Educating the Channel on Document Management

By Jim True

More and more businesses are transitioning to electronic document management and workflow software systems, with a number of key factors driving the paperless adoption:

As this market continues to grow, we are seeing the channel community adding document management services to their existing product lines. By doing so, value added resellers (VARs) can increase their revenue and profits by grabbing the opportunity to help their clients improve efficiency and competitiveness. The benefits go well beyond the initial sale. Document management really drives business efficiency as a products full capabilities are applied. This is where the channel comes in assisting the customer in gaining full advantage of the system by helping set up workflows, apply retention policies, document templates, customized forms, etc.   

As the trusted source for improving or applying new types of technologies, educating the channel is crucial. Training and/or certification programs are a good start for VARs to understand a document management products capabilities. These programs not only educate the VAR, but also broaden their expertise and technical background. The next and possibly more important step is being able to apply their understanding of the products capabilities to address the customers needs. VARs should look for vendors that will spend time educating them on how and when to apply the products capabilities. Vendors that produce industry specific guides help VARs understand best practices as they apply to a particular client type, such as legal, financial planning, health care, etc.

Benefits and Pitfalls of Certification

The benefit of certification is that a defined level of quality and creditability has been established. This builds confidence with the customer and helps close opportunities. Being certified also improves efficiency when deploying new systems because the VAR is already knowledgeable about the product and has gone through the process several times. Implementations go more smoothly and quickly so professional service hours can be applied to more advanced needs.

However, certifications can be vendor-specific and, as we all know, all certifications are not equal. Vendors with a channel focus tend to have stronger certification/training programs so VARs should look for vendors that work directly with them to help win new business, especially in the early stages as the VAR is building up its own expertise.

At the end of the day, vendors need to take a more proactive approach with their channel partners. It all boils down to communications. Pushing programs that do not relate to the channels needs is a waste of time and money. But, maintaining contact and understanding the ups and downs the channel faces lead to positive change. Both VAR and customer needs are continuously evolving and vendors need to remain proactive to the voice of the customer.

Jim True is vice president of product management at Cabinet, a document management and workflow provider, based in Madison, Ala.