Customized Channel Partner S-L Tools : Service Leadership

Customized Channel Partner S-L Tools

Exclusive Service Leadership “One-Screen” Flash-Based Tools
Custom Tools for Vendors – Selected Examples
Tools Available for License
Excel-Based Tools

Exclusive Service Leadership “One-Screen” Flash-Based Tools

In early 2007, Service Leadership introduced its first, single-screen, flash-based interactive tool. Building on Service Leadership’s well-received adaptation of the Multiple of W2 concept to the Solution Provider industry, the Multiple of Wages Calculator™ quickly became a hit: thousands of Solution Providers now use this straightforward, insightful, graphical desktop tool to help them quickly assess what hourly rate they should be charging for a given engineer or services deal, and to double-check the profit performance of their services teams.

Since then, Service Leadership has constructed an ever-expanding suite of tools enabling Solution Providers and channel managers to simply and quickly assess their strategic, sales and service plans or results and make more informed and more effective decisions to reach their goals.

In this section, you’ll find our tools available for licensing, as well as selected examples of custom tools built specifically for our vendor clients for use by their partners and/or channel management teams.

Custom Tools for Vendors – Selected Examples

Title	Audience/Purpose	Branding Strategy	Packaging	Distribution Method
Partner Business Model Transition ROI and Risk Assessment Tool Try Tool Try Tool	Enables partners to self-assess the value of changing their business model, and identify the aspects of their business which are well-prepared for the transition and which are at risk during the transition. Tool then assigns the partner to the most appropriate development path on the vendor’s partner development portal.	Vendor’s brand with attribution to S-L as provider of comparative data and analysis.		Partner portal for offering
Partner Managed Services Qualification Advisor	Enable channel sales team to quickly assess the degree to which a given partner is ready to transition to a Managed Services business model and the speed with which they are likely to add Managed Services accounts, as a first step in qualifying and advising the partner on how to make the transition.	S-L branded to enable vendor to avoid appearance of passing judgment on partner.	Recorded webcast to instruct channel sales team on how to use with partners.	Offering launch kit for channel sales team, accompanied by training sessions.
Partner Offering Business Case Explorer	Enable channel account managers to prepare for meetings with partner owners to show the ROI the partner can attain by adding a vendor’s specific offering to their business. Also used during the partner meeting to gain buy-in to the planning and goal-setting process.	Vendor’s brand with attribution to S-L as provider of comparative data and analysis.	Recorded webcast and VOD to instruct channel sales team on how to use with partners.	Channel sales team intranet and/or partner portal.
End Customer Offering Business Case Explorer	Enable partners to make a clear cost/benefit driven business case to end customers for the vendor’s specific solution. Partner uses tool interactively with end customer and/or in preparation for end customer sales meeting, using end customer’s own input to formulate business case.	Vendor’s brand with attribution to S-L as provider of comparative data and analysis. Or, partner’s brand with attribution to S-L as provider of comparative data and analysis.	Live partner training at vendor events. Recorded webcast and VOD for training partners and channel sales team.	Channel sales team intranet and/or partner portal. Vendor’s end customer website.

Tools Available for License

The following tools are available for licensing in single or bulk quantities and in varying distribution methods. In addition, many of these tools are available as audience take-aways for the speaking topics listed in previous sections.

ID	Title	Purpose	Branding Available	Distribution
SLFT001	Multiple of Wages Calculator™	Enables Solution Provider managers to quickly determine the hourly rate they should charge for a given resource, project or services offering, and to periodically assess their overall services pricing strategy in light of their actual services financial performance.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	S-L Website Vendor Website or Distribution Kits
SLFT002	Sales Compensation Model Example™	Enables Solution Provider managers to explore the key components of best practices sales compensation plans, to learn how the components serve to motivate the sales team while producing a result that stays within the company’s financial plan and delivers market-competitive pay.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	S-L Website Vendor Website or Distribution Kits
SLFT003	Service Compensation Model Example™	Enables Solution Provider managers to explore the key components of best practices services compensation plans, to learn how the components serve to motivate the sales team while producing a result that stays within the company’s financial plan and delivers market-competitive pay.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	S-L Website Vendor Website or Distribution Kits
SLFT004	Solution Provider Compensation Modeling Tool™	Enables Solution Provider managers to explore the key components of best practices executive/management compensation plans, to learn how the components serve to motivate the sales team while producing a result that stays within the company’s financial plan and delivers market-competitive pay.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	S-L Website Vendor Website or Distribution Kits
SLFT005	Small Business Cost of IT Operations Calculator™	Many Solution Providers find it hard to quantify to the SMB customer the financial benefit of using the Solution Provider’s Managed Services offering. This tool enables the Solution Provider to engage in a quick, straightforward conversation with the customer decision-maker, entering the customer’s own answers into the tool and immediately producing an ROI analysis based on Service Leadership’s proven research on IT operating costs. May be used by the Solution Provider in preparing for a customer meeting, or used during the meeting, or may be offered to prospects as an inducement to accept a preliminary assessment meeting with the Solution Provider.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	Solution Provider internal use or distribution
SLFT006	Solution Provider Business Model Explorer™	Enables owners of Solution Providers to quickly try “what-if” scenarios as part of their long term (3 to 5 year) business planning, seeing the difference in stock value appreciation resulting from various growth and business model strategies. Analytics based on current market multiples tracked by the Service Leadership Index®.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	Solution Provider internal use
SLFT007	Economic Exposure Dashboard™	Enables Solution Provider executives to quickly compare their current financial performance and ratios to the results of the Service Leadership Index® SMB IT Recession research database, to assess their degree of operational and strategic risk given their business model, geography, vertical markets, customer sizes and do so, to determine where and to what degree they are at risk in the current economic situation.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	Solution Provider internal use

Excel-Based Tools

Where the number of data inputs needed is high, or where the result must be highly integrated into other applications, use of Microsoft Excel as an operational tool is preferred.

ID	Title	Purpose	Branding Available	Distribution
SLFT008	SMB Customer Qualification Tool™	Excel-based example of a tool used by Solution Provider salespeople to shorten their learning curve and speed qualification of sales prospects in order to determine when to bring in sales support and subject matter experts.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	Solution Provider internal use
SLFT009	Technical Compensation Calculator™	Excel-based tool enables Solution Provider managers to precisely determine the appropriate wages to pay various levels of service personnel to attain the needed profitability and in light of their actual or planned utilization, gross margin and hourly rates. Enables setting of the size of incentive pay ratios and produces pay grades or tranches.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	Solution Provider internal use
SLFT010	Managed Service Financial Simulator™	Excel-based in-depth financial simulator for learning about the complete financial structure of a Managed Services offering, from cost of goods sold, to sales cost, to per-customer fees, to business unit profitability. Used by Solution Provider managers to learn about Managed Services business models, or to critique and validate their own Managed Service financial model.	S-L Index™ or Co-Branded	Solution Provider internal use

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