Top SaaS Channel Opportunities for VARs (and How to Navigate Them)

You would have to be living in a cave for the last few months to not have heard of Office 365, Google Apps, or Salesforce.com by now. All three of them are major Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) brands with attractive partner programs, but if SMBs really do set off on a march to the cloud, then most SMB IT shops will have to find additional SaaS partner opportunities to achieve sustainable revenue levels.

Over the past six months, I've done a substantial amount of research into SaaS partner programs. There are hundreds of opportunities to make $2 or $3 per month per sale (for the life of the customer!) but that's an awfully hard way to grow a business. With that in mind, here's a list of top notch (but lesser known) SaaS channel partner opportunities that share three attractive features: reasonable margins (or the opportunity to set your own pricing), recurring revenue streams, and customer ownership.

Acumatica (vertical market ERP): Better known ERP vendors certainly exist, but Acumatica goes out of its way to appeal to partners serving specialized markets. Acumatica's partner support staff will assist VARs and other partners in adapting their powerful ERP software to meet the specific needs of end users. From dog grooming to 3D printing, Acumatica is customizable enough to meet any business's accounting and ERP needs. (That's my line, by the way—not their marketing department's.)

Hosted365 (productivity): Think of it as Office 365 Plus. Hosted365 is a white label, hosted desktop SaaS product (created with Microsoft's blessing) that includes Exchange Enterprise 2010, AD integration, Office apps, Windows Webhosting, SiteBuilder from Parallels, MailArchiving, BackupAgent, SpamExperts, and domain registration. Microsoft Lync (meaning voice!) plans will be offered soon. Two other features worth mentioning are its full compliance with European data privacy laws and full compatibility with Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phone.

LiveOps (call center): This product is for anyone who wants to get in on the call center vertical market. I've found that it's a somewhat unique world, but it's definitely lucrative. At least in my hometown of Austin, Texas, the people who establish call centers usually have much more sales than technical experience, so they usually turn to IT guys to help them set up their infrastructure. Having a product like this one ready to resell could be a big advantage in landing contracts.

nCircle PureCloud (network security): This handy product will guard against network security lapses like few others. With nothing more than a Web browser, users can conduct full network vulnerability scans; identify all systems on a network (including phones, printers, access points, etc); and identify virtually all operating systems and network applications running on networked devices (including desktop OSes, P2P file sharing applications, email servers, web servers, and more). Even if you don't want to sell this product, you might find it useful for yourself.

Smartsheet (project management): Sporting native integration with Google Apps, Box, Salesforce.com, and Zimbra, this tool is a great fit for anyone with an existing SaaS client base. Smartsheet brings together standard project management tools with power spreadsheet capabilities. I particularly liked being able to set alerts, share individual rows or columns, and attach files within the spreadsheet interface. With margins around 30%, Smartsheet makes it worth your while to partner with them.

StopTheHackers (website security): With a name that most people are prone to either love or hate, StopTheHackers does exactly what you'd expect it to. Their SaaS solution protects websites against server-side malware and intrusions and includes a vulnerability assessment tool that pinpoints server and application security vulnerabilities. Both white label and branded partner programs exist. This product is only likely to net you $5 to $10 per month per sale, but it's an awfully easy to sell to any client whose website has been hacked or infected.

Zscaler (web/email security): Similar to StopTheHackers, Zscaler protects against a whole slew of malware, intrusion, and application vulnerability attacks. It also offers an email guard that filters viruses, spyware, and spam. The email tool can even enforce encryption policies, which is actually a rather handy feature for businesses dealing with sensitive information. This product was an easy sell to my security conscious lawyer client and the rest of his small firm.

If this list has left you wanting to explore additional SaaS partner programs, then I suggest you take a look at SaaSMAX, a platform that allows SaaS apps to create or grow their channel sales, automate commission payments, contract and incentivize VARs and manage deal registrations and channel conflict. While their program hasn’t officially launched, it’s currently in Beta, and you can obtain more information here.

This guest blog post was originally posted by SMB Nation.