What is our primary use case?
We use Allbound for our partner portal. That means we have it as our main point of contact for all of our technology and sales partners. They are able to use it to register deals, access content, and message their partner manager. They can also view deals that are in progress related to them. They can see what their pipeline looks like and what their closed deals look like.
How has it helped my organization?
It is very easy to onboard a partner using Allbound. Everything is linked right into our Salesforce. Once they close the deal or close the actual partner contract in Salesforce, we have it automated so that when a partner contract is closed, it is signed and sent off. From there, it automates their addition to Allbound or at least the green listing of their email domain from there. They are then able to go on. All of the people at that company are able to register with Allbound. It is very easy as long as they have the same email domain. We have some partners that use several different email domains. We were able to whitelist them so that they could access the portal. It is very easy. I do not even think about it. It is so easy.
We are in the process of utilizing gamification, but we do use playbooks. They make our partner program much more streamlined. Playbooks make it much easier for the partners to access information related to what they are looking for. Playbooks help with the content sorting. They make it easier for content to be found and absorbed by the user, which is great. In terms of gamification, we are in the process of rolling that out. It has not been completely rolled out yet, but it is going to be used to incentivize our partners. The end goal is to use that as a big incentive and drive partner engagement. I am hopeful and excited about that.
We are able to filter or customize the content that different partners see when they log in to Allbound. We can definitely do that based on the type of account they have. Whether it is an executive account or a salesperson account, it is all set up when they register. We can also do it based on the partner tiers. We have gold, silver, and platinum partners, and we can diversify what content they are seeing based on that. We can even break it down further. We can do it by partner type, such as whether they are a GSI, systems integrator, more regional-based, etc. We can break down the content into different groups. We are able to create as many different groups as we like and then set our content availability based on those groups.
It is easy to customize the content that partners see in Allbound. It is so easy that I do not even think about it. For me, this customization is super important, especially as we continue to grow our partner program. We are showing a lot of growth in our standard partners, which are our lower-tier partners. Because of that, we want to ensure that they are getting the content they need, but also there is a value that comes with moving up in the partner tiers, whether that is because they have created additional leads or things of that nature. It is very important to us to be able to demonstrate that by the type of content that we have made available to them. We want to make sure that certain valuable content is only available for higher-tier partners.
Allbound enables our partners to re-brand our white-label collateral. There is a co-marketing feature or co-branding feature, which is great. We are able to take a look at it. We are able to say where their logo can go. They upload their logo onto the portal, and then they are able to drag and drop it. In terms of the effect of this customization on the partner experience and their time to market, we are newly offering some of those things, so there has not been a big impact at this juncture, but there will be as we move into the new year because we are looking at growing and making it more self-service friendly for our lower tiered partners. They do not need to work directly with partner marketing. They can go through the portal on their own and set up their own collateral.
There has not been a huge change at this point in terms of the time we spend on partner administration, but there will be. We are in the process of getting everything set up, but everything should be really cutting down our partner administration time by a lot. It would probably cut that by half, if not more.
Allbound has absolutely helped to increase partner engagement. Our partners are much more engaged. They are able to access our information much more easily, and it helps with my job because I do not have to worry about whether they have access to something or whether they are wondering where to find things. They know where to find it.
Quarter over quarter, we have seen a drastic increase in the opportunities that have come right through the portal, so partner-sourced opportunities have gone up. Quarter over quarter, we have also seen an increase in the partner-attached field. That means we have more partners involved in some way in our deals than we ever have before. It was over 50% last quarter.
What is most valuable?
The deal registration portion of the portal has been very valuable. It connects directly with our Salesforce, so it is super easy. We recently started the process of implementing gamification within our portal so that our partners can earn points and then use those points and access gift cards or donations on their behalf. That is something that we have not yet fully implemented, but it is certainly in progress. It is something we are really excited about. We think that it is going to encourage our partners to register more deals via the portal rather than going with their partner manager. It will save them time. It will save our partner managers' time, and it will get our partners points. They all would want to get points. It would be a nice way for us to be able to do that.
Allbound's user interface is very easy. I have worked with many different PRMs and many different interfaces before. Allbound is very easy to use for me. I found it very straightforward and streamlined. If there is something that I am unsure about, it is easy to get a response. They are very quick at responding and letting me know. It has been wonderful. I really enjoy it.
What needs improvement?
Some of the integration and some of the content management could be a little bit better. They are working on some of the areas. The best part about them is that when I have feedback, they are very quick to respond and say, "That is a great idea. Let us work on it." I do not have a whole lot of feedback. Obviously, I want to see some additional integrations, but they are working on those.
I would love to see a little bit more responsibility from the account management team, but that being said, I know that they were going through some internal changes. Within the last two or three weeks, I have not had any issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Allbound for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There was a lot of influx that happened internally within the last little bit. They had a new CEO come in and a new CMO. There were a lot of changes. For me, that was concerning, but I do not have any issues now. They have really turned it around.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has scalability. It is great.
We are just using it as a partner portal. We have over 200 active users. They are active on a weekly basis.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is amazing. I can message them right now, and I know that any issue will be solved before the end of the day. I would rate them a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When I came to this organization, we already had Allbound, so I have not used any other solution with the company I am at now, but I have used others in the past.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in its deployment. It was deployed before I came on, but we had our Business Systems team handle deployment.
In terms of maintenance, as with all things, occasionally, there are going to be issues. Connections are going to get broken, especially as we make updates in our own Salesforce. It is great to be able to look at it and fix it. Whenever there is something that breaks or anytime there is any kind of maintenance, it is a super easy fix. The only thing that requires additional maintenance would be updating the content if things change. Other than that, there is not any ongoing maintenance other than me going in and making sure everything is working.
What was our ROI?
We have absolutely seen an ROI. We have seen an increase in partner-sourced opportunities. We have seen an increase in partner-attached ARR. That just continues to go up as we continue to improve the portal experience.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have no complaints about it, but it is not something that is my purview. I know the pricing. I deal with it, but I have not compared it to other things. I know it is much more affordable than going with some of the other services. For example, Salesforce has a partner portal option, but it is much more expensive, so I know Allbound is reasonable in that sense, but I do not know what the reasonability is across the board.
Allbound has a flat, package-based pricing model, as opposed to tier-based pricing, that grows as our number of partners increases. I love it because growth is a huge part of our partner program right now, but it is not a huge deal because overall, within the partner ecosystem, we are starting to see that partner programs are more focused on quality over quantity, so there is not a big drive to have hundreds of partners as there once was.
What other advice do I have?
To a colleague at another company who says they are not ready for a PRM solution, I would say that it is not true that they should be ready. They do not need to have a lot. Allbound is going to help them work through that process, and it is super important to just get started. If they have partners, then they are ready because they need to communicate with their partners, and this is the best way to get involved
To those evaluating Allbound, I would suggest looking at what their requirements are and looking at what they need to get involved or get in place and then go from there.
When I first started working with Allbound, I was not that impressed with the features they had in place, but I have noticed that over the last year, they have taken feedback from their partners and their customers, and they are increasing the type of things that we can utilize. For me, it is the gamification feature that we are implementing in our portal. There is also the partner journey feature. They are implementing integrations with LMSs, which is a huge one for us. That is something coming down the pipe within the next few months. They are definitely starting to improve their integrations and availability. That is going to be very important, especially as we continue to grow our partner program, and we want to continue to grow with them.
In terms of Allbound's effect on shortening the sales cycle, because we were not effectively tracking sales cycles before I came into Camunda, I do not have definitive data on that. However, overall, our partner sales cycle is shorter than our regular sales cycle. I have definitive data on that.
Overall, I would rate Allbound an eight out of ten. There are a couple of things we obviously want to have, and that is normal. That is part of the growth process. As partners of theirs, it is nice to have someone who is responsive and able to tell me that we are working on making these changes.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.