When software lacks some type of functionality prospective customers need to run their businesses, resellers have a choice: develop a module themselves or resell a product someone else already built. That’s where c360 Solutions excels. CDC Software acquired the company, which provides a slew of add-ons and development tools for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in April 2006 and has since boosted the number of products on c360’s roster to 25, all of which are sold exclusively through resellers.
Popular items include email marketing tools, CRM search capabilities, SharePoint integration, field-level security, a partner portal and group calendaring, according to the company—a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Microsoft’s 2005 Partner Choice ISV.
CDC as a parent company is not known for its channel, however.
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CDC Software is a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Corp., a China-based company that owns Ross Systems, CDC Mobile and Microsoft reseller Vis.Align, among others, and has its roots in the gaming business through China.com.
Out of CDC’s roughly 850 resellers, 800 sell c360 products. The remainder sell its enterprise software applications in areas where CDC does not have a direct sales presence or offices.
With c360, the direct sales force has more incentive to give partners business than to close the deal themselves, explains John Gravely, general manager and cofounder of c360 Solutions.
About 10 partner account managers scope their territories for Microsoft CRM resellers who are proving themselves successful and try to entice them to add c360 Solutions to their offerings.
“If a customer comes to us, we call a reseller and basically say there’s a check waiting for them,” Gravely says. “If we can befriend a reseller by introducing them to a customer, that’s a good business plan for us. We bring you into one deal and you bring us into the rest of your base.
“We’re in no way competing with our reseller channel. We don’t say they need our services,” Gravely adds. “We don’t interfere with their money because their money is mostly in the services of these products and providing vertical expertise. You can’t live on margin.”
The channel program is a tiered model in which resellers gain margin as they sell more. They can request co-op marketing dollars, which Gravely says can be used for anything promoting Microsoft CRM and the 360 product set, including having a CDC employee present at a conference or play in a golf tournament.
Membership is free and signing up basically consists of proving they sell Microsoft CRM and that they are going to bring more deals to the table.
“Microsoft CRM is fairly generic. We provide a real value to the channel because if they sell CRM to a prospect, we can help them check off more requirements and close the deal,” Gravely says.
