The days of managing partner programs on spreadsheets have long passed and it is no longer possible to scale up a channel program without proper tools. Channel operation teams leveraging a modern channel technology platform to run their partner programs are gaining competitive advantage and winning partner mindshare, by making it easy for their partners to work with them and quickly understand their programs.
Not every company is large enough to have their own dedicated Channel Operations teams. However, this function is still essential, no matter how small the channel team, to ensure systems and processes are in place to facilitate the supply, purchase, and delivery of the product.
Putting in place the necessary channel technology will enable companies to punch above their weight and appear much larger to their target partner community, than they may actually be.
Having channel automation solutions will enable the smallest channel operations teams to quickly scale up their partner base and accelerate channel revenue much faster than using a direct approach.
When selling through partners, the infrastructure required to put the product in the hands of the customer becomes more convoluted. Here, channel operations are responsible for all three elements of the people-systems-process chain. The more vendors can automate these channel operation processes, the less they are open to error, like every business. Providing the channel team the tools, data and insights through automation enables them to focus on sales and strategy in line with business goals and frees up much more time to support partner’s needs.