Allbound is a Partner Relationship Management (PRM) platform that enables organisations to improve the performance of their indirect sales channels, by automating training, sales tools, and the delivery of marketing content at each stage of the channel pipeline process.
Increasingly, we’re finding that organisations are looking to leverage partners as a way of obtaining revenue whilst maintaining the IP of their own software without having to necessarily sell direct themselves. Allbound reduces the cost per acquisition of new customers as businesses can scale effectively their sales functions by leveraging their partner network, as opposed to relying solely on their direct sales force, and/or hiring a multitude of Partner Managers to manage partner relations.
Our platform was designed with user experience in mind as many legacy portals feel like they were made by the technical office for other technical users so there was a gap in the market for a better experience, which is exactly what we set out to create.
Where did the idea for the company originate?
From his experience working at firms like Cisco and NetPro Computing and then running his own technology agency, one of our original co-founders Scott Salkin noticed a lot of companies that he worked with sold through the channel.
Over time he noticed that many of these companies required a place where their partners could live and rather than custom building on a case-by-case basis, they wanted something that was pure-play SaaS that could be repeatable and scalable. So he and his other co-founder, Kyle Burnett, decided to create a comprehensive platform that was easy for marketers and salespeople to use, which is where the idea for Allbound originated.
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Tell us about the new partnership with Powell Software
I was in discussion with Roshan Uggoda, Head of Sales at Powell Software, and a long-standing contact of mine who mentioned that they could be interested in improving their existing partner systems as the current process was time-consuming, not scalable, and was difficult to track and gain actionable insights from their 70 partners across 35 markets. The rest of their senior execs, including Edouard Payenneville, VP Channel & Strategic Partnerships, saw value in Allbound’s user experience and our ability to automate and scale their partner programs effectively, integrating with existing Marketing Automation and CRM tools.
As such, Powell Software will be leveraging Allbound’s Partner Journey Automation module, which allows channel leaders to input workflows that push their partners through an engagement process within the partner portal. Powell Software will also be using this in conjunction with its Marketing Automation and CRM platforms to send perfectly-timed correspondence and communication.
What can we hope to see from Allbound in the future?
My goal is to drive growth across the EMEA region, which was already accounting for 10% of global revenue before the decision was made to invest in fuelling this organic growth with a concerted effort. EMEA now accounts for 40% of overall growth projections for 2021 and despite the challenges thrown at us by the pandemic, we had a fantastic 2020 and also significantly increased headcount.
We plan to continue on this trajectory and invest more in staying at the forefront of PRM technology. When we come out of the lockdown, we’re planning on potentially moving to a hybrid model where we spend a small percentage of time in the office. For the most part, we will spend the majority of our time working from home. I don’t foresee the job of Partner Manager ever going back to how it was.
People are used to working at home and businesses spending less on rent, which is encouraging a lot of companies to stick with remote working practices. The upshot for PRM is that the days of flights, expensive lunches, and in-person relationship building is largely over and people are becoming accustomed to using technology like Allbound to manage this process so we’re anticipating good things.
