Welcome to our Q3 partner deal spotlight. To celebrate how much we value our channel partnerships, each quarter we highlight one key channel deal. This quarter we sat down with our APAC VP of Sales – Michael Helder, to discuss a deal he worked on, in conjunction with SoftwareONE. The deal was for a leading publicly listed, financial services company deriving revenue from the provision of share registry services, investor services, employee share plan services and other business-related services. The company employs approximately 12,700 people and operates in 21 countries.
A collaborative sales process is key to any deal. Can you provide a brief overview of what the process looked like for this specific win?
Thanks to our long-standing collaborative relationship with SoftwareONE we’ve delivered some great wins for many enterprise customers. Today we’re talking about a well-known Australian company that has expanded globally by acquiring other successful companies and growing their local footprint organically. This was an exceptional win for both SoftwareONE and Nitro.
Nitro and SoftwareONE mapped out the key stakeholders including the CIO and the Head of IT Procurement, and jointly drafted their current challenges and objectives before presenting Nitro’s value proposition to the customer. Nitro’s value proposition delivers a highly competitive price-point compared to legacy PDF providers, combined with unlimited eSigning and user analytics as part of the offering.
This aligned with the relevant SoftwareONE Business Development Manager’s objective to deliver value, challenge customer spend, and improve the customer’s overall experience. We received high levels of interest from procurement at this client who could see 50%+ cost savings on their PDF spend, and from the print and productivity teams who could also see the significant cost and time-saving opportunities.
A Nitro pilot program was quickly initiated to allow the customer to trial Nitro before making a purchasing decision. The Nitro pilot allowed for in-depth user testing and technical evaluation, but it also demonstrated how well Nitro and SoftwareONE could deliver the value pitched. After the pilot, we had a joint executive briefing where the results of the pilot spoke for themselves and enabled SoftwareONE to move forward with the deal.
Providing attractive margins is a key differentiator in selling Nitro. How did our beneficial, flexible margin structure come into play in this deal?
Nitro offers substantially stronger margins than legacy PDF vendors. Straight off the bat, our channel partners earn significantly more by partnering with Nitro. But this is just one of the benefits of working with Nitro.
The margin was not the sole driver for the partner on this deal. Owing to Nitro’s price-point, customers can now afford to deploy PDF and eSigning more widely. This may not have been possible with the incumbent legacy solution. Once deployed, the customer can access Nitro’s analytics solution to understand how the solution is being used, and how exactly this translates into savings in printing, money, and time. Armed with this information, customers can make fully informed decisions about when and where it would make sense to increase the deployment of Nitro’s PDF and eSigning capabilities. As a result, Nitro customers typically grow their deployment and spend year-on-year which creates ongoing revenue and engagement opportunities for the channel partner!
Collaborating on deals fuels positive relationships between vendor and partner. How has this deal led to increased collaboration and mutual wins?
Collaborating on this deal with SoftwareONE will pave the way for our relationship to go from strength to strength. Total transparency and open communication were critical success factors in this deal. As a result, of this win, other Enterprise customers with similar challenges are being identified with SoftwareONE. Nitro and SoftwareONE hope to deliver similar levels of success to opportunities that are currently in progress.
The most important factor in any deal is the customer. How did Nitro and its partners work together to ensure that the customer remained top priority?
Nitro’s pilot program, our close relationship with SoftwareONE, and SoftwareONE’s strong relationships with their customers were key to the success here. Nitro and SoftwareONE worked together to make sure that everything was done in a timely and professional manner. We shared a joint focus on the customer and by engaging with the right stakeholders and helping the client manage all the moving parts, we were able to ensure a smooth and successful engagement, trial, and ultimate transition to Nitro.
Should you wish to find out more about the Nitro Partner Program email us at reseller@gonitro.com for further details or read more here.
