What Can PRM Software Automate?

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What Can PRM Software Automate?
Automating Profitable Growth™

In today’s business environment, every organization is asking its channel
management team to do more with fewer resources. This is a common
challenge for any channel organization. It’s not enough just to get busy—the
key is to figure out how to drive partner recruitment, enablement,
management and sales growth in a focused way. This is where partner
relationship management (PRM) software can help significantly. In this
article, we will explore some of the core activities that PRM software can
help automate.
Before we take a deep dive into the specific activities that PRM software
can automate, let’s discuss briefly how the activities tend to vary by
company size.

• Focused channel (100 – 500 partners) – Companies in this category
tend to sell through the channel independent of their own size. In our
customer base at ZINFI, we have multibillion-dollar organizations that
have only a couple of hundred partners, but we also have much smaller
customers who have a few thousand partners. In a focused channel
where there is a relatively small number of partners, the level of
engagement and focus by the vendor organization is generally high. We
will discuss later how PRM software can automate the core activities for
a focused channel.

• Scaled channel (500 – 2,500 partners) – In this category, the higher
total number of channel partners is generally a function of two main
factors: a low-price product with a high reach that allows partners to build
service revenue, or moderately complex solutions with a medium and
focused reach that require specialized global delivery and support. There
are always hybrids, of course, but for the sake of simplicity it makes
sense to define a scaled channel in terms of these two primary
scenarios. PRM software typically automates more activities in a scaled
channel than in a focused channel.

• Broad channel (1,000s of partners) – This category describes the
channel for organizations with many products that are highly horizontal
and broadly distributed. Prominent examples would include organizations
like Microsoft, Google and Dropbox where usage of their products is
quite horizontal. Certain household product companies are also good
examples , although their products tend to get distributed through
broadliners —e., large retail chains in developed countries, as well as
lots of “mom and pop” stores in emerging countries. Overall, broad
channels have higher levels of complexity and more demanding
automation requirements than most focused or scaled channels.
However, the right PRM software can significantly streamline and
automate broad channel activities.

The key to operating successfully in a focused or scaled or broad channel is
understanding how your distribution strategy will ultimately support the
growth ambitions of the company. For an organization with a niche product
that has a relatively narrow focus, too many partners can create an over-
distribution problem and make the product more difficult to sell. Therefore,
before any PRM software can effectively automate and optimize channel
activities, the organization’s channel strategy has to be closely aligned with
the nature of its channel.
The critical factor in moving from a focused channel to a scaled channel and
eventually to a broad distribution network is to have highly streamlined
programs and an automation tool—namely, PRM software—that can
effectively automate more activities as the organization’s business evolves.
We know that automating a channel can be sequential: You start small and
then build on your successes. This rule is most applicable to fast-growing
companies. However, if your organization has already been around for a
while and is already selling through a channel—focused, scaled or broad—
you absolutely have the same opportunities to optimize effectiveness
through automation by selecting the right set of tools.

Let’s review briefly what you can do for each of the three main channel
types—focused, scaled and broad—by aligning your channel strategy,
programs, policies and PRM software automation platform.
• PRM software for focused channel automation – If you are starting
with a few hundred partners, the first thing you want to do is to put
together a partner portal that has a highly customizable portal content
management module to tailor pages, content and assets to various
partner types, groups and locations. Make sure that you have turned on
modules for a content library, a co-branded asset library, learning
management and deal registration. These will significantly boost your
ability to collaborate remotely in an asynchronous way on a 24×7 basis.

• PRM software for scaled channel automation – Once you have scaled your
channel to where you have several hundred to thousands of partners, you will
likely want to have the capacity to automate a variety of channel programs,
policies, onboarding processes and more. That means you will need workflow
automation capabilities that allow you to build custom workflows. You also
should have the ability to create various types of dynamic reports that allow
you to track key metrics and understand what is going on in your channel both
globally and at the territory level.
• PRM software for broad channel automation – Organizations optimizing a
broad channel require everything that focused and scaled channels need, but
also advanced workflow or activity automation modules such as business
planning, contract management, lead management, MDF
management and sales rewards. Theses are all workflow modules that allow
for significant customization so you can automate by channel types, programs,
geographies, territories, promotions and other criteria. In a channel with this
kind of complexity, you need state-of-the-art PRM software that allows you to
do all of these things easily and quickly.

Before you embark on an automation journey using PRM software, make
sure you vet potential vendors carefully. Your chosen vendor should have
earned endorsements from leading analyst firms, received overwhelmingly
positive reviews and generated positive feedback from its existing customer
base. It should also offer a highly scalable and adaptable platform that can
easily grow with your evolving channel needs. One thing you can depend on
is this: Change is certain, and you always have to be ready to do more with
less. A powerful, easy-to-use, highly configurable PRM platform is a critical
tool for realizing this goal in real life.
I hope this overview has convinced you it is never too late or too early to
start automating channel activities, provided you align overall business
strategy, channel management activities and the right PRM software. Doing
so will not only reduce waste but also significantly impact your return on
investment—whether your channel is very focused or very broad or
somewhere inbetween.

ZINFI Technologies, Inc.
6200 Stoneridge Mall Road, Suite 300
Pleasanton, CA 94588
sales@zinfitech.com
Automating Profitable Growth™

What Can PRM Software Automate?

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