2: Service Delivery Partners
Service delivery partners don’t resell a product or software. They enhance its value to the end user by providing a host of services, from presales consulting to installation to managed services, personalizing the solution to fit the end user’s unique needs. For example, a service delivery partner may help to configure a patient management system to the needs of cosmetic surgery clinics.
Key benefit: These types of services can make your company’s products more attractive by reducing the pain of implementation and increasing the value and relevance to a specific market. They also accelerate the product absorption to the end user, accelerating future sales and increasing customer satisfaction.
Ideal for companies that:
- Want to enhance end-user customer experience and satisfaction.
- Do not have the resources to build and maintain a large in-house service staff.
- Do not have the expertise or reputation within the required vertical.
- Want to partner rather than compete with reputable service specialists.
3: Technology Alliance Partners
Technology alliance partners offer a technology that is complementary to the solution you offer. As with service delivery partners, this partnership often involves no reselling; it simply brings two products together as an integrated solution. For example, if you sell software for X-ray machines, you may choose to partner with a company that manufactures and sells the machines themselves.
In an alliance partnership, technology will be enhanced by the addition of software, accessories or features that create a competitive advantage.
Key benefit: Your company and its technology will benefit from the association with a trusted partner, and your technology will reach a new market segment. You may also enjoy co-marketing activities that enhance your visibility. As for your partner, their technology will be enhanced by the addition of software, accessories or features that give them a competitive advantage.
Ideal for companies that:
- Could benefit from co-marketing opportunities.
- Will benefit from the technology integration of the two companies.
- Will benefit from association with a trusted brand.
- Want to reach new market segments.
4: High Velocity Partners (aka Fulfillment)
Fulfillment partners can help your company manage the administrative and contractual challenges of selling your products at scale. Unlike delivery partners, they don’t add significant value by offering high-touch, customized services, but they can manage order fulfillment on a high volume of transactions for a relatively low rate.
Key benefit: Your company can significantly increase sales while keeping administrative costs low. The right fulfillment partner may also be able to sell your products to hard-to-reach markets through pre-existing contracts with the government or other buying consortiums.
Ideal for companies that:
- Maintain high transactional volumes.
- Want to scale up rapidly to achieve even higher sales volumes.
- Sell simple products that are relatively easy to install and use or…
- Have the resources in-house to offer value-added.
- Need an intermediary to contract and transact on their behalf.
5: Cloud Service Providers
Cloud service providers often don’t resell a product, but they offer some component of cloud computing—typically IaaS, SaaS or PaaS—by hosting your solution in the cloud to improve speed, security and flexibility. Examples include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Services (GCS). There are also “Born in the Cloud” providers (BICs) that deliver solutions from one of the cloud providers, offering users more solution flexibility and elasticity while simplifying the deployment of those services.
If you’re a software company, a cloud service provider enables you to deliver a powerful, reliable solution to the end user in a simplified way.
Key benefit: If you’re a software company, a cloud service provider enables you to deliver a powerful, reliable solution to the end user that’s simplified thanks to off-premise hosting.
Ideal for companies that:
- Have a software product that would benefit from cloud hosting.
- Looking to get scale by taking advantage of the brand recognition and market share of the Big 3 cloud providers.
6: Managed Service Providers
Managed service providers remotely manage a customer’s IT infrastructure and end-user systems, typically on a proactive basis and under a flexible subscription model. While a delivery partner makes the initial setup easier for the end user, a managed service provider offers ongoing services that reduce the burden on the end user on an ongoing basis.
Key benefit: A managed service provider can make your software solution more attractive to a wider range of end users by eliminating the technical and administrative resources required by the end user to manage and maintain it.
Ideal for companies that:
- Want to reduce friction and increase sales by offering effortless setup and management.
- Want to improve adoption and retention by simplifying the experience for the end user.
- Want to increase the opportunities for up-sell or cross-sell.
7: Global Systems Integrators (GSIs)
Global systems integrators build computing systems by combining hardware, software, networking and storage products from multiple vendors. Examples include Accenture, PwC, Deloitte and IBM Global Services, to name just a few. They are large firms that build very large, complex, multi-vendor solutions for some of the biggest companies in the world, such as Boeing or Bank of America.
Key benefit: While channel resellers can help you sell to small-to-midsize companies, systems integrators can help you break into the lucrative enterprise market.
Ideal for companies that:
- Want to get their solutions in the hands of high-profile, blue-chip enterprises.
- Have a solution that’s superior to a legacy product that the integrator is currently using.
- Are ready to provide their solution on the scale required to service a massive market.
- Offer a solution that requires additional services, which is where the system integrator can earn more revenue.
8: Embedded Partners (often referred to as “white label” partners)
White label partners embed your solution into their own and sell it to end users under their own brand.
Key benefit:: Allowing products to be “white-labeled” by other brands can be a powerful way to increase sales for companies with limited cost of sales that are focused on growth.
Ideal for companies that:
- Are looking for a relatively quick and easy way to boost sales.
- Are prioritizing sales growth over brand recognition.
- Don’t currently have the internal bandwidth to offer managed services to end users.
9: Original Equipment Manufacturers
Original equipment manufacturers embed your products into their own solutions and sell them to end users. Similar to white label partners, OEMs sell these integrated solutions under their own brand.
Key benefit: Manufacturers partnerships can help companies find new markets for their products and new applications for their technology.
Ideal for companies that:
- Want to increase their access to new markets.
- Are ready to meet the standards and requirements the OEM sets.
- Have a strategy to NOT sell directly to end users themselves.
