With an eye on boosting its partner numbers and improving the all-around quality of its channel, NetSuite Inc. has added several features to its existing channel program, including fee waivers, free training, marketing resources and lead generation support.
The new offerings are part of the NetSuite SuiteStart Service promotion, which includes waving an entire year of fees for new channel partners— a $5,000 value. The promotion also includes free first-year training in NetSuite sales and methodology courses for up to three sales reps; go-to-market support, including marketing templates, start-up leads, and access to ongoing leads for top-performing partners; and a free NetSuite license for partners in good standing to use to operate their own business.
Last year at this time, in a bid to draw in more value-added resellers of its cloud-based accounting and business management software, NetSuite unveiled the SP 100 program, offering VARs 100 percent margin on first-year license subscriptions. The program included 10 percent margins on renewals, creating a recurring revenue model for the vendor’s reselling partners, as well as sales and technical training, sales cycle assistance, and marketing support that the company already offers its channel.
NetSuite had some success with the initial program, growing its U.S. channel by nearly 40 percent over 2009 figures, but the company also saw some need for improvement in certain areas, according to vice president of channels Craig West.
“Overall I think [SP 100] was a raving success for us,” he said. “It got a bunch of people to the table and let us influence the situation, but one of the barriers was at some point a lot of people just got bogged down over fiscal parameters, and it was a limited-time thing. We have also built some robust training, and we got feedback that there was good content, but people wondered if it was right for partners to pay for that, so some training will be free now and we are broadening what we’re not going to charge for.”
West also noted that the original SP 100 promotion was only extended to U.S. partners, whereas the new promotion will be offered in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well.
For more on cloud computing, visit the
