SuiteWorld: Oracle NetSuite Reveals ‘Laundry List’ of Updates to Partner Program
The software vendor also sees no slowdown in SMB spending and says partners can use the current “headwinds” to their advantage.
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NetSuite says the decision to overhaul its partner program is paying off.
The vendor used to have five partner tiers based on traditional revenue thresholds. However, earlier this year it switched to categorising partners on the growth of their NetSuite business. In the new model, those with the highest growth on renewals receive the maximum commission.
It has led to an increase from around 80 partners receiving the full commission to around 300 globally.
Senior director Chris Norfolk says the changes ensure that partners growth goals are aligned to NetSuite’s.
“It’s really driven the right sort of activities,” he said. “We’re not pulling against each other.
“It right-sizes our biggest partners from our smallest,” added West. “Before, our biggest partners would get to the highest level in month two. They didn’t even try. And it was so hard for our little guys to get there. Now, year one you set your baseline and you just keep growing.”
The messaging at this year’s SuiteWorld was “full suite ahead.” It alludes to the company’s focus on providing a full suite of business software that encompasses everything from HR to finance to warehousing.
However, Norfolk said partners “don’t go out to sell everything up front on day one. We want the ‘land and expand.’ A lot of our customers are small SMBs who don’t know what they’re doing, and there’s no point trying to sell them everything. To me, when you look at something like ‘full suite ahead,’ maybe you start with financials and then you add on HR or whatever. Or you may start with a whole pile of the different modules and features, but then continue to add to it as time goes on.”
West referred to founders Evan Goldberg and Larry Ellison’s original vision for NetSuite.
“’Do as much as you can in one piece of software, instead of having to cobble together. It is probably, fundamentally, the reason why a customer chooses [NetSuite]. Even if it is that bite-size approach, I can choose one vendor and have one bill, but do a really broad set of things for my business. Fundamentally, the suite is the differentiator.”
Norfolk also contends that NetSuite’s partner engagement offering, SuiteLife, differentiates the firm from its rivals. One of its main benefits is getting partners onboarded and selling NetSuite faster. The program continues to evolve, he said.
“It’s bearing the fruit. We’re seeing partners becoming enabled a whole lot quicker. We’re seeing partners able to extend their workforce quicker,” he said.
One of the software vendors speaking at SuiteWorld, Versapay, conducted a survey into executive concerns over the current turbulent economic landscape. The top three concerns according to CIOs are rising energy costs (46%), inflation rates (46%), and the increased prevalence of remote work (46%).
Despite these concerns, Norfolk said that partners aren’t seeing any slowdown in customer spending.
“The partners are telling me there’s strong pipelines, people are wanting to do things still,” he said.
He said SMBs are investing now in a bid to reduce their costs in the future.
“It reminds me of the whole thing around when COVID came,” he said. “In some ways this will really highlight to people that they’ve got to be smart with their money. And the ways that they’re doing things at the moment, it’s just costing them money. People are coming to our partners, and saying, ‘We know we now need to do something.'”
“SMB buyers still want to invest in technology to create efficiencies to improve profitability,” agreed West. “To pivot, we have to pivot their business and be flexible and nimble during these headwinds So we’re not seeing them tightening their belts.”
At the same time, West acknowledged partner concerns around rising energy costs and inflation. However, he contended that such headwinds “might be our strength.”
He explained: “Let’s use the headwinds as our energy. We’re going to keep investing in you. We’re not slowing down. We’re not taking a slip. We’re going to push on. We’re going to continue to invest in [partners] and support them.
“We’re used to headwinds; we’ve been through COVID. Everybody lost some time, but then we bounced back. We’ve done this once. We can do it again. So we’re going to continue investing and support that growth and we’re not going to take no for an answer.”
On new investments, West highlighted SuiteLife Campus, a NetSuite program where partners can hire new university graduates.
“They send them to us for four weeks, and we do a week of consulting skills training, a week of accounting fundamentals training, and then two weeks of NetSuite training. Then send them back to the partners, and then the partners put them on projects,” he explained.
Currently only available in North America, West said NetSuite plans to take the program to international markets soon.
“We’re trying to reduce friction and be more effective,” said West. “So we’re doing a lot of work on our partner portal to get partners better, more actionable data about their NetSuite business. We’ve had a big overhaul of our partner portal. We’re going to do a big overhaul of our partner directory on the website to make it easier for customers to find our partners.”
NetSuite has also introduced a new partner performance dashboard called a Strategic Plan Template. Twice a year, the firm provides analysis of a partner’s performance to show them where they stand percentage-wise against the rest of the ecosystem.
“I really want to have that all automated through the portal,” said the exec.
“We’re trying to reduce friction and be more effective,” said West. “So we’re doing a lot of work on our partner portal to get partners better, more actionable data about their NetSuite business. We’ve had a big overhaul of our partner portal. We’re going to do a big overhaul of our partner directory on the website to make it easier for customers to find our partners.”
NetSuite has also introduced a new partner performance dashboard called a Strategic Plan Template. Twice a year, the firm provides analysis of a partner’s performance to show them where they stand percentage-wise against the rest of the ecosystem.
“I really want to have that all automated through the portal,” said the exec.
Oracle NetSuite has outlined “a laundry list” of investments to boost momentum in its partner program.
The ERP software vendor’s global VP channel sales and alliances, Craig West, was speaking at NetSuite’s annual SuiteWorld event last week in Las Vegas. Channel Futures was there.
West revealed partners over the last 12 months have accrued the largest number of new customers in its history. It’s also seeing the most partner-led projects ever, and partners are reaping the benefits of changes made to the partner program earlier this year.
However, there are more changes on the horizon. These include investments in partner performance, a new portal and graduate training for partners.
The goal, said West, is that partners find NetSuite the “easiest to do business with.”
NetSuite’s Craig West
He said: “I tell my team, ‘You better be the call that partner takes. They’ve got vendors calling them all the time that they send to voicemail. You better be the one they take — if you’re not that one, you’re doing something wrong.’”
West also said there is no slowdown in SMB spending, despite economic uncertainty. Moreover, believes that partners can use the current economic “headwinds” to their advantage.
See our slideshow above to see all the channel updates from SuiteWorld.
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