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PRM Market Trends and Best Practices
By Bob Thompson, President, Frontline Solutions
Excerpted from the full story at ()

Noted PRM expert predicts trends through 2001 and lists what his company has found to be the most successful strategies for successful PRM solutions.

PRM Market Trends

Here are some of the key trends I predict through 2001:

New entrants. There are plenty of unsolved problems in the channel space and no lack of new companies that think they will solve these problems better than the current players. Some new companies to watch include ChannelAutomation.com, ChanneLogic Data Corp., and Elantix Corp. You can also expect more CRM and eBusiness vendors to jump into the PRM market looking for growth opportunities.
More functionality. Current vendors will continue to broaden their range of functionality. In particular, marketing and service functionality will be expanded either through in-house development or partnerships with eMarketing and eService vendors.
Vertical focus. It’s doubtful that PRM solutions will translate from one industry to another without major rework. So specialized vertical solutions will proliferate, such as ChannelPoint, Inc. in the insurance industry. CRM vendors could use existing vertical applications to enter the PRM market.
Alliances. Time pressures will motivate vendors to partner aggressively to fill voids in product lines or to leverage marketing resources. Integrators will increasingly be part of PRM vendors’ strategies for expanding their market reach.
Mergers and acquisitions. As with any growing market, it’s almost certain that larger CRM or e-business vendors will acquire some of the smaller PRM players. This could be an effective strategy for vendors currently not offering any PRM functionality, since playing catch-up will be risky and expensive.
European expansion. Europe relies heavily on distributors and channel partners of many kinds. The market for CRM technology is growing rapidly and PRM will follow this trend. Both CRM and PRM vendors will seek to penetrate this market in 2001 and position for high growth in 2002 and beyond.

Strategies for Success with PRM

In the process of interviewing 35 managers of PRM projects, my consulting firm learned how projects were managed, what worked, what didn't, and some words of advice. By analyzing interview findings, the research team was able to draw some conclusions about the critical issues that every business executive should consider before embarking on a PRM project. Consider this the emerging set of best practices for PRM.

PRM Best Practices

Business executive formally sponsors the project, provides direction on the specific business goals to be accomplished, and resolves critical issues.

Project team performs a thorough analysis of short- and long-term requirements, soliciting input from all key stakeholders, but especially channel partners.

Project team selects solution partner(s) based on the strength of the technology and commitment to services and support.

Project manager staffs the team with competent and committed professionals, with expertise in all critical functional and technical areas.

Project team implements a pilot or prototype first, then rolls out applications and user groups in phases.

The best practices shown in the table reaffirm that successful IT projects need executive leadership, thorough planning, effective staffing, and a realistic implementation approach. And, yes, good technology backed by solution providers who act as partners not just vendors. For more details on this project please visit .

Bob Thompson is President and Founder of Front Line Solutions (), an independent consulting firm specializing in the emerging field of extended enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Partner Relationship Management (PRM). Last year his firm completed a landmark study on Relationship Management tools in the Information Technology (IT) industry. Earlier this year, the company published a research report on ePartner 2000 Best Practices, which offers guidelines for success from early adopters of Internet-based applications used to improve Channel partner relationships. In January 2000, Bob founded CRMGuru.com, , the world’s largest and fastest-growing CRM portal.