SMB Partner / 12 Important Facts About Channel, Vendor Partnerships

12 Important Facts About Channel, Vendor Partnerships

By Michael Vizard | Posted 2014-12-15

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Number of Vendor Agreements

The majority of channel partners (60%) have relationships with six to 30 vendors. Only 20% have relationships with 30 or more.
Strategic Vendor Relationships

There's a lot of room for swapping vendors. More than a third (35%) of those vendor relationships are considered strategic.
Top Three Strategic Vendors

Vendors don't hold as much sway as they once did. Cisco, at 21%, tops the list, followed by Microsoft (12%) and HP (10%).
Most Partners Are Relatively Small

Nearly half of all partners (47%) have revenue of less than $10 million. Almost a third (29%) have revenue of $11 million to $50 million.
Strategic Vendor Revenue Contributions

A full 60% said their most strategic vendors contribute to 25% or less of their revenue. Only 20% pegged that number at 50% or more.
Number of Vendor Systems Needing to Be Accessed

Almost half (48%) said they need to access one to three systems. The remainder (52%) needs to access four or more systems.
Vendor System Growth Rates

Nearly half (47%) report the number of strategic vendor systems they need to access has increased in last two years. Only 8% said those systems have been reduced.
Number of Actual Logins to Strategic Vendor Systems

A full 62% said their employees log in less than 30 times a month; 85% put that number at less than 60 times a month.
Vendor Portal Feature Rankings

Vendor partner portals rank highest for support. They ranked lowest for sales leads and market development funds/co-op programs.
Primary Vendor Portal Rankings

Almost 70% said their primary vendor partner portal is good or very good. Only 4% ranked them as poor or very poor.
Full-Time Employees Dedicated to Primary Vendor

40% said they have fewer than five employees allocated to the primary vendor while 39% said they have 10 or more.
Factors Driving Lost Productivity

Not enough personal contact (30%) and poor training (29%) are the primary culprits. Only 17% cited not enough incentives.
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There's always room for improvement in the relationships between vendors and channel partners, and a new study looks at how strong those ties are. More than a third of the relationships partners have with vendors are considered strategic, but 60 percent said those strategic vendors contribute only 25 percent or less to their revenues, according to a survey of more than 150 channel partners conducted by Exëvo on behalf of channel automation specialist Relayware. That suggests that many of those strategic vendors are viewed as a necessary means to a larger end. In fact, the study finds that 60 percent of the channel partners surveyed have relationships with six to 30 vendor partners and 20 percent have relationships with 30 or more. Among the most strategic vendors are Cisco, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, but the numbers for each reached only 21, 12 and 10 percent, respectively. Most partners report they are relatively content with the quality of tools they get from vendors, but the number of systems they log in to is out of control. About half report their primary vendors require them to log in to four or more systems. The result is that channel partner employees don't log in nearly as much as vendors would probably like.