11Ants Analytics develops partner program with help from Microsoft Go-To-Market (GTM) Services

Having used its direct sales force to approach individual retailers in New Zealand and Australia, 11Ants Analytics recognized that, to achieve global scale, it would have to rely on partners. However, there were two challenges: They needed to build a partner program that would attract large industry-focused partners that would want to resell its Retail Analytics Solution (RAP), but they didn’t know how to engage North American partners.

11Ants needed a sound go-to-market strategy to engage new partners, more customers, gain greater international visibility, and realize incremental sales. As an Azure Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner and the winner of Microsoft New Zealand’s Innovative Software Product of the Year award, 11Ants Analytics was invited to participate in the Global Expansion program. This is a benefit Microsoft extends to select ISVs to assist them in expanding internationally.

Working with the Microsoft agency, AIM International, 11Ants Analytics developed a retail-focused GTM strategy that included a structured and scalable partner program, which served as the company’s step-by-step process for building international channels.

With the market opportunity assessed, its value propositions defined, and business terms in place, AIM International identified partners for introductions by Microsoft. To assist 11Ants Analytics in gaining direct customer contacts in the United States, Microsoft also provided the company with a lead generation service to targeted select retail customers through a tele-sales campaign.

The entire Partner Program was completed in just eight weeks. This allowed 11Ants Analytics to attend the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) to meet with prospective partners and utilize the new strategy. Microsoft New Zealand also facilitated introductions to potential partners where the discussions are ongoing. The lead generation service contacted 275 potential retail customers and 11Ants Analytics is developing the resulting leads with RAP demonstrations.

“The Global Expansion program has opened doors to partnership discussions that we could not get access to before, enabled us to become more selective about the partners we speak to, and have more compelling discussions with them,” said Tom Fuyala, CEO of 11Ants Analytics. “This was a very worthwhile project from our standpoint. It delivered a lot of value in terms of an excellent framework and in terms of a huge amount of obviously hard-won knowledge and wisdom.”