Cloud, SaaS Reseller Channels More Important Than Ever

A Technology Adoption Profile (TAP) conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by agile commerce provider Avangate highlights the increasing role resellers play in helping independent software vendors (ISVs) acquire and retain customers.

Two-thirds (66 percent) of the companies surveyed for the profile indicated that they considered channel partners strategically important to growing revenues from their SaaS products.

The TAP leveraged existing Forrester Research data along with a survey of SMB and enterprise SaaS vendors in the U.S. and the U.K. The respondents were asked for their opinions on the importance, drivers, benefits, and must-have and nice-to have services provided by channel resellers, as well as their concerns and uses of technology to support the channel.

The TAP study, available for download from the Avangate website, outlines the survey results and provides detailed analysis in key issues facing SaaS and cloud service providers:

The TAP states that ” … more than one-quarter of firms are centralizing the procurement and management of SaaS cloud applications. Consequently, these firms are changing their sourcing strategy, looking to solution partners who can supply and centrally manage the entire end-to-end SaaS portfolio.” The study continues, “To ensure the continued growth and long-term sustainability of the partner channel, ISVs must invest in new technology to ensure that partners are equipped to self-serve their own customers and build long-term relationships.”

“As both selling online and cloud-based services have become ubiquitous, a common misconception is that the value of having channel resellers falls,” said Michael Ni, Avangate’s CMO and senior vice president, marketing and products. “The reality is that in a world of easy discoverability, reseller channels actually drive the trust, context, value-added services that ultimately sustain revenue growth. The results of this Forrester Consulting survey illustrate how channels are actually more important than ever in today’s highly competitive market.”