ISVs And Manufacturers: United We Sell

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A simple connection is what it ultimately came down to for one independent software vendor trying to land a contract. Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based ISV Syclo was working hard to sell a mobility solution to the National Labs but needed some help to seal the deal.

Enter its hardware manufacturer, Symbol Technologies, and the finesse of the company's PartnerSelect program, which unites VARs with ISVs to better serve niche customers. Symbol came through with a solid recommendation--Annapolis, Md.-based SCLogic, which offers bar code and wireless-system integration.

Through the connection, SCLogic provided Syclo with the appropriate hardware configurations for the project and the customer, National Labs, with consulting services that led to a fast, cost-effective procurement. The deal was done--all within the planned rollout schedule.

This is just one success story driving a trend in vendors' channel programs. Unite ISV partners with VAR partners to help target vertical markets--most notably government and health care.

The theory is that specific markets require specific solutions, and that VARs can better accommodate those requirements by teaming up with software providers that offer customized applications.

"[Alliances] allow each company to focus on its strengths, particularly if they know they have a noncompeting trusted partner on call to back them up when the need arises for software or hardware," says Michael Saldi, president of SCLogic.

In a properly conceived ISV program, the vendor gets hardware designed into the ISV's offering, the ISV gets access to the vendor's customers, sales force and service providers, and the VAR gets introduced to new clients who may already be sold on the ISV's software.

"It's a great three-way go-to-market strategy," Saldi says, "but the details of the program matter, and the chemistry between parties needs to be right. There's a lot of genuine trust required to make it work."

Making the Connection

Symbol's PartnerSelect program is one of the most noteworthy initiatives that seek to unite VARs with ISVs. The mobile technology manufacturer opened up the program to include ISVs in April 2005, and already boasts 146 members.

This year, Symbol is more heavily emphasizing driving partnerships that accommodate named verticals, including government and health care. For example, the manufacturer is taking ISVs around the country to showcase the vertical solution sets they offer to reseller partners. In government, it may be a mobile Web application that enables combat personnel in the field to securely access a department network; for health care, it might be a mobile-database application that synchronizes with a hospital's electronic records system in real-time.

"What we find in the public sector, in particular, is that requirements often incorporate both the horizontal and the vertical," says Jan Burton, vice president of worldwide channels at Symbol. "There are the solutions that target, for example, the police force and first-responders at the state and local levels; but there are also solutions that enable asset-tracking for a federal-defense agency. That translates to big opportunities for all kinds of partners in so many different areas."

While some vendors require a degree of hardware exclusivity by VARs that take advantage of the ISV programs, Symbol does not. Instead, the manufacturer provides added resources through the program to ease the process of integration and naturally drive partner loyalty. Symbol's Solutions Validation Program, for example, enables ISV partners to co-validate their applications and solutions on Symbol hardware at the company's testing lab in Holtsville, N.Y., and the SymbolPlus Partner Program validates third-party peripherals devices to ensure they operate out of the box.

"Symbol creates a preference by making the necessary technical expertise available, so a company like ours can ensure not only that our software is compatible with the Symbol products, but also that we can take advantage of unique hardware capabilities," says Jeff Kleban, executive vice president of alliances and partnerships at Syclo, which counts the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Delaware Department of Transportation among its users.

"Symbol doesn't dictate that we sell their products," Kleban says, "but they put every mechanism in place to make Symbol the hardware piece of a best total solution."

While a number of vendors seek to unite partners, hardware manufacturers and distributors are now taking the strategy one step further, pulling ISVs under their partner umbrellas with the specific goal of being able to better accommodate certain markets.

"We're finding more and more partners in this ecosystem--which is so large in Public Sector--that need to learn how to partner among themselves," says Alex Gogh, vice president of marketing for IBM Public Sector. IBM announced its Public Sector Edge initiative in August 2005, which brings ISVs, integrators and solution providers together with government-focused resources and events. So far, 1,000 partners participate. "It's not just about getting IBM to partner with them; it's about an ISV working with a regional systems integrator, working with a VAR. Every salesman has a sense of urgency, and any tool or capability that can facilitate finding the right person at the right time is nirvana," Gogh says.

Similarly, Avnet Partner Solutions introduced a new program in December that matches ISVs with HP VARs at the beginning of the sales cycle according to geography and target market--one of those markets being health care.

"Right now, we've chosen a slice where we can get some substantial return on our investment in the fastest time frame possible," says Jim Custer, ISV business manager of the HP business unit of Avnet Partner Solutions. "We're looking at where HP has strengths and where our VAR community has strengths, and complementing them with specific software that offers a differentiation. As you look at the traditional set of hardware infrastructure resellers, they have kind of a horizontal value proposition to the customer community. Mostly, it's limited to the middleware stack and not necessarily the business application."

At the same time, ISVs that may have a hard time getting their applications into certain markets can tap into VARs' installed bases. HP resellers that participate in the Avnet program are, therefore, expected to bring some market presence to the table.

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