The Program or the Portal

Which comes first for partnering success?

In the ever-evolving landscape of partnerships, the debate continues over whether to start with a partner program or a partner portal. Both are crucial for fostering successful partnerships. In fact, some people might say one without the other is just as bad as having neither.

For many years, the partner program was the focus area for a vendor wanting to accelerate the impact of partnerships. The program build was followed by a systems setup which offered the ability to scale and operationalise. Of late, we see vendors have already established – or at the very least evaluated – technology solutions while they are building or redesigning their partner programs. So, does the portal take priority ahead of establishing a program?

It's important to consider the order in which your program and your portal are developed and launched. Your approach will impact the effectiveness and efficiency of your partnerships. (Listen to our webinar on this topic.)

Program Versus Portal

A partner program is a structured framework that outlines partner engagement, benefits, requirements, and incentives. It provides structure to how your organisation works with partners, prioritises the ecosystem to driving towards success and serves as the foundation for building and managing those relationships. A documented program ensures you provide partners with the necessary resources, support, and motivation to succeed and allows you to prioritise your efforts and resources to accelerate results.

A partner portal is a digital platform that facilitates communication, collaboration, and resource sharing between you and your partners. It acts as a central hub of digitalisation of partner engagement where partners can access information, track their performance, and engage with the partnership independently. To the vendor, it offers data on behaviours and performance that drives decision making towards a more efficient and pleasant partner experience.

Factors Influencing the Portal-First Approach

• Building a Program is Hard – As consultants who dream in blueprints, we know it’s tough to get the whole company on one page about partnering goals, let alone agreeing on a structure to define partner engagement. Implementing a strategy demands change management. There is nothing quite like trying to document the partnering strategy in a program guide to cause utter chaos. As some of you nod and twitch at the thought of it, don’t fret, we have resources to help you.
• Digital Transformation – The rapid advancement of technology has made portal platforms easier to consume. You no longer need teams of tech gurus for implementation, and the solutions don’t eat up your annual budget. Affordable SaaS offerings with off-the-shelf capabilities that offer best practices to hungry partnership leaders are no longer something to dream about. With predefined integrations, even connecting multiple systems isn't the headache it once was.
• Partner Expectations – Four out of the five generations in the workplace are digital-first and modern partners expect seamless digital experiences. A well-designed partner portal enhances the partner experience by providing frictionless access to resources and support at scale and speed. In a competitive market, having a robust partner portal can differentiate you from competitors. It demonstrates a commitment to partner success and can attract high-quality partners. In fact, some partners are turning the tables and creating their own portals to manage their vendor partnerships. We love working with these trailblazers!
• The Need for Data-Driven Decisions – For decades, data has been analysed for insights to accelerate the positive outcomes of direct customer sales. The partnering world is still catching up. Data driven decisions means collecting and analysing partner performance and behaviours, which not everyone is doing – or doing well (cough, Excel spreadsheets). While CRM is the king of data capture systems, a PRM can facilitate partnering metrics in real-time. This helps vendors make informed decisions, stay focused on goals, determine budgets and resource ROI, and create predictable outcomes. Marry the PRM with the CRM and you are on fire (in a good way!).
• Scalability – Managing the growing number of complex partner relationships in a relevant and strategic manner becomes challenging. We’ve seen job losses in partnering over the last year, driving expectations to ‘do more with less.’ A partner portal helps scale partner engagement effectively without the need for more bums on seats.

The Argument for a Hybrid Approach

These trends might suggest the portal is the best starting point but consider that native functionality from most SaaS PRM solutions offer basic processes and don’t drive a unique partnership strategy.

The first step in program design is to understand what you are solving for:

1. What do you want the partners to do?
2. What are the business goals for indirect business?
3. How do they relate to your overarching business goals?

Instead of thinking program OR portal to start, think program AND portal. It’s transformative to build a program from validated strategic goals in tandem with a digital platform that standardises processes while also scaling the partner experience.

A hybrid approach allows you to define the key elements of your partner program while simultaneously digitalising it.

As the program evolves, the portal can be enhanced to meet the growing needs of your partners. Our mantra for both program build and portal design is Crawl, Walk, Run (then Drive and Fly, as Diane often continues).

Ultimately, the success of a partnership strategy depends on the seamless integration of both a program and a portal. By understanding the unique needs of your partners and leveraging the latest technologies, you can create an effective partnership ecosystem that drives mutual success through both in-person and digital empowerment.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have any specific experiences or insights to share? Book a virtual coffee with Amy – she would love to hear about your experiences or needs regarding a partner program and partner portal.

Amy Roberts is the EMEA principal and PRM lead at PartnerPath. She is based in York, UK.