Partner Networks Blog
Partner Networks Blog - Partner Management
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Find and connect with partners using Salesforce.com
Oct 15, 2009Interested in finding out which of your partners use Salesforce.com so that you can connect and start collaborating on deals, leads and other business processes? With Winter ’10, customers can use the Connection Finder feature to survey their partners to find out if the partner uses Salesforce.com as their CRM system of choice.
With Connection Finder customers can:
· Send a simple branded survey to all their partner contacts
· Partners can respond with their Salesforce.com usage status
· Partners can also include details on their Salesforce.com Administrator (e.g. name, email) if they have this information
· Partner responses are captured on the partner contact record in the ‘Uses Salesforce’ field
· Customers can use this information to connect with partners who already use Salesforce.com using Salesforce to Salesforce; that is free for all our customers
Feature can be enabled by customers at the following location in setup: Setup|Customize|Salesforce to Salesforce|Connection Finder
If you have any questions, send them to: s2s@salesforce.com
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Summer '09 spotlight: Third-party service management with Salesforce Partners
Jun 24, 2009With Summer '09, Salesforce to Salesforce now supports sharing Cases and Case Comments. In Spring '09 we released Cases in the Partner Portal as well - so the Salesforce Partners product line completely supports Third-Party Service Management.
Some of the business processes supported include:
- End customer using Salesforce CRM directly logs Case with one or more vendors and service agents that also use Salesforce CRM
- Vendor shares Cases with other Vendors as well as Service agents and Resellers
- Partner logs Case with Vendor on their behalf
- Partner logs Case with Vendor on behalf of the end customer
- Sharing the same customer case with multiple stakeholders (i.e. Vendors, Resellers, Third-party service agents) and all parties receiving real-time visibility on changes to cases
The above processes can be supported using both Salesforce to Salesforce and Partner Portal. The former would be used if the stakeholder (Vendor, Partner or Customer) uses Salesforce CRM while the latter would be used if the stakeholder (Vendor, Partner) does not use Salesforce CRM. Customer portal should be used for end customers that do not use Salesforce CRM. Most use cases involve using a combination of Salesforce to Salesforce, partner portal and customer portal.
You can find more information on the Cases features on this blog
Remember, Salesforce to Salesforce is free for all customers including Group Edition. If customers have any questions or need help running a pilot feel free to contact Product Management at: s2s@salesforce.com
- End customer using Salesforce CRM directly logs Case with one or more vendors and service agents that also use Salesforce CRM
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Bringing Web 2.0 to the Channel
May 22, 2008
I've been invited by the Channel Focus group to share insights, findings and learning on how vendors can bring Web 2.0 to the channel. Whether you are in channel sales, channel marketing or channel operations, you'll benefit from this presentation. To drive unprecedented levels of stickiness in their partnerships, vendors look for ways to further differentiate their programs. And channel partners are asking for more collaboration, more feedback and more process alignment. Web 2.0 best practices can accomplish just this.
Please register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/633758811 or email me at ecohen@salesforce.com.
Date: 29 May 2008
Time: 9.00hrs Pacific; 12.00hrs Eastern; 17.00hrs; 18.00hrs Central EuropeThe topics I'll be reviewing include:
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Professional Edition customers may now send invitations using the Salesforce to Salesforce service
Mar 14, 2008I'm excited to announce that starting March 1st, Professional edition customers can send invitations by buying Salesforce to Salesforce (S2S) licenses in addition to UE and EE edition customers. S2S allows companies (e.g. vendors) to collaborate on leads, opportunities and custom objects with other companies (e.g. suppliers, resellers, distributors, ISVs) who are also using Salesforce.com and receive real-time updates on changes to shared records. This service truly demonstrates the power of our multi-tenant platform and is a great innovation in channels and B2B collaboration.
Following is the new packaging for this service:
- UE/EE/PE editions may send invitations (similar to linkedin invites) by purchasing S2S licenses
- All editions (except Personal edition) may accept invitations free of charge (e.g. Group/Team edition customer can accept an invitation to connect from PE edition customer)
- All editions may share records and send/receive updates on shared records
Please contact your AE or CSM if you're interested in using this service or doing a trial.
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New Winter 07 on Demand PRM Portal Available
Jan 19, 2007Easily create partner portals in a few clicks and improve your relationships with your channel partners. View the online demonstration and install the portal today into your own salesforce.com system.
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New channel management features available next week
Jan 11, 2007As a reminder, we are releasing a number of very strategic and powerful features to help your channel organizations more effectively manage your partner networks. You'll empower your channel managers to be in control of their programs and know who their top partners are. These new features will be available on Thursday January 18th 2006. Here is a summary of the capabilities:
1. Easily manage partner activation and communications
2. Partner profiles makes channel programs scalable with tiers and cloning
3. More channel analytics to measure partner performance
4. Enhanced partner deal support with activities, notes and attachments in the portal
5. More customization with custom objects, custom list views, and custom statistics in the portal
If you haven't already scheduled a review session of these new Winter 07 features with your account team and / or product management, please send an email to ecohen@salesforce.com. I'd be happy to schedule a personal with you and your team. The full detailed feature guide is available by clicking through on this link. Click here.
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Salesforce PRM Successes on iTunes
Apr 9, 2006The Salesforce.com iTunes category in the iTunes music store has a podcast called PRM with the Salesforce.com Partner Portal. This represents a great Dreamforce talk with two Salesforce.com customers and Product Management highlighting success managing partners. The podcast is under an hour and is filled with best practices. Click here for to access the session and download it from iTunes. It's item number 21 in the full list of Salesforce.com podcasts. Also, we're excited about this year's upcoming Dreamforce event set for October 7 to 11. This year we'll have an entire track devoted to channel and partner management. For full conference details, click here. Save the date!
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Partner Visibility App Launched by Sigmatrak
Feb 21, 2006Point of Sale (POS) data is the holy grail of channel management. Sigmatrak has successfully solved this age old mystery with their B2B messaging appliance. Their equipment improves the accuracy and consistency of data that is passed between trading partners. Now, the data that is processed, is inte
grated with Salesforce and is mapped to partner and customer accounts. Using Sigmatrak and Salesforce.com together, empowers sales and channel executives to know exactly what their partners are selling and who they are selling to. Channel sales activity is analyzed, inventory levels are tracked, and rebate claims are reconciled. Click here to take a test drive or install this AppExchange application. I really like the service monitor feature which demonstrates, on a Google Map, the locations of the messaging appliance within a partner community. It really brings the idea of a channel coverage map to life. Imagine having this powerful data and appliance inside your Salesforce.com system? -
Partner Portal Demo
Oct 5, 2005
PRM and Salesforce's Partner Portal enables
companies to cost effectively and easily increase revenues driven through
partners. Companies can share leads and
opportunities, enable deal registration programs, co-market, and communicate
rebates and incentives to partners through the Salesforce Partner Portal. Channel Managers gain visibility to partner
performance and sales executives finally have a consolidated pipeline
representing both direct and indirect opportunities and deals. This presentation is available in Breeze (5 mins).
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Build your own PRM program using Custom Objects?
Sep 8, 2005Many of our customers today are leveraging custom objects to build PRM applications to manage, track and measure their partner programs. Companies engage with their partners through sharing of Leads and joint selling with Opportunities. This part is straightforward and already managed through core Salesforce SFA and Partner Portal. Other companies are also enabling partner management processes through Salesforce’s Custom Objects. Some types of partner management applications needed by channel managers worldwide include: co-marketing funds, special pricing authorizations, certification tracking, deal registration, certifications, and channel account planning. The Dashboard inlcuded in this post shows how Custom Objects have been designed to support rebates, market development funds (MDF), and coop.
The dashboard is presented on top of marketing request and claim objects modeled against best practice PRM processes. Now channel managers, inside of Salesforce, can easily track the marketing requests and claims submitted by their partners. These objects are easily exposed to partners using Salesforce’s Partner Portal Toolkit. Have you created PRM processes using these objects? Have you exposed these objects to partners? Share your PRM successes and questions.
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