Channel Program User’s Guide: Oracle Partner Network
New partner offerings include exclusive access to territories and special vertical programs.
by David Geer
OFFICIAL NAME: Oracle PartnerNetwfork (OPN)
UPTAKE: There are 400 SMB partners contracted to resell Oracle applications globally. Oracle has 70 applications in process from partners seeking to offer Orafcle Accelerate vertical solutions; these should be launching soon.
WHO SHOULD JOIN: Server vendors, systems integrators, consultants, ISVs, and managed service providers
DUES: For the Oracle PartnerNetwork, the annual fee is $1,995 for all membership levels.
MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS: Three references/accounts in the prospective partner company’s vertical market’an install base’and the ability to provide technical consultation about how the company’s implementation or add-on works
FOR MORE INFORMATION: For more information about Accelerate, go to www.oracle.com/solutions/mid/accelerate- partners.html. Apply via channel managers. For general partner membership information, surf to www.oracle.com/partners/home/ help/global/enrollment/index.html, where you will find tiered memberlevel information and benefits. THE ORACLE PARTNERNETWORK (OPN) offers members access to the leads, technical support, and market development capabilities they need to drive strong ROI, according to Oracle’s Rauline Ochs, group vice president of North America alliances and channels. The proof is in the programs.
First, the OPN includes an impressive All Partner Territories program in which small and midsize business (SMB) customers with annual revenues of $100 million or less form partner- exclusive territories. Oracle sales representatives never call on these customers; rather, partners have exclusive access.
Second, the OPN offers an Oracle Accelerate program that addresses Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards products, among others, for customers with annual revenues of $500 million or less, according to Ochs.
As it turns out, Oracle Accelerate gets its name from Oracle Business Accelerators, the Intellectual Property templates that make Oracle’s vertical implementations of the E-Business Suite more efficient and effective (cheaper and faster), according to Ochs. Oracle packaged these Business Accelerators for their partners’ use a few years ago.
At the next evolutionary step, Oracle introduced a vertical program to better leverage partner intellectual property. Accelerate is the name of the new vertical program because, according to Ochs, most of Oracle’s partners use Business Accelerators for their vertical implementations. To start the Accelerate program, partners from 80 industries were welcomed to apply as vendors of Oracle Accelerate vertical solutions. Upon approval by the vertical solutions group, partners receive the following benefits:† Preferential lead flow† Corporate advertising† Outbound marketing campaigns by Oracle Direct† Highlights in road shows Partners on the technology side of the house (databases, Fusion middleware) receive very similar benefits to these from the applications side. PARTNER PICKS According to Walt Zipperman, CEO of El Segundo, Calif.-based DAZ Systems Inc. and OPN member, the Accelerator program, together with test scripts, training, and access to plenty of useful information, are a few of his company’s favorite partner benefits. Accelerator makes it easier to implement Oracle-based solutions more quickly and at lower cost, Zipperman explains, noting one implementation that completed in six weeks.
A hidden benefit of OPN, according to Zipperman, lies in the significant shift Oracle has made toward partners in the last two to four years, especially since Ochs took the helm. According to Zipperman, business for DAZ Systems has increased by 30 percent in the last year alone, thanks in large part to Oracle and Ochs. ‘The program is very robust for resellers,††he says.
When asked where there might be room for improvement, Zipperman laughingly responds, ‘They could up the margins! which he agrees any partner would be happy to see. But in reality, Oracle has been receptive to suggestions’implementing pricing changes to address the marketplace, for example’ says Zipperman, who was clearly complimenting Oracle’s work.
