ManagetoWin: Talent And Performance Management On Demand

Company:

Headquarters: Novato, Calif.

Technology Sector: Software

Key Product: ManagetoWin talent management on-demand application

Year Founded: 2006

Number of Channel Partners: About 25 (U.S.)

Ideal Channel Partner: Managed Service Provider

Why You Should Care: One thing many businesses do very poorly is manage their employees. Demand is on the rise for talent management applications, especially on-demand services, offering an opportunity for managed service providers and solution providers with human resources management expertise.

The Lowdown: ManagetoWin founder and CEO David Russell wrote the book on successfully managing people -- literally. Trouble was, people kept asking him how to implement the recommendations in his book, "Success With People," and he concluded that the talent management software solutions on the market just didn't cut it. So he founded ManagetoWin in 2006 and, after working with developers at The Computer Solutions Company in Richmond, Va., debuted the company's talent management Software-as-a-Service application in 2008.

"We're really all in the people business," Russell said in an interview. "That's what really motivates us as an organization."

The ManagetoWin application provides a number of core HR functions, such as tracking compensation history, benefits and attendance. (Russell identifies Taleo as the company's closest competitor.)

But the major focus of the ManagetoWin service is employee performance management and building leadership. Setting goals and career paths for employees and managers and tracking their progress, employee performance evaluations, defining an organization's best practices, helping leaders manage tasks assigned to employees -- all are among the application's capabilities.

"Good managers don't just improve employee productivity," Russell said, discussing his employee management philosophy. "They make them an enthusiastic employee. How do I increase employee productivity and keep my best people?"

ManagetoWin's 300 subscribers range from companies with two employees to those with 7,000. But Russell, who is shooting to hit 1,000 customers this year, said most subscribers have fewer than 100 employees -- those that primarily "use Excel and Word documents, file folders and Post-It notes" to manage their employees, he said.

The company's 25 channel partners, including solution providers and managed service providers, account for about 25 percent of the company's sales -- a number Russell would like to see grow to as much as 75 percent.

Solution providers and managed service providers that resell the ManagedtoWin service earn 15 percent of the first-year subscriber fee and 10 percent of subsequent year fees. While ManagetoWin actually closes the deal with the customer, Russell said he increasingly counts on channel partners to bring in the customers. "We have a small sales staff, so we rely on the channel."

In a channel twist, if the solution provider's customer is itself a service provider " say, a human resources management company -- that, in turn, sells the service to their customers, the first channel partner receives 10 percent of the first year of that secondary deal and 5 percent of subsequent year fees. (The second service provider also gets the 15 percent/10 percent margins for its deals.)

Solution providers can bring their own expertise to the ManagetoWin application, such as providing best-practice consulting services in hiring and managing performance reviews.