You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. A few years back, BLUEROADS did a good job of selling its standalone deal registration and channel lead management system to high-tech vendors.  But times are changing. Companies are looking for economies of scale and managing a system for indirect sales and another for direct just doesn’t make sense.

With the growth and maturity of both the Salesforce Partner Networks product suite and the Force.com platform, consolidating direct and indirect processes within Salesforce offers a compelling business case with clear ROI.

The case is so clear that salesforce.com re-branded “Partner Relationship Management” to Salesforce CRM Partner Networks to more accurately reflect the broader value of its solution.

Consequently, Apprivo has completed numerous BLUEROADS migrations over the past year, in which our customers were using Salesforce for direct sales and BLUEROADS for indirect. We thought it might be useful to share the top reasons customers decided to migrate as well as tips for a seamless migration.

Top Business Reasons to Migrate

• Increased Partner Satisfaction
  Partner satisfaction was a top business driver for migration. With a consolidated solution, partners no longer have to log into two different applications and remember two sets of usernames and passwords.  Plus, consolidating lead management and deal registration with existing Salesforce products such as Ideas, Content, and MDF into a single branded portal increases the partner’s ease of doing business with the vendor.
• Reduced Administration & Costs
  Our customers have been able to turn off an entire application, eliminating the license fees and administrative costs. Partner, customer, and user records no longer need to be maintained or duplicated across two applications, reducing maintenance costs. Customers are also driving down the effective cost of their existing Salesforce license as users are doing more for the same license cost.
• Improved Reporting
  Blending direct and indirect processes under a single system allows customers to generate a consolidated pipeline, providing executives with unparalleled visibility. Additionally, the standard reporting capabilities in Salesforce far exceed BLUEROADS, and include the ability to share critical reports with partners via the portal.
• Ease of Customization
  The power of the Force.com platform opens up a level of customization unmatched in any other application. Companies can easily add fields, reports, administer security, configure multiple deal registration approval processes (such as geography based) through clicks, not code.  This level of customization is nearly impossible in BLUEROADS. Plus, the free deal registration application on AppExchange provides a solid foundation that can be easily tailored for your specific business requirements.

Apprivo has implemented more Salesforce Partner Networks than any other consulting firm. As a result, we have developed three BLUEROADS-specific tips to ensure a seamless migration.

Tips for a Seamless Migration

• Data Migration
  Don’t under estimate the level of effort involved in extracting data from BLUEROADS. Not only will you be migrating partner company and user information, but lead and deal records as well. Apprivo has been down this road before and has designed a complete data mapping between BLUEROADS and Salesforce as well as a set of templates to load the extracted BLUEROADS data into Salesforce, dramatically simplifying data migration.
• Process Implementation
  Be aware that BLUEROADS uses proprietary processes for deal registration and lead distribution. You will need to deconstruct and implement these processes in your Salesforce system. Apprivo is experienced in configuring lead assignment rules and deal registration approvals that meet or exceed the features provided by BLUEROADS, ensuring a smooth transition for partners. During the process migration phase, it makes sense to evaluate additional processes that can reduce the collision of direct and indirect selling efforts.  For example, you may want to consider Apprivo Named Accounts, an add-on application that minimizes channel conflict with streamlined lead routing processes.
• Salesforce Expertise
  MigratingBLUEROADS processes and data requires advanced Salesforce expertise, especially in the areas of workflow, customization, configuration, and potentially, Apex.  If you don’t have the depth of expertise in-house, you will need a salesforce.com Consulting Partner with a proven track record of implementing Salesforce for indirect channels. Apprivo leverages the best practices of our most successful Salesforce Partner Networks implementations in every BLUEROADS migration, allowing you to benefit from our real-world lessons learned.

If you’re interested in migrating from BLUEROADS to Salesforce, feel free to contact Apprivo directly for a free, no-obligation consultation and cost proposal.