized user interface and experience. To achieve this, it’s essential to pick the right Partner Relationship Management platform offering localized software user interfaces for key languages.

Single-Sign-On (SSO) - Since most current portals are built up over years, using multiple discrete point solutions, these portals essentially end up acting as a gateway to various other tools, e.g., learning management systems (LMS), marketing development funds (MDF), Deal Registration, Sales Rewards, Rebates, etc. While a vendor may not be ready to switch to a completely new platform that provides all integrated tools in one platform, they should at least consider working with their other platform vendors to provide SSO connectivity. Why? Simply because partners do not remember passwords to all of these standalone platforms, so utilization rates go up instantly when you provide SSO.

Unified Platform – If you are starting early in the game (like many early stage start-ups) or organizations that have recently decided to provide a state of the art partner platform, then you are already thinking about what a change you can make to partners’ experience. Look for a Partner Relationship Management (PRM) vendor with a good reputation in the market place, and that has successfully completed small, mid and large size deployments. Size matters because use cases vary a lot, so while you may be a large organization you may be working with countries that have smaller set up needs. Therefore, a vendor that only addresses large markets in the English language may not be the right for you if smaller, lucrative countries like Korea or Poland are not properly supported.

Mobile Responsive – Most partners are out of the office at least fifty per cent of the time, and therefore access emails, websites and documents over their handheld devices – be it a smart phone or tablet. Therefore, making sure partner portals and the tools to which they connect are fully mobile responsive is absolutely critical. Data from our in-house research shows that mobile responsive partner portals experience three times more access and usage.

ZINFI’s Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Partner Marketing Management (PMM) applications give you a state of the art platform with solid performance records from dozens of localized deployments that can address your partner portal needs in a holistic way. Please read more in Part 2.

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