Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Relationships between hardware and software vendors are the key to creating holistic, well-built solutions for customers. If the software is carefully created to perform a task for end-users, it must do it well, quickly, and with an enjoyable user interface and experience. If you’ve put tons of effort into crafting the best software solution for your industry or niche, you have to ensure you’re pairing it with hardware that does it justice.
But relationships can be difficult to forge, and with a world full of hardware vendors out there, how can you know who would be the best fit for your software? Vetting takes time, energy, and lots of effort, and it can be tricky finding the perfect hardware vendor to fit your software solution.
Each quarter, we’ll be featuring a hardware vendor with an active and robust ISV program to help take some of the stress out of your vetting process. This way, you can look forward to kicking back and reading all you need to know – we’ll do the interviewing for you.
Elo’s ISV business development manager for mPOS, Tyler Botts, provided us with the answers to some questions ISVs looking for partnerships may want to know.
Tyler Botts
ISV Business Development Manager at Elo Touch Solutions
Q: Does your company have a formal process for working with ISV partners:
A: At Elo, we work to match the needs of our ISV partners in terms of flexibility in engagement. Sure, we have a traditional place to get in touch with us, but ultimately, we want to chat and understand how you would like to work together and we will work to flex around what’s best for you.
Q: Why would an ISV want to work with your company?
A: We believe we understand that the ISV relationship is just that, about the relationship. ISVs have many options when choosing a hardware partner and we know that a relationship is one that is earned with trust, accessibility, and quantitative support. At Elo we strive to have a strong partnership with our ISVs, and we work with them from start to finish on integration and then never leave your side to help promote you within and outside of the Elo walls to make the ISV successful.
From just a hardware perspective, Elo’s product portfolio is one that is diverse and scalable. This includes operating system flexibility as well as the ability to create a common platform that spans from 10 to 70 inches. Additionally, with Elo’s EloView platform, ISVs have an additional option to address the daily challenges of provisioning, content deployment, and device management.
Q: What types of ISVs do you look to partner with?
A: Because Elo’s product portfolio covers a wide base in terms of verticals and associated applications, we find ourselves working with a wide variety of software partners. Point of sale has certainly been an interesting space as of late as traditional POS has begun to merge with mPOS along with the rapid integration of self service solutions. We have enjoyed working with partners in the space looking to create new solutions that the market does not have today to improve the customer experience. A theme within those conversations have been innovation and flexibility.
Elo currently works with a wide range of software partners today that can fit in SMB, Enterprise and very niche verticals. At Elo we feel like with this large product portfolio and sleek designs, we have the product for almost any ISV.
Q: What tips do you have for an ISV looking to grow their business in the channel?
A: Development of a business model that enables your resellers to make money when representing, selling, and/or supporting your solution.
Recruitment of partners that align with the chosen model above. The more complex your offering and the larger the client you target, the more sophisticated the reseller partner may need to be. Think of partners that can perform level 1 support, like installation and cabling, and ongoing maintenance. Your classic VAR would be the perfect target for such a scenario. If you are truly searching for referral type partners to generate leads and then allow you to manage the complete sale and install, then ISO agents may prove a better match. Regardless, consider peppering in additional opportunities for your resellers to capitalize on residual income in either use case. That could be payments, online ordering, loyalty programs and more.
Once you’ve determined your go-to-market reseller model, you can then look to Elo and BlueStar to assist you with recruiting partners that are an ideal fit.
Learn about Elo’s successful partnership with retailcloud on their TabPOS solution.
