Comments for Does owning the customer matter in a SaaS world. at http://unreasonablemen.net , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://unreasonablemen.net Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:16:05 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://unreasonablemen.net/index.php/Blogs/Does-owning-the-customer-matter-in-a-SaaS-world.html#comment-165 Thanks Bill, Really good to have someone who\\\'s seen both sides comment. I absolutely agree with you about adding value and building trust. - Paul Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:05:26 +0100 http://unreasonablemen.net/index.php/Blogs/Does-owning-the-customer-matter-in-a-SaaS-world.html#comment-166 In my prior job I worked with mid-market ERP software where the channel for products like Great Plains or MAS90 does take ownership of the customer relationship. I now work on QuickBase a hosted database and application building platform for everyday business users. When our channel sells a new customer they usually help them with some custom application that\'s important to their business. The customer definitely has a direct relationship with us, but as you can imagine, when they want their next change to the application (and they decide they don\'t want to do it themselves) they go back to the channel partner. In addition, because you can always solve another problem with QuickBase there is always more business. We have customers that started at 10 seats and now are in the thousands or tens of thousands. In most cases there is a channel partner involved. So, the reason I say all this is to make the point that channel partners can play an essential role in the world of SaaS but that role is changing. They don\'t need to own the customer. They need to bring domain expertise about the customer\'s problem, industry, and team. That\'s always going to be valuable. At Intuit we work hard to make software simple so partners that depend on technical expertise and customer lock-in won\'t do well with us. At the end of the day most everything in QuickBase is easy enough that the customer can do it themselves so if the partner wants to keep the business they must deliver value and trust. If they do, they end up with a long-running, profitable relationship. - Bill Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:01:07 +0100 http://unreasonablemen.net/index.php/Blogs/Does-owning-the-customer-matter-in-a-SaaS-world.html#comment-155 Hi Adam, Good points, as was aways the case the commercial construct you have with the vendor can significantly mitigate the risk - Paul Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:12:44 +0100 http://unreasonablemen.net/index.php/Blogs/Does-owning-the-customer-matter-in-a-SaaS-world.html#comment-157 We, at Phase 2, believe that \"Owning the customer\" is as important to our partners as it is to us. It seems to me that if you are funding marketing, the sales force, the design, and all for the time to get the deal through the sales cycle... the last thing that you want to consider is giving the customer to someone else. If you’re not at ease with this (Like most SI\'s I know) then find a partner that offers private labeling and allows you to remain the face to the customer. - Adam Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:23:40 +0100