90p Admin

ISV/Affiliate Commissions I noticed a discussion regarding Website Pipeline commissions, and it seems many partners are not fully aware of what these are or have not read the agreement properly, so they complain. It would seem to me that 90 Minds might consider having this information accessible for members and possibly negotiate standard deals for our members.

Sales & commission rates imho better to be handled by the member company and the ISV - it's a business matter. There is a possible liability that we'd bear getting in the middle of it. May be in the long range we might look at something, we do have a lot of goals for now. We do provide a valuable service by being a forum where members can share and vent as needed.

Yes, I thought about that, but then just put it out there for discussion, and perhaps this is a future consideration. My experience with some ISVs, not necessarily our affiliates, is they are not as forthcoming about their agreements as they should be - so each partner has to ask.

And, as it turns out, we are not signed up with WSP and never received anything from sales long ago, which supports my points and the confusion among people in this group.

Still worth further investigation. At one time, the group had an agreement with Biznet. Not sure how many ever signed up for it. While a great number of our membership is under a large firm umbrella, it could add value for the remaining small firm independents. Just a matter of picking priorities. WSP certainly has grown as a result of their marketing through resellers game plan. With growth comes a certain amount ""forgetting their roots"" (can you say Sage). Which I think I just read somewhere that Biznet requires their resellers to move 100K per year or else be relegated to referral status..

A couple notes here. Biznet still does business in Sage 100, SI has come so close, their focus is elsewhere. So they want partners with customers beyond Sage. We should be reminding our members of at least two things. 1. Vendors like WSP and AviXchange have no choice but to be sticklers with their registration agreements. Otherwise they have open-ended liabilities. 2. Regardless of the glorious vision, the commissions you can earn from vendors like WSP are limited. In their case the software is ~60% or less of the total price the customer pays them. They pay commission only on software, not on services or monthly fees; it is literally a ""software sale commission."" Now, that's pretty good if all you do is send the customer to them. But if you want more from the customer, you must a) provide more value to customer, and b) charge for it. In reality, that means charging for the help you give the customer in figuring out which vendor they need. Normally we give that away, but it's the most valuable. (John, you have a case like that now with the customer wanting e-Business Manager - you know that if they don't like it they will blame you! So get paid for that risk.)