How do companies benefit from a strong partner ecosystem?
I suppose you want to understand how Lobster’s end customers benefit from such a strong Partner ecosystem? Well… Very often Lobster solutions are used as part of a much larger project or business challenge. Our partners usually have their own strengths and specialties to support this. I’m thinking of business consulting, specific vertical or industry knowledge, extended support and other services, asset management, training and much more… So there’s a whole range of partner types and partners that are probably a much better fit for our end customers than we are directly. We embrace that rather than being afraid of it.
What does always work in the partner business, and are there recent developments that shift this?
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a seismic shift in the traditional IT channel as most software vendors have moved or are moving to the cloud, offering their software ‘as-a-service’ in a subscription model. The model of simply reselling software licenses has quickly become obsolete. There are even vendors that don’t offer on-premises software at all, so making money from software installations is not as common as it used to be. Distributors and resellers are being forced to move into services, becoming ‘value added resellers’. There has already been quite a shakeout, with some traditional companies disappearing or merging. But what always works is to offer specific expertise and experience in the actual integration of software solutions, both technically and commercially. And that is where our partners shine.
How do we make sure that partners represent Lobster in the best possible way?
Our Partners are currently trained face-to-face. We have a strong international partner management team to support our partners on how and where to successfully position Lobster solutions. We support them during the entire sales cycle, but we also help our partners afterwards when the opportunity has been closed successfully. We also provide technical training to our partners so that they understand Lobster’s best practices around installations and implementations. And we also offer our help during projects. In addition, we will soon be introducing many more ways for our partners to be trained and officially certified through a new e-learning program.
Where do you see the Lobster partner business in 5 years?
We recently made the decision to fully commit to a Partner First strategy. That’s a very strong indicator that our partner business is our number one priority. I expect that in five years’ time, business through our channels will have grown massively and will be the main driver and contributor to Lobster’s growth and expansion into new verticals and territories.
Why is partnering up with Lobster a good decision?
We offer partners an extremely good opportunity and great benefits to work with us.
We are already outperforming the integration software market thanks to our high-quality software solutions, excellent support, and competitive pricing. We welcome new customers literally every day and we simply can’t serve them alone. We are happy to closely collaborate with our partners, providing them with new opportunities as well as the chance to find much more new business for themselves. We’ve got our partner team in place, we’re about to launch a new and intuitive partner portal and we’ve already launched a new partner program with benefits that are quite unique in the industry. I believe there has never been a better time to partner with Lobster, and there probably never will be.
You can find more information about our partner program here.
Jephery Wijers answered the editors’ questions in writing on 23 February 2024.
