Code Corporation Supports Expansion Of Channel Program With New Partner Portal

Code Corporation, a global provider of barcode scanning and data capture technologies, is enhancing and expanding its Code Alliance partner program to align with and empower its partners’ capabilities and business models.

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To promote the expanded program and support the segmentation of its partner ecosystem into three separate groups consisting of a Selected Reseller, National and Code’s first-ever ISV program, the company will launch a new partner portal. Built on the Allbound platform, the portal will provide partners with an easy-to-access comprehensive view of the program’s features and benefits.

Providing partners with a facilitated view of Core’s channel program is critical to driving deeper engagement, said Emily Scales, Senior Channel Marketing Manager. For its selected resellers, the company was “putting a lot of work and effort into the program but not executing on the amplification. I wanted to create a formal presentation so partners know what’s available. With the new portal, they now have a central location where they get everything for their needs.”

While Core had not yet launched the portal when Scales spoke with CMR, the more comprehensive and segment-specific explanation of the company’s partner program was already getting attention. Scales said that Code had been falling short in getting the attention of national-focus VARs because the company’s messaging wasn’t “really doing justice to what we’re actually doing for them. We were underselling ourselves.” As a result of the new outreach initiative that includes better messaging crafted for and shared with the right contacts at the VARs, “a lot of those national firms have reached out and we’re scheduling one-on-one meetings to go over it. This is exactly what I wanted to happen – to get facetime with partner management so they know that they are important to us,” said Scales. “They now know what we have to offer them, and that they can then effectively use what we’re offering.”

The new portal will provide access to exclusive resources including a new learning management system (LMS) that will be available near the end of Q1. The LMS platform will be a one-stop-shop for learning and training on Code’s products and solutions. As with all aspects of the program, the LMS is aligned with enhanced rewards and incentives to further build partner relationships.

“By putting together the resources we already have in a streamlined system makes it a lot more helpful than sending them a bunch of links to review,” said Scales. Further, the new portal will personalize experiences for partner staff to ensure that the most appropriate materials are shared with them.

Portal users will be able to customize their pages even further, explained Scales.  “For example, if someone really likes a specific piece of content, they can pin it to their front page so they won’t have to search for it each time.”

The new portal will also facilitate discovery of the company’s marketing materials, identify which documents are more successfully engaging prospects, and make it easier for partners and co-brand and download them.

Scales commented that more partners are requesting materials to do their own marketing. “What we’ve seen a lot this year is social engagement. I’ve gotten requests LinkedIn images and other types of information because social marketing has been pretty successful this year. We have a plan to put a lot of social pushes on the portal.”

Scales will be monitoring metrics provided by the Allbound platform to measure its ROI. But she said an immediate benefit will be the time it saves for her team and partners too. “Time saved is an instant ROI,” she said. “Right now, I’m doing MDF manually. So it will be a big help updating that information. Not that my Excel sheet isn’t always up to date,” she explained, “but now our finance team can easily sign in and see where we are on the spend for the year.”

The LMS tool is expected to give the company’s internal sales team to time for other duties.  When partners are able to access training in the portal, “we’ll give the sales team more time back in their day so that they can close those deals rather than train.”