The COVID-19 pandemic expedited digital connectivity and collaboration. According to a McKinsey Global Survey, companies accelerated their digitization transformation projects by three to four years. It’s now 2025, not 2022. Now more than ever channel programs have the opportunity to accelerate success. Backed by the expansive and growing online workforce economy and shaped by the rapid innovations in technology, today’s channel leaders have so much opportunity. Where should they start? With partner experience. Here are the four vital areas leading channel teams are focusing on across program strategy and technology this year and beyond. 1. Consumer-like experience The competition for partners is as fierce as the competition for customers. The investment into channel experience reflects that. Give your partners a consumerlike experience. Consumers crave the same seamless and simple interface they experience with brands including Apple and Tesla. This expectation has extended to the partner experience. Ensure that partner programs provide a tailored, personalized experience and easy homepage access to data-driven information. Eliminate unnecessary customeroriented information and the need to dig for crucial information. It should feel like a business enablement application and act as a tool to manage the pipeline instead of an extra chore. Naturally, interfaces that offer a painful, fumble-throughit experience will lose business to brands that eliminate channel conflict and provide visibility. As analyst at IT trade association CompTIA reported, “For a vast majority of partners, the ease of doing business ranks highest in the why-should-wework-with-this-vendor department. It ranks higher than even the profitmaking opportunity in many cases.” 2. Business hub over marketing content Many channel chiefs make the mistake of viewing partner programs through a marketing lens and treatBy Gary Sabin 30 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022 CHANNEL MANAGEMENT Vital Functions of a Partner Portal
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