Strategy Development
We are a company built on a deep understanding of what Business Development means. For us, business development is a continuous process of addressing challenges and seizing opportunities within the market, technology and competitive landscapes. In short, we’re always looking ahead to find the right strategies and partnerships to help flatten hurdles and help you achieve faster growth.
From developing a comprehensive partner ecosystem strategy to evolving custom applications into channel-ready software products, software products into partner-ready platforms or transforming existing product-based business models to software-as-a-service, the right strategy is the foundation of business development success.
We provide you with key knowledge and strength in key areas, including:
- Partner strategy – partner readiness, ecosystem planning, build/buy/ally analysis
- Product strategy – technology integration, platform readiness, developer adoption
- Business models – technology productization, SaaS transformation
Alliance Advantage™
Understanding is at the core of successful business relationships. The objective of the Alliance Advantage program is to help you understand why, how, and when to leverage partnerships in order to advance strategic and revenue objectives. It is our philosophy that achieving a thorough understanding of your partnerships’ mechanics will help you make better business decisions. In our workshop with your executive team, we will survey the capabilities of similar competitor alliances in order to establish a solid benchmark against which to gauge the capabilities of your own partnerships. In other words, we will help you determine your team’s readiness to carry out your mandate—and determine what new troops you might need among your ranks.
The outcome of the Alliance Advantage program is to increase your alliance’s chance at further or new success. Your team will take away a renewed vision of its alliance and gain special insights into pursuing the right partners, at the right time, for the right reasons. Ultimately, you will know what gaps to bridge in order to get from here to there.
Platform-Ready™
We’ll make sure you have the resources and knowledge required to develop your software solutions. You build market-leading software solutions; we take care of the road map and technology requirements, and we’ll put in place the right support structure that you need in order to get your software into the hands of your customers, faster. The Platform-Ready program will help you navigate the transition from selling black box software to providing a platform that 3rd-party software companies and developers will embrace and build upon. It will help you size the investment and skills required to achieve the transition. In our workshop, with your executive team, we will establish your distinct business model, strategy, and objectives relating to the new platform and help you sketch out its competitive landscape and market outlook.
The Platform-Ready™ program will help you assess any pitfalls and potential opportunities on the terrain ahead, an outcome which will help reduce risk levels and time-to-market while maximizing revenue and market growth potential.
GROWTH ACCELERATION
Whether you’re early stage and ready to take your business to the next level, or established and looking to change the game, building partnerships smarter, more efficiently, and with more predictable success is key to growing your software business.
We’ll carve out key relationships to help plan, form and grow:
- Strategic alliances — capability development, formation, management, remediation, exits
- Technology licensing — portfolio review, strategic planning, negotiation
- Marketing partnerships — strategic planning, identification, negotiation
Partner-Ready™
The Partner-Ready™ program is for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Service Providers (SPs). This program is structured so that it accelerates your partnerships and grows your go-to-market opportunity with major technology partners. Using best practices and tools designed to identify and navigate the shortest path to success, we’ll get you there faster. You’ll synchronize the interests and efforts of your company with those of your partner companies so that all parties are rowing together, and you’ll learn how to identify, diagnose, and remedy partnerships that aren’t working.
Partner-Ready for Microsoft™
The Partner-Ready for Microsoft™ program targets Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in helping them accelerate partnerships and grow their go-to-market opportunity specifically with Microsoft. Having worked for and closely with Microsoft for over 14 years, we have intimate knowledge of how best to navigate the partnering process so you can benefit faster. The Partner-Ready for Microsoft™ program is tailored for newcomers to the Microsoft ecosystem, firms increasing focus on Microsoft as a primary technology partner, and those entering new geographies and Microsoft subsidiaries. After completing this program, companies can pole vault a staggering learning curve and enjoy a reduced time-to-market with Microsoft.
Apart from helping you learn Microsoft’s field structure, compensation, and motivation, our unique insight into Microsoft’s company mind will help your voice be heard when when it counts the most. Your company will gain a clear vision of what success with Microsoft looks like and gain realistic measures of that success. The Partner-Ready for Microsoft™ program opens up a forest of joint opportunities with Microsoft field marketers and sellers and helps provide you with the tools to bring them to fruition.
REVENUE ENHANCEMENT
Selling through and with partners via indirect channels enables entry into new markets and market segments, often more rapidly and cost effectively than direct sales. However, creating the right structure, including business opportunity, pricing, incentives and agreement, are critical to success.
We develop new channels to market and grow sales and service capabilities through planning, recruitment and management of:
- Value-Added Resellers (VARs)
- Systems Integrators (SIs)
- Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
Channel Development
Channel development, at its core, means extending your sales coverage and reach. This opportunity is particularly attractive to software companies experiencing slow or declining sales. Working with indirect and direct sales channels means that you’ll require the ability to negotiate and navigate compensation packages and other variables to create and deliver a flexible and optimum structure for you, the vendor, and an attractive offering for the reseller.
Our Channel Development services encompass all stages from readiness and program initiation to ongoing partner enablement and management. We help ISVs and Service Providers looking to build or expand, and new SaaS entrants looking to build or expand channels to fit their new business model. By taking advantage of our Channel Development program, you will learn how best to optimize your company’s channels to fit how your customers want to buy. We teach an organic methodology in selecting, recruiting, enabling, and managing partners in order to maximize returns.
As our client, you will walk away from our Channel Development program with a strategy for proactively avoiding some all-too-common mistakes. You will know how to recruit the right number of partners with the right specialties and similar long-term goals, and how to manage a support system to guarantee returns from your partners once recruited. The ultimate goal of Channel Development is to help you develop a channel system that runs and delivers with the same precision and discipline you’d expect from your direct sales team.
Education & Advisory
Well planned, expert knowledge transfer, skills development and coaching can improve and accelerate the performance of your existing partner development and revenue-generating teams, including channels.
We provide business development and alliance education and advisory services to align your teams collectively and multiply individual effectiveness.
