Ways to partnership

Community
1

Hopefully, I don’t get shot down for this, just a couple of thoughts I thought I would share with the community on ways to partner with ERPNext.

Firstly, I think ERPNext is great before choosing it we tried different ones before settling on it and have been very happy since.

Secondly, I understand partners tend to focus more on higher end clients and services such as implementation, customisation and support.

We do also however work with a lot of SMEs and with this market sometimes it feels we are in direct competition with the same company we are partners with and want to support. A couple of times recently customers have decided to sign up directly with ERPNext directly. It could also mean ERPNext are losing out on potential income from partners who put people on a VPS instead of using the referral link or they are losing out by paying 30% commision.

After seeing some other partnerships in software what I was thinking is a white label website for partners (not white label ERPNext) offering ERPNext services including cloud plans linked to the ERPNext cloud plans. They can change things like company logo (not ERPNext logo) add their own pricing on top of the $12.50 ERPNext charges and change contact details to their own.

Benefits to ERPNext

  • Sell more cloud plans at normal rate without losing 30% so increases revenue

  • Partners still provide support so it doesn’t increase workload on ERPNext

  • ERPNext can if they wish choose to be totally wholesale to partners so direct customers to local partners on their website but still gain revenue from cloud plans without the hassle of supporting clients directly leaving more time for development.

  • Can charge partners a fee for the feature of a white label site

Of course if a client requires customisation alternative hosting needs to be found.

Benefits for partners

  • No longer stepping on ERPNext toes so to speak in the SME market

  • Regular income from customers using ERPNext hosting due to the difference in ERPNext pricing and their pricing

  • Can offer cloud plans easily with automatic updates and support ERPNext in the process

  • Can have a demo link for customers that doesn’t include a call to action to sign up elsewhere

As said please don’t shoot me down I am not criticizing the way the partner scheme is currently setup as the team are doing a great job. Just thoughts based on other software partnership agreements and wondered about other people’s thoughts on it

2 Likes
2

Hi,

Just thinking from the client’s perspective, they already that original price of ERPNext, which includes hosting and support. On the partner’s website, they see same offering, but for the higher price. How it is beneficial for the client?

Any example of how white-labelled partner’s site would look? Will it be just like ERPNext.com, but in the partner’s name?

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Even if you white label, if you don’t ( mostly can’t) differentiate yourself from the gurus, you can’t charge even the same never mind the same price point. [economics is like gravity, you can’t beat it just like that].

SaaS business in ERPNext competing with Frappe is not profitable because every competitor will have to lower his price. In the end it’s a race to the bottom. No one wins. If you keep the price the same, and all other thighs the same then what is special about your service?

But there are opportunities. And plenty of them. We are at the beginning of the revolution. Learn the software and find a way to demonstrate your personal brand.

It will carry more weight.

best