After a record-breaking channel revenue growth of 78 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, M-Files has launched a new partner onboarding scheme, four new certifications and marketing tools
M-Files has announced a new partner program on the heels of record-breaking global channel sales growth. The company unveiled new onboarding and training programs, coupled with four new certifications for channel partners that verify competencies and reinforce successful delivery of M-Files information management solutions for customers.
M-Files has nearly 400 partners in 91 countries and has launched an improved process to support its plans to add 50 new partners to its ecosystem worldwide this year. Delivering on this goal will see the firm expand its channel team by 25 per cent over the next 12 months to support the critical regions of North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
“Sales driven by global partners grew 78 per cent from the first quarter of 2020 through the same period this year,” said Scott Erickson, Senior Vice President of Channel Sales. “This was a result of the great relationships and partner-built trust with customers who turned to them during the pandemic for technology solutions in the new normal. This announcement reaffirms our strong commitment to providing partners with best-in-class resources that heighten customer confidence in M-Files solutions and drive successful outcomes.”
Partner onboarding and support
In 2020, 34 per cent of M-Files revenue was generated by partners. The new program offers innovative sales incentives to help partners build new and expanded revenue leveraging the company’s software as a service (SaaS) business model.
The changes implemented were largely driven by an objective to provide stronger partner incentives and rewards for winning new ARR either through new customer acquisition or expanding existing accounts. More specifically, M-Files now rewards partners for winning new business with additional margin via an enhanced opportunity registration program. Incremental margin is also earned for new multiyear subscriptions, and partners earn additional margin for expanding an existing customer’s ARR throughout the customer lifecycle.
The company says it aims to provide a world-class partner onboarding and support experience. It offers its partners best-in-class applications to help streamline operations with them. Notably, the M-Files Campaign Center – a campaign management tool – provides partners with self-serve demand generation tools and assets to generate leads and opportunities effectively.
Advanced training
In addition to the M-Files Academy eLearning and Academy training courses already in place, technical customer success consultants now offer advanced training utilising proven best practices for delivering M-File’s ECM and collaboration solutions. Implementation services teams provide key lessons learned for delivering the best ROI from M-Files solutions.
M-Files is targeting value-added resellers and systems integrators that are focused on helping customers with information management and digital transformation initiatives and in April, unveiled four certifications – Certified M-Files Solution Engineer, Certified M-Files Developer, Certified M-Files Solution Architect and Certified M-Files Trainer.
The company said that partners need to have a technical foundation in place enabled by the M-Files Academy eLearning and Academy training courses. In addition, practical delivery experience where the trained skills are applied in practice is recommended prior to taking the certification tests. The certification model substantiates the partner’s capability to deliver high quality M-Files solutions to customers and improves a customer’s ROI; provides a concrete skillset benchmark for the partner’s delivery team; and drives partner employees’ competence development and elevates promotional benefits to certified employees.
