Orbus Software Channel Head on New Program: ‘We Can’t Do This Alone’

Orbus Software this week debuted its brand-new channel program, backed by a fresh company ethos for partner-first sales.

Some Channel Futures readers may already know Orbus Software, as it’s been around since 2004. The company continually earns high marks from Gartner; it’s not a low-profile firm so much as one that has not – until now – placed much emphasis on the channel.

“Partners were hidden in the background at Orbus historically,”  Marjorie Martinez, global head of partnerships at Orbus Software, told Channel Futures.

That changed after Orbus Software sold to private equity firm SilverTree, and when it hired Martinez this past January to craft its channel program.

Orbus Software’s Marjorie Martinez

“SilverTree came on board and injected some focus,” Martinez said.

Much of that focus came in the form of getting executives and other stakeholders to understand that Orbus Software would not meet its revenue goals relying mostly on inside sales.

“We can’t do this alone,” Martinez said.

Importantly, she noted, “I’ve had complete sponsorship from the top down so it’s been really good. … Everybody has rallied around” the shift toward channel-led sales.

To that end, teaming more deliberately with consultants, managed service providers, system integrators and value-added resellers is proving crucial to Orbus Software’s ability to expand.

“We’re not a services company, we’re a software company first,” Martinez said.

Understanding What Orbus Software Does

The Orbus platform delivers unified visibility into an organization’s whole environment, showing data including applications, people and processes. It’s oriented around enterprise architecture modeling. Customers (or partners, as the case now may be) perform analytics work and take the resulting information to make decisions about digital transformation. That can look like anything from choosing which apps to move into the cloud or retire, or ensuring compliance with ever-changing regulations.

Notably, until about two years ago, Orbus Software’s iServer365 remained an on-premise solution — a less appealing approach for users accustomed to the cloud era. However, since about 2020, Orbus Software has focused on delivering iServer365 in a SaaS model.

That works well as Orbus Software customers pursue digital transformation. And Martinez said they’re doing so at a more rapid pace for myriad reasons: COVID-19 (and any other pandemics that may come), remote work, supply chain problems, war, natural disasters, ever-changing and stringent government regulations, and so on. Organizations (whether directly or through their channel partners) use Orbus Software to analyze their environments and make any requisite decisions for changes. Channel partners with a services element use the Orbus platform to deliver analysis and recommendations for digital transformation. From there, the customer may look to the partner to handle any resulting projects; thus, Orbus Software’s capabilities can serve as an “in” for partners.

Orbus Software is a Microsoft gold partner. It delivers its SaaS platform through Azure and works with Microsoft products including PowerBI.

How the Orbus Software Partner Program Is Structured

Martinez, who hails from companies including Signavio and Erwin, has built a straightforward channel program for Orbus Software.

“I’ve been in the channel business for over 25 years. So all I’ve done is take a lot of the best practices and what I’ve seen work and implemented that here,” she said. “We’re really making it easy.”

As such, partners join the bronze, silver or gold tier, either in a resale or referral capacity. Orbus Software provides new-deal registration, standard discounts, and training and certification. Commissions and margins range from 15-25% depending on resale vs. referral, as well as tier and annual recurring revenue goals. Sales requirements for bronze start at around $50,000. Silver kicks in around $150,000. Anything above that reaches gold. Right now, commissions are good for the first year’s annual recurring revenue.

“We will evaluate that as we continue to grow the program,” Martinez said.

For example, because Orbus Software aims to grow 20% year-over-year, the company might move to a total contract value model.

“We’re agile enough” to shift as needed, Martinez said.

Partners can take advantage of free training through the online module. In-person, instructor-led training incurs a fee. Certification takes two-and-a-half hours and proves to end users that partners have the requisite knowledge to work with an organization. Expect a more comprehensive technical certification in about six months.

Co-Selling with Partners

In addition, Orbus Software will co-sell with partners.

“We don’t compete against partners — and we shouldn’t,” Martinez said. “We need to work with them.”

The company’s leaders and salespeople are understanding the value in that.

“We’re tracking partner-sourced revenue and the pipelines are starting to build,” Martinez said. “We’re seeing opportunities that wouldn’t have happened or been successful without the partner.”

That’s the kind of reassurance partners want to hear. And Martinez is coming through as the channel champion at Orbus Software.

“I’m really driving a partner-first culture here at Orbus because we cannot deliver everything by ourselves,” Martinez said. And, she added, “now we have something to help our partners to scale.”