The Problem: According to research from IDC, active channel partners acquire approximately 31% of companies’ operations, accumulating approximately 15,000 inactive partners in their database. Due to a lack of general visibility, vendors are unaware that this inactivity is taking place, resulting in inefficient spend and operations. To maximize sales rep productivity, partner loyalty and provide a resource for branded marketing materials, vendors need a streamlined solution for the entire channel.
The Solution: Partner Avenue from Computer Market Research provides vendors with a centralized toolbox, similar to a CRM dashboard such as Salesforce.com. To efficiently track tasks and activity, Partner Avenue provides a resource for sales to accumulate and report POS and inventory data, and an outlet for company executives to view and plan channel programs. All modules can be directly interfaced to Salesforce.com and other CRM systems.
The solution offers 15 specialized modules featuring an array of capabilities to organize channel programs and data, including:
– ChannelPOS: This cloud-based tool provides a summarized web view of data to reveal the amount of business a partner is conducting with a vendor. The solution provides daily, weekly and monthly POS reports accumulated from distributors and are consolidated in a timely manner.
– Deal Registration: Deal Registration allows channel partners to register their deals using a simple, easy to use web-based form. Deal requests are automatically routed to the channel team for review and approval. Partners are updated via instantaneous email alerts, confirmations and notifications. The process allows channel partners to protect the large deals they are working on and also provides the channel team with processes that consolidate deals in a central location for easy management, duplicate deal checking and maximizes channel resources in an effort to obtain maximum ROI.
– Co-op/MDF Management: Money management is streamlined by allowing partners to manage spending, their account balance and reimbursements. Vendors can view activity via a web-enabled application, and also can access all partner media plans on a centralized web page via the Campaign Management module.
The Perks:By offering campaign, sales and marketing management tools, Partner Avenue allows channel vendors to access and track all information and processes throughout the funnel. The plug and play environment allows vendors to pick and choose modules that are implemented, and also selects specific branded marketing materials that are available to partners. Furthermore, administrative modules are available for executives to assign tasks to teams based on client or project, pushing leads along efficiently and in a more timely manner.