Every enterprise application comes with a tag line of customization, integration and configuration. What does it mean for a partner and what does mean for a customer? Most of the time customer includes their wish list for customization. It seems like a Mirage when the customization required starts contrasting with features and the product road map.

The product pitch and product with customization are totally two different and individual entities. Business partners normally pitch the product USP’s V/s price for most of the customers whereas customers expect software applications to provide results in various parameters but the reality is otherwise.
Business partners / principal companies try various permutation and combination with the existing features of the product to satisfy the customers requirement, while some of the requirements still do not fall in line after this effort and the customer’s tends to assume that the customization would put his concerns to rest which does not happen eventually.
Do partners have the road map clarity?
To begin with, the software application comes with Product and Customization Road Map.
The product road map is for features and upgradations which principal companies decide and they plan accordingly for the future developments.
Customization road map allows partners or third party developers to create add-ons for the product within the available frame work which is actually a pre-defined option by the principal company. This frame work usually creates quiet a bit of ambiguity as far as partner is concerned.
Is customization a tool to keep the competing products at bay by partners/principals?
Application Customization is seen as the next big thing in the market place to generate service revenue from packaged applications. Even business partners look at this opportunity as a way to move up in the SI ladder. But the same does not hold true for most of the available packaged application since partners are sometimes ignorant about the principal’s product roadmap.

To add to the complexity, the word “customization” would have been used at various stages during the sales cycle and customers do register it but they get back to the partner/principals when customer places LOI or PO as part of customization would become a requirement when implementation starts. “Is customization an additional functionality, feature, new report or a combination of all ? “
Let’s have an example: Business partner for an ERP application pitches the product based on the features, better ROI and other benefits. Customers finds it credible at that point of time. Before buying the application customer expects the vendor to customize the application in the SCM Module. SCM is a vast area which ranges from internal management to material management and also has the scope of further enhancement. Is the application geared up to handle it ? Has the partner understood the road map of his principal vendor? Any lapse in the either can result in the customer being dissatisfied with the application provided, which in turn can lead him to discards the application mid way.

At times principals are also responsible for this dissatisfaction as they don’t disclose or make the product roadmap clear to the business partners, whereas the same business partner had to hire or maintain the employees who are certified by the same principal for technical support or implementation.
Is there a way out?
Business Partners need to be aware of some aspects of the principal’s customer polling data to be in sync with target verticals. Principals should also try and encourage sharing of this relevant information which would equip the Business partner to handle queries better.
Does it happen?
The principal’s certified employee with partner can not guarantee his/her ability to handle every situation. Principals should not just provide functional training but also need to update the manpower with the technological advancements.
What next?
Addressing pain areas - a major area of concern depending on the application being pitched. Few of the applications are part of compliance strategy as they depend on their customer viz the same CAD tools are bought to maintain the compatibility.

While utility tools like backup, mailing solutions, program management application requires partners to address the current pain areas and to take care of the potential pain areas but this usually requires domain knowledge where principals should provide inputs to the put forth the value proposition.
ROI(Return on Investment): A mathematical tool to show how customers can gain. The partners had to be conversant how it’s calculated in gist and in reality rather than sending a spreadsheet along with the proposal which the principal has prepared.
Lets have an example: A Customer buying mailing solution don’t look at ROI when they go for a change management or Lifecycle management application they do look at ROI. The ROI is calculated on perceived and prejudged returns for addressing the pain areas of the customer where as customer business risk without the product is ignored.
To arrive at it ,customer polling data in that vertical can provide inputs and exact requirement of customer V/s solution offered. This ROI can be more factual and live for the customer.Value Proposition: Document will open a can of worms if it’s not a standardized document. Principals had to train the partners on most aspects of this document as this is totally different from the product USP. What’s sales pitch? What’s the solution offered / expected ? If these queries do not have clarity then this would be no different from any other document being offered.

For an example: A Customer buying Business intelligence or a CRM application without going for an evaluation of the proposed application would start its comparison with the spreadsheets or mail correspondence. Principals/Partner may have done in-depth study to justify the Value Proposition which addresses the current and potential pain areas. It is the partner’s responsibility to train himself accordingly so that he/she is skilled enough to handle queries in this regard without delay.

A products with customization provides huge opportunities for business partners to increase the revenue from the same customers and also lets them build and develop their domain skill sets.