Conga Enhances Rapidly Growing SI Partner Program

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Conga‘s updated System Integrators (SI) Partner Program features a rewards system that allows partners to earn points through engagement with both the company and new customers.

The program originally launched in March 2016 and was designed to provide structured engagement with, and support for, Salesforce consulting partners. For partners of all tiers, it offers tools, education and resources aimed at helping partners to implement Conga offerings into joint customers’ environments.

Susie Wallingford, the program’s manager, tells Channel Partners that during the year following the program’s launch, “Conga grew and changed dramatically.” More than 8,000 businesses in more than 45 countries across all industries use Conga applications to utilize their Salesforce data.

“We made three acquisitions, more than doubled in size and enhanced our strategic partnership with Salesforce as a Platinum ISV Partner,” she said. “We also invested in growing our partner team, which allowed us to focus more on delivering value to our partners, and in turn, our joint customers. To support those efforts, our team worked to enhance the program’s benefits and requirements. Now, we are much better suited to deliver value to our SI partner ecosystem worldwide.”

Conga’s SI partner team interviewed top partners, researched best practices and learned more about Salesforce’s SI/consulting partner program so the updates would “drive tangible benefits to our SI/consulting partner community – roughly 360 partners,” Wallingford said.{ad}

“We developed a points-based scoring system based on two main behaviors — engagement with Conga and revenue influence,” she said. “This allows partners to differentiate themselves within our program and qualify for tiers that in turn give them more benefits. These benefits are designed to provide start-to-finish support for partners in their interactions with Conga as well as with customers.”

Conga also has introduced a partner locator so partners can describe their specialties, differentiators, ideal client size and more to merchandise their business to potential clients, according to the company. In addition, it is expanding its portfolio, giving partners access to a wider selection of offerings to recommend to clients.

“The Conga SI team recognizes that we have ‘Conga Champions’ within our partner community — those individuals who have been recommending Conga for almost a decade, are always looking for new and unique use cases, and are excited to spread the news about Conga,” Wallingford said. “As we thought about program enhancements, we wanted to make sure we reward those individuals. So, for Silver-level-and-above partners, we built in …

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… some rewards targeted at individuals. First, a certification program. Though this isn’t a traditional reward, it is something that an individual can find valuable. Similar to Salesforce Trailhead badges, we are building out certifications that are fun, but also very useful. Individuals can demonstrate their knowledge about Conga’s products, advertise those on their resumes, and show value to employers and clients. Second, we budgeted for (sales performance incentive funds) and individual awards for Conga Champions.”

The enhanced SI Partner Program comes on the heels of strong continued growth of Conga’s OEM Partner Program, which provides partners with the opportunity to embed Conga’s offerings into their own tools and offerings to simplify their customers’ Salesforce experience.

“For fiscal year 2018, Conga is investing in our channel strategy, with SI/consulting partners making up the largest segment of said channel,” Wallingford said. “So, the enhancements to our SI/consulting partner program reflect the maturation of and investment in our partners. SI/consulting partners influence about 60 percent of our revenue worldwide, so it’s crucial that we deliver consistent value to the ecosystem. Across the channel, we want to deliver meaningful content so any kind of partner is well-equipped with the information they need to be successful.”