How to Select a Software Partner Solution Offering
A new Forrester study identifies a maturity model for evaluating the upcoming world of "last-mile" solutions.
By R. "Ray" Wang, Forrester Research, Inc.
Sep. 29, 2008
Amid a backdrop of vendor consolidation, open standards, next generation apps, and cloud based deployment options, no one software vendor can deliver innovative solutions that meet every industry vertical, business process, market segment, and geographical requirement. Consequently, major software vendors like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP are encouraging their partners to innovate on their platforms, fill existing gaps, and ultimately help drive long-term customer loyalty. The result: each of these large software vendors now has a vast partner ecosystem filled with solutions at varying levels of integration, support, and quality.
Through interviews with 59 vendor companies and 129 end user customers, Forrester has developed a partner solution maturity model that looks at the solution offering, support lifecycle, go-to-market strategy, and socialization of the ecosystem. Software buyers can use this model when selecting a partner offering to complement their existing solutions from one or more of these software giants.
Demand For Innovation Drives Interest In Partner Solutions
Today's business process and applications professionals demand innovation that is light years ahead of the monolithic applications of the 1980s or the generic vertical solutions of the 1990s. Major software vendors have responded by shifting the balance from owned intellectual property (IP) to shared IP by opening up their platforms to partners and customers (see Figure 1). The intent: to extend the vendor's reach in an effort to drive greater adoption and customer loyalty. The benefit to customers: access to a growing number of partners that deliver innovative "edge" applications built on top of one or more dominant platforms (see Figure 2). Business process and applications professionals seek innovative partner solutions in two common vendor selection scenarios:
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Through interviews with 59 vendor companies and 129 end user customers, Forrester has developed a partner solution maturity model that looks at the solution offering, support lifecycle, go-to-market strategy, and socialization of the ecosystem. Software buyers can use this model when selecting a partner offering to complement their existing solutions from one or more of these software giants.
Demand For Innovation Drives Interest In Partner Solutions
Today's business process and applications professionals demand innovation that is light years ahead of the monolithic applications of the 1980s or the generic vertical solutions of the 1990s. Major software vendors have responded by shifting the balance from owned intellectual property (IP) to shared IP by opening up their platforms to partners and customers (see Figure 1). The intent: to extend the vendor's reach in an effort to drive greater adoption and customer loyalty. The benefit to customers: access to a growing number of partners that deliver innovative "edge" applications built on top of one or more dominant platforms (see Figure 2). Business process and applications professionals seek innovative partner solutions in two common vendor selection scenarios:
- Comparing capabilities from an "anchor vendor" to those from a specialized partner. Buyers standardizing on one or two vendors that have a smaller, highly managed partner ecosystem will often conduct a gap analysis of the anchor product's footprint and consider a partner solution that will fill the precious "last mile." This scenario often leads to a side-by-side comparison of the anchor vendor's capabilities to those of one or two partner solutions. SAP shops looking at order management solutions often compare SAP's pricing management capabilities with those from SAP partner Vendavo. Similarly, comparisons of Oracle's footprint for financial process automation often include Oracle Certified Advantage Partner (CAP) 170 Systems.
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