Channel Roundtable for SaaS “Pure Plays”

Sandra Glaser Cheek

We recently held a “SaaS in the Channel” roundtable event with about 10 pure-play SaaS vendors to discuss the challenges and opportunities that they face in developing robust partner programs and ecosystems. After discussing the particular challenges that each vendor faced it became apparent that that SaaS partnering is truly a blend of the old and new. Many of the most basic partner principles are challenging to this crowd – how to train partners effectively, how to craft the best business proposition, tracking evolving partner business models, managing multi-channel strategies, etc. And some of the issues are new – how to continue to educate the market on SaaS as a business and licensing model, how to handle support and when and where to get the partner involved, etc.

As we discussed the future of this group – topics, members, etc., I found it fascinating that most of the attendees did not want to be “tainted” by the big traditional software companies who now have SaaS models re: their partnering techniques. They were much more interested in reinventing the SaaS channel model and collaborating with their peers who are also pure SaaS players. In my opinion, this could be really good or really bad for these vendors. We’ve only had one meeting so far, so I will remain optimistic.  I can’t wait to see how this group evolves, and the ideas that we generate. If you are a pure play SaaS vendor, please join us – we plan to meet once a month.