NetSuite offers pure margin to boost partner push
CRM vendor hopes to swell reseller ranks with 100 per cent margin scheme
Cloud-based accounting and CRM software vendor NetSuite is aiming to drive up UK partner numbers with a scheme offering new recruits unadulterated margins.
The vendor is expanding its SP100 Programme, launched in the US a year ago, into the UK. In 2011, new partners are offered 100-per-cent margins on first-year licence sales, receiving 10 points on subsequent renewals. VARs can opt to sell under normal terms, which offer first-year margins of at least 30 per cent.
Merrill Kindred (pictured), EMEA channel director for NetSuite, said the scheme is designed to bring firms on board and will not put existing partners' noses out of joint.
"They have built up annuity revenue streams," she explained. "In the US, this programme generated a lot of interest in NetSuite."
Other benefits include the SuiteStart Service, offering free training for up to three salespeople and free licences for in-house use. The $5,000 channel programme enrolment fee is also waived and marketing support and sales leads are provided. Successful VARs will benefit from continued lead generation.
"We have a burgeoning channel. We need to increase the number of partners we have in the UK," said Kindred.
NetSuite claims the move to cloud gives it the edge over legacy CRM providers. This view is given credence by recent research from IDC that says 2011 will see all major software vendors "intensify their efforts to become cloud players in Europe".
David Bradshaw, research manager at IDC, said: "Many IT vendors are scrambling to get their cloud offerings to market before it is too late."