Best Software Launches Midmarket Channel Blitz

Best partners said the new program puts the company squarely into the No. 1 position in the midmarket software business just as Microsoft is attempting to expand its midmarket reach.

Best, which has a broad portfolio including Peachtree accounting and MAS 90 and MAS 500 accounting/ERP software, is guaranteeing solution providers a specific number of leads with its new Partner Advantage Program. In addition, the company is providing, in conjunction with American Express, a zero percent financing plan for three years for customers migrating between Best product platforms. Since August, the financing program has resulted in close to $1 million in business.

Best, which has 6,600 partners, also unveiled a new customer migration center and a program that provides customers with a 20 percent discount off the purchase price when moving from Peachtree to MAS 90 or zero percent financing for three years for products and services.

"This is huge for us," said said Alan Hardy, a technology partner at Clifton Gunderson, a Peoria, Ill.-based an accounting and consulting firm with a technology practice. "The resources that Best is putting into this [channel program are phenomenal."

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Hardy, whose Tempe, Ariz., sales office has seen its sales in that region grow 20 percent to 40 percent each year for the past five years, said that combining the many Best products under one channel program will almost certainly increase the number of Best products he sells to clients. He estimated that currently, between 30 percent and 50 percent of the time he is selling more than one Best product to clients. "To be able to deal with them as one company will really simplify our relationship with them in areas as simple as placing a product order or getting support or sales consulting."

Hardy, who said he gets between 5 and 20 leads per month working with Best, said the lead-generation program will increase that number. "As a business owner, for Best to guarantee a certain number of leads for a fixed price takes away some of the risk," he said. "You're a lot more willing to spend dollars with Best if you know you are going to get leads."

The financing program takes away an obstacle that holds up about 20 percent of all deals, he added. "As a VAR I can craft a deal with hardware, software and integration services into one lease and I get paid 100 percent up-front," he said.

The migration tools and assistance, meanwhile, will help solve the data conversion problem that is the No. 1 challenge in any midmarket software implementation, said Hardy. "This will simplify data conversion tremendously, " he said.

Sue Bennett, president of Bennett/Porter and Associates, a a 15-year-old Portland Oregon solution provider, said one of the big advantages of the new program is the ability to more easily team up with other Best partners to help customers be more competitive. "The most important thing for us is keeping our clients happy," she said. "This program opens the door for us to deal with different people."

Best has done an outstanding job of providing solid migration paths as clients grow their business, said Bennett.

Bennett/Porter, which only carries Best's software products, recently looked at other ERP software vendors and decided to stick with Best. "There is no better partner," she said. "I feel real confident. We went through the due diligence to pick up another enterprise-level product, and there is not another company that treats their partners as well as Best Software. They just don't exist."

Hardy, who recently attended Microsoft's Stampede conference and is a Microsoft Navision partner, said Best's channel program is "by far and away" superior to Microsoft's. Best's program is backed up by a host of seminars, training and boot camps that pull the partner into more than an arm's-length relationship, said Hardy.

Best also announced a new corporate branding campaign aimed at raising awareness around the company's broad SMB product portfolio, which includes ACT, Abra, FAS, MIP and SalesLogix. The campaign centers around the benefits SMBs can achieve by partnering "for life" with one single trusted vendor for all of their front- and back-office software.

John Kitchens, MIS manager at Strike King Lure, a Collierville, Tenn.-based Fishing lure maker that works with solution provider Data Systems Group in Memphis, Tenn., said Best's new migration center will be key as Strike King looks to migrate to more robust Best products. "This is going to allow us to see potential problems," he said.

Kitchens said his solution provider and Best have an outstanding track record with customizing software to fit his business. "They've done a good job," he said. "They are small enough to be big enough to care."