Supernova Award Category

Marketing & Sales Effectiveness

The Problem

ServiceSource, Comity Design's client, lacked an effective mechanism to accurately measure and forecast its channel partners’ recurring revenue performance and were also not able to engage with indirect customers. The problem is outlined as follows:

• No Channel Forecasting: ServicSource lacked an effective mechanism to accurately measure and forecast channel partners’ recurring revenue performance.
• Lack of Engagement with Indirect Customers: The company also had poor quality and lack of insight into customer engagement.
• Deal Assist for Channel Partners: ServiceSource had difficulties managing and assisting channel partners if an OEM found their performance to be deficient.
• Need Productized Solution: The in-house team lacked the Salesforce platform and product development knowledge to effectively manage new engagements.

The Solution

Comity, a Brillio company, drove channel performance by enabling Salesforce communities for channel partners via a newly created Partner Portal and automated the Channel Deal Process so that Channel Partners could see their available opportunities, download price quotes, and view account information. The solution entailed:

• Partner Portal: Drives channel performance by enabling Salesforce Communities for channel partners via a Partner Portal.
• Channel Deal Process Automation: Channel Partners can see their available opportunities, download price quotes, and view account information.  Partners can also submit help requests for quotes, customer access, and other sales related requests.
• Channel Engagement: Channel Partners can see their current performance. OEMs work with channel partners opportunity-by-opportunity to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities, plus provide account plans and sales plays designed to hit performance objectives.

The results

With the Comity Designs Partner Portal, ServiceSource channel partners gained access to predictive analytics to drive revenue growth and accurate forecasts, and identify at-risk customers and avoid churn. Additionally, metrics and data provided enabled ServiceSource and its partners to turn customer insights into revenue growth opportunities and accurate forecasts. Other benefits include active channel collaboration between ServiceSource and its channel partners with a shared approach to customer engagement and renewals, and productized tools for success -- a complete self-service portal, performance metrics and benchmarks that can be deployed across OEMs.

Metrics

With the new Partner Portal in place, ServiceSource migrated 63 customers from its legacy solution to the new managed product across OEMs. Additionally, the implementation time for the product was reduced from months to weeks.

By empowering the channel partners, the incumbent is allowed to renew their original opportunity; at the same time, ServiceSource is providing functionality that allows other partners to provide competing bids resulting in customers making an informed decision. This is how ServiceSource facilitates its customers through initial sale, adoption, expansion and retention.

This has inadvertently helped their customers to be 6-7 times more profitable by having new revenue growth up to 8% per year and it compounds over time increasing the recurring revenue by $10 million per year.

Customers would like to have reduction in cost while also increasing revenues and customer retention through a solution that empowers sales reps to win recurring revenue year over year. ServiceSource provides Revenue as a Solution (RaaS) to customers such as Dell, Cisco and others, given the benefit of recurring revenue and sales optimization.

Over time ServiceSource was able to help its customers by assuming management of $14 Billion in recurring revenue. This includes an 80% reduction in churn, 20% renewal yield increase and 10-15% overall revenue growth.

The Technology

Comity Designs (a Brillio Company) helps companies deliver innovative AppExchange Apps. Comity’s team brings depth in Salesforce technology and expertise in the entire product development lifecycle, enabling customers to deliver quality products at a rapid pace. The Salesforce products deployed include: Service Cloud, Community Cloud, App Cloud.

Disruptive Factor

Comity Designs leverages the team's expertise in process automation to significantly improve productivity by saving time, increasing visibility, and improving engagement. At the core of Comity’s philosophy is a focus on innovation and a commitment to customer success through long-term partnerships and Comity’s technical expertise.

Shining Moment

Comity’s technical expertise and unique partnership approach, combined with onshore and offshore presence, ensure client business goals are met and exceeded - both now and in the future. ServiceSource had a vision and Comity designed a solution that is being utilized by more than 60 customers globally. The release management has been seamless, providing clients with varied versions installed in their Salesforce instances. The result has been a CSAT rating of 10.0 for four years.