SaaS Profits for the Channel, Why is it Always About Money?

Once again, Mike Allers joins the discussion.  He has been on the front lines in bringing SaaS to the channel both introducing SaaS to an established VAR channel as well as developing an existing SaaS channel.  

As many vendors struggle to work a SaaS offering into their portfolio, many are overlooking a key part to that strategy...how does the Channel Community stay profitable in that equation?

Honestly, there isn’t a silver-bullet, so get that out of your head right now. The first thing to understand is that BOTH vendor AND partner will have to adjust. 

Out of the gate, the responsibility will fall on the vendor to take initial steps to create a Channel-friendly offering. What does that mean? First and foremost, when developing the solution make certain to create multi-tiered management capabilities. This means that there needs to be the ability for the customer, partner and vendor to access and add, remove, and manage via a web-based portal.

Vendors will also have to set up a few SaaS go-to-market scenarios for the Channel Community. There should be options to allow the partner to resell the vendor solution as well as to private label the offering under their own or a generic name. Ultimately, this opens the door for the Channel Community to pool together several SaaS offerings from multiple vendors to create specific solutions tailored to each market segment or customer type and let’s them decide how to package it.

The Channel Community will have a few things to pick up as well. It means that the days of only reaching out to customers to every quarter just to see what you can sell them are over. Partners will have to remain in constant contact with customers, staying in tune with day to day activities of the customer. They will need to beef up technical staff to not only include engineers for design, implementation and troubleshooting, but will need administrative technical staff as well to manage the portals. As the Channel Community begins to add multiple SaaS offerings from multiple vendors, they will need to consider what options they need for a front-end portal to manage everything. 

Also, a very clear communication path will be absolutely necessary! Without it, you will be fighting over customers and not even know it. This means that things like deal registration and rules of engagement must be clearly defined and vehemently adhered to.

Rolling out a SaaS offering to the Channel won’t happen overnight and what works for one vendor won’t necessarily work for another. If you spend the time to understand your business and your partners, you can make a very successful SaaS Channel Program. This may be your chance to break away from the peloton and lead the pack...

You can follow Mike on twitter, at MikeAllers

I am a supporter or the iPad, but this video is pretty funny I must admit.