Surviving And Thriving

Making your presence known to your new, larger vendor is more than just speaking up and isn't limited to your own internal resources. Oracle's Kennedy stresses that using the tools provided by a larger, more robust partner program helps solution providers elevate their profiles. "There really are no barriers," he says. "And in our case, our partners should find that things like our expanded solutions catalog and improved ways to find and develop partnerships within the program make these kinds of transitions beneficial."

"I think you often find there's more organization and structure in a bigger program," Nesbitt says. "We've found places in Oracle's programs that maybe take a little longer than we'd like or we're used to. But, overall, they've added reps and done a good job of maintaining our Siebel contacts and keeping our relationships intact."

Being in a larger reseller program creates additional opportunities to partner with other VARs, an increasingly important asset as solution providers of all sizes look to achieve the scale and skillset that matches any number of emerging opportunities.

Lori Cook, vice president of professional services and channels at BMC Software, says the vendor works hard to make sure that all resellers have access to the same kinds of tools and training that the company's internal sales staff receives. As a result, "partners are finding other partners to work with. They're entering new markets and developing new solutions as a result of being immersed in this environment," she says.

BMC, which acquired the popular Remedy IT service-management suite from Peregrine Systems in 2002, has even launched a tool for resellers to assist in demonstrating their wares. The BMC Flight Deck Global Solutions Site is an on-demand, Web-based software-demonstration tool with a series of interactive demos that enables partners to model complex BMC solutions. "This is the kind of unprecedented support for partners I think you'll find only from us," Cook says. "And the feedback from across our partner organization is amazingly positive."

Indeed, it takes a large and mature partner program to offer the breadth of tools, training, support and networking that vendors such as BMC, HP, IBM and Oracle provide.

Kevin Johnson, president of Seamless Technologies, a BMC reseller in Morristown, N.J., says he looks for vendor partners that possess "firm processes, transparency and access"--all of which he feels are improving in his relationship with BMC.

NEXT: Bumpy transitions.