Vendors Tailoring Partner Programs For Next Economy

While the rise of e-business services may not have changed the world as we know it, one thing is clear: vendors who used to cater to traditional resellers spent much of last year reshaping their partner programs to attract the attention of a new generation of solution providers.

The companies they are trying to attract include a new kind of partner--companies like e-business services firms, ASPs and integrators.

That's why today's vendors want the attention and loyalty of guys like Sheldon Arora, CEO of e-integration firm esoftsolutions. He's part of a new breed of integrator that cares more about influence and strategic alliances than they do about project margins or traditional channel relationships. Like most e-business integrators, he rarely sells product.

Still, Arora keeps himself busy when it comes to choosing vendor partners, because he's always on the lookout for companies he feels can lead the way to success for his integration firm.

"We always want to be associated with the leaders. It's that simple," he says, whose Plano, Texas-based company sells strategic e-business and wireless solutions to Fortune 1000 clients.

Traditional vendors ranging from IBM and Microsoft to Sun Microsystems and Computer Associates spent much of last year reshaping their partner programs to attract this new generation of solution providers by catering to their unique needs.

"In the reseller model, you built a solution and sold it turnkey," says Sun Microsystems' Joe Womack, vice president of eSun partner sales for the Americas. "What's different about the non-title transfer folks is that this one piece is missing. If they are not going to resell the turnkey solution and they are only going to do their consulting, then I've got to marry them up with a traditional reseller."

See how other vendors are shaping their partner programs to attract the attention of these new integrators in the Partner Programs Guide on March 19.