Over the last few weeks I have been working to create and launch the DotNetNuke Fusion Partner Program. The primary mission of this program is to support the commercial efforts of organizations in the DotNetNuke ecosystem that are interested in taking the Professional Edition to market.
As I was building the program, I solicited feedback from a wide range of potential partners in North America and Europe. In a perfect world, I would have spoken to each of you individually to get a feel for your history in the DotNetNuke project, and your input on what the perfect partner program should look like. Unfortunately, it is not a perfect world. I spoke to about 30 of you. Not a bad sample size… What I discovered were a few universal threads the partner program should have:
1. A zero/low barrier to entry
2. A global view, not just North America
3. The same spirit of openness and “Abundance Mentality” that has existed in the DotNetNuke Community for years
4. A method to highlight and showcase partners that have invested heavily in building and maintaining strong skills around DotNetNuke and the Microsoft stack
5. A way to share business opportunities with partners that DotNetNuke Corp. uncovers as the world’s largest open source project on the Microsoft stack
If you look at the partner overview page, I incorporated the above requirements into Version 1.0 of the partner program. These program features are designed to:
1. Increase your profitability
2. Grow your business
3. Help you acquire new customers
4. Expand your reach
5. Set your organization apart
This is huge opportunity!!
Any organization can join the program. It is easy and inexpensive. Partners that want to invest more significantly in the program will receive commensurate benefits from the program.
Phase 1 is now live and operational. We can capture your information and seamlessly input your data into our CRM system, process your application paperwork, and give you access to the partner portal. Phase 2 will go live in a week or so. Phase 2 will include a partner showcase, a partner finder for our mutual prospects/customers, an opportunity registration for partners, and an opportunity referral page. The development of Phase 3 is running in parallel to Phase 2. Phase 3 is an automated methodology for partners to order licenses for customers, and an automated provisioning process to distribute licenses to customers.
The best thing is we are eating our own dog food. The whole infrastructure is built on DotNetNuke. I was amazed how easy everything was to build...of course I was not doing any of the work.
Why name the program “Fusion”? Over the years there have been multiple ways organizations could “partner” with DotNetNuke. I wanted to make sure there was a clear demarcation of this program and a clear understanding of our mission. The Fusion program’s mission is to facilitate the success of any organization that wants to empower their customers with the best web content management and application development framework for Microsoft .NET. “Fusion” is the obvious play on the “Nuke” in DotNetNuke but, more importantly, it celebrates the melding of Microsoft and open source. DotNetNuke is that intersection.
I can’t do this solo, nor do I want to. This is our program. Your input is required for our collective success. Many of you have probably been in some good partner programs and some not so good. Me too! For a few years I worked at a technology reseller and was exposed to some really awesome vendor programs and some really bad ones. The great ones were simple, straightforward, and ethics based. The bad ones were laden with stupid rules, usually designed to make the vendor a lot of money, and didn't have any concern for the well being of the partners. You don’t need to read CRN very long to see how well the vendors in the second group fare.
DotNetNuke is an awesome occurrence. It is an awesome place to work, and my goal is to make us an awesome company to partner with.
I look forward to working with all of you over the coming months and years.
Cheers,
Doug