Business partnerships allow two separate business entities to join forces and supplement one another’s product or service portfolios. This is commonly seen with mobile device manufacturers like Samsung, who employ the audio specialists Harman/Kardon as a partner to tune and optimize its sound peripherals. This is mutually beneficial—and the same is true for a partner solutions portal.
When you plan your next partner solutions portal, execute that plan in Pulse.
Building a Partner Solutions Portal in Pulse
A partner solutions portal takes relevant information relating to the partnered product or service and makes it available bilaterally to both parties. This promotes collaboration and ensures that both partners, despite being different entities, are on the same page. This also means employees from both partner entities can access info, share updates, and communicate with colleagues across the company.
Tracking Tasks and Projects Shared Between Partners
Partnered business entities are likely to be collaborating on a project at any given time. This project will contain tasks and activities for completion, and partners need a way to divide and conquer these tasks seamlessly.
A cloud partner solutions portal centralizes business activities like partner meetings, conferences, and events with the granular ability to share with individual users, departments, or the entire business. Real-time congruence with calendar entries ensures that both sides of the partnership are engaged and aware of meetings and obligations relating to the project.
Shared tasks with contextual documentation and assignees ensure that each partner has a point of contact and knows the status of a project as it is passed between each partner platform. Finally, alerts can catch missing project deliverables and help managers to orchestrate teams.
Shared Applications and Tools Between Partners for Simpler Onboarding and Maintenance
In a partner portal solution, it is essential to make applications and tools available. Both partners will share a pool of common applications, tools, and resources. A shared environment with common business processes can streamline workflows without compromising internal governance and data protection adherence.
These tools can be accessed seamlessly using single sign on (SSO) technology, simplifying IT onboarding and maintenance for both companies. Self-service offerings can help employees across both partner entities to gain understanding, such as with a knowledge base, reset user accounts and passwords at a faster rate than contacting the organization’s support team.
Partner Certification and Online Training for Engagement and Understanding
Solution partners must have the ability to fulfill project requirements, no matter which side of the fence. Partner certification ensures that when partners are onboarded, you already know they can successfully fulfill their sales obligations to customers. This certification can come from surveys, quizzes, and assessments designed to reveal the skills and competencies of partners.
These certifications can span across marketing, sales, and technical IT services, but the main focus is ensuring partners can deliver your solutions to spec and that meet the customers’ standards. With training and certification to instill best practices, partners will be more engaged and resultantly put more effort into understanding your solutions.
Business Operational Analytics Between Partners for Greater Awareness and Accountability
Both business partners will need access to analytical reporting software to fully understand their impact and shortcomings. A shared environment for business analytics can help partners to measure performance success against KPIs and objectives, ensuring they meet performance obligations. Similarly, the initiating partner can scrutinize distributor partners to promote urgency and accountability.
Sales operations analytics can help partners meet sales targets and manage leads in the sales funnel. Finance analytics can help partners identify wasted spend and missed revenue opportunities. IT analytics can remove technical bottlenecks for greater throughput and reliability that enhances partner capabilities, giving the partnership a competitive advantage.
Employee Engagement Analytics for Greater Workforce Ownership
A project is only a success when the right people are running it. Workforce analytics between two channel partner entities helps to make sure each team on each side is contributing equally. More effort from one side could brew discontent, sinking productivity and morale.
With both teams at each partner site accounted for, managers can divide project workloads equally between these teams using task and project management software. Employee monitoring ensures each member fulfills assigned tasks—to a high standard and to enforced deadlines. Similarly, cross-company employee feedback offers a unique perspective from both sides that solo-businesses miss out on.
Partner Relationship Management for Greater Loyalty
A partner may work for your business, but it still has its own objectives and desires. Selling partner solutions for another business is a way to generate revenue and support internal business operations. In return for top partner performance, it will expect commission, rewards, and support to fulfill their contractual partnership obligations.
A partner solutions portal allows you to interface with partners and share data on performance, due commission, and reward milestones. Channel managers can monitor partner performance against your KPIs and receive projected revenues and commission payments, providing an important source of drive and motivation as they deliver solutions.
If partners need information or content with technical guidance or training, a portal connection gives partners the avenue to help each other—and subsequently lift the bottom line.
