“Why don’t you write about Channel Development?”, asked me the other day our CEO. “I probably should”, I thought. It was not the first time someone had asked me the very same question. Some potential partners, community members and other software vendors had done so in the past. They were wondering why such an interesting topic was missing in Openbravo planet. The reason: I just simply did not have enough quality time to talk/write about it (you know, time constraints related to any start-up).
I personally joined Openbravo back in December 2006 to lead partner network expansion throughout the world. At that stage, we just had a few “friendly partners”. There was no partner program but a “friendly pack” offer only. Then, the purpose was to make sure that both Openbravo ERP as well as some of the professional services we had thought of were ready for the partners to be able to develop a successful business practice around our solution.
Today, our partner network is constituted by more than 65 partners covering more than 50 countries, and growing. We have a unique 100% quality based partner program in place (which by the way, is about to be revamped and significantly improved) and a professional edition - Openbravo Network is its name - which should significantly help everyone in the business to scale revenues and build a very profitable business practice while providing a much more attractive value proposition to end-clients (e.g. providing bug fixing guarantees around the leading web-based Open Source ERP solution).
And last but not least, team now is larger (and much more international by the way), which provides me with enough confidence so we (not only I but all the team) can launch this new initiative: “Channel Development: experiences and thoughts” blog. It is not only going to be about Channel Development but also about our Partner Network, one of the most important assets that any company in the space might have... along with the product and people of course.