Plans to Double Channel-Generated Revenue by Improving Channel Enablement and Recruiting Partners
To promote business growth, Epicor Software Corporation has announced the launch of a brand new partner program in its EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific regions. Designed to further accelerate international growth and support the company’s cloud-first strategy, the innovative new program gives partners benefits that focus on the value they bring to both businesses.
Epicor is also recruiting new partners across the Middle East, Africa, Australia and South Asia. The recruitment will focus on broadening the company’s experience in niche/specialist verticals as well as key technology areas such as the cloud.
“We recognize that the world is changing at rapid pace and we need to continue to evolve our channel strategy in order to better serve our customers and enable them to focus on growing their business,” said Hesham El Komy, senior director, international channel for Epicor Software.
He continued, “We now offer an innovative style of program that is tailored to the needs of our international partners, rather than the traditional tiered programs with stepped reward systems that have not changed in the last 30 years. The program is based on the latest channel industry best practices that will reward our partners for adding value, growing their Epicor business and thereby helping to grow ours. This will not only help us future-proof our channel but it will also give partners access to great benefits beyond just margins.”
Vetri Selvan, managing director for RheinBrücke, an Epicor partner in Europe, Middle East and India said, “We have been an international partner for over five years and offer a complete range of services from business consulting, solution architecting, through project management, implementation and support on Epicor ERP and Epicor iScala. We use the Epicor channel program extensively and I am happy to say that it has been a key differentiator and instrumental to our continued business growth. The new program is well orchestrated, with detailed phases for initiation, collaboration and expansion. This will help all partners enhance their capabilities, work closer together with Epicor and expand on their existing business. The ERP market is ripe with opportunities and if resellers want to take part in that growth they need to partner with the right vendor, such as Epicor.”
Raju MV, director for FujiSoft, an Epicor partner in the Middle East commented, “We welcome the launch of a new partner program that motivates us to better plan for business growth. The new program will enable the whole team, including sales, consulting and support staff, to grow together and focus on improving the customer experience rather than just focus on sales margins. The combination of great products, great support and a low number of partners makes partnership with Epicor very compelling for us.”
“As a recent award winner of the Epicor EMEA Innovation Partner of the Year 2016 Award, we are excited about the launch of an innovative new channel program that will benefit partners such as Aspera Solutions even further,” said Lonan Byrne, managing director, Aspera Solutions. “We are currently focused on continued growth of our business in Ireland and the UK and fully expect to benefit from the extended support, as well as the value-based incentives, that are quite different from previous programs.”
The comprehensive new program includes, for example:
- Structured and tailored on-boarding process to help new partners get up to speed quickly
- Range of training and certification streams, online and offline to cater for different learning preferences
- Demand generation support for both digital and more traditional marketing tactics based on joint business plans
- Internal channel support with dedicated channel managers for each region
- Rewards based on three value pillars, financial, functional and technical, rather than solely on Revenue
- Three paths of engagement—referral, authorisation and certification—based on the partner’s expertise, knowledge and readiness to grow their Epicor business
“We view partners as a direct extension of the Epicor business and our focus is therefore on recruiting the right type of partners,” said El Komy. “It’s all about quality, not quantity, and our partners have protected areas of expertise so that they are not in direct competition with our internal sales or consulting teams.”
He concluded, “We are now looking for partners that can help us extend our ecosystem geographically, vertically and by adding additional technical expertise such as is required in the cloud space. These could be partners that sell competing products, looking to add a different revenue stream to their business, or those who can sell ERP solutions but don’t necessarily want to get involved in the deep technical aspects. This approach supports our goal to help partners grow their business alongside us.”
