Jim Holland, Sr. Product Marketing Manager
In the recent post, It’s Time to Modernize Your Channel Data Strategy, David Johnson asks the question, “What impact does channel performance have on our business?” If you think about it, there’s a lot riding on the performance of your channel. While there may be a strong heritage led by direct sales in your organization, the trend over the last decade or so has been expanding channel partners.
According to recent Forrester research, Jay McBain shares, “Upward of 70% of global revenue comes from third-party channels.”
With the consistent movement toward larger partner networks, how can sales and channel leaders, sales operations, and finance better manage the impact of channel business revenue?
Current approaches often include the use of massive spreadsheets, building custom applications, and manually populating data sources. Too often sales reps chase partner data and sales operations scramble to assemble reports and insights for executive leaders. Unfortunately, this is fraught with inconsistencies and data that lacks information into what’s really impacting business. Furthermore, in an analysis of millions of channel records, Model N found 80% were bad and unusable.
There has to be a better way to truly understand the impact of channel business?
“The future of channel partner programs and ecosystems will be anchored on automation, flexibility, scalability, and self-service. The effective use of technology tools is no longer optional — ecosystems don’t run on spreadsheets,” shared Jay McBain. He continues, “To accelerate the performance of their partnerships, alliances, and channel ecosystems, companies are evaluating and adopting a range of contributing technologies. Often, the focus of channel technologies is to manage, monitor, and measure the partner journey while improving the overall partner experience.”
The focus on automating and better managing your channel’s success is key to discovering the real impact of your channel business. If you and your organization struggle to truly understand the impact of your channel business, read the 6 Signs It’s Time to Modernize Your Channel Data Management ebook. You’ll gain insight into how you can pivot quickly to enhance partner relationships, increase demand, and maximize revenue and minimize waste. To connect with a high tech channel expert to discuss your current challenges, go here.
