Partner Types & Categories

What does a modern SaaS partner ecosystem look like?

This illus­tra­tion shows the main part­ner types and part­ner cat­e­gories found in many SaaS ecosys­tems today.

Partner Types

On the out­er ring, var­i­ous part­ner types are shows, including:

• Refer­ral Part­ners — Help dri­ve brand aware­ness and cus­tomer referrals
• Resellers & Dis­trib­u­tor — Sell and dis­trib­ute the prod­ucts to customers
• Man­aged Ser­vice Providers — Deliv­er pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices and sup­port around the SaaS products
• OEMs — Incor­po­rate the prod­ucts in parts or com­plete­ly into their own offerings
• Tech­nol­o­gy Part­ners — Pro­vide prod­ucts or infra­struc­ture that com­ple­ment or enhance the tech­nol­o­gy offerings

Partner Categories

Part­ner types can also be clus­tered in cat­e­gories accord­ing to their strate­gic contribution:

• Chan­nel Part­ners — Focus on sales, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and reach­ing new markets
• Prod­uct Part­ners — Enhance and expand the prod­uct portfolio
• Ser­vice Part­ners — Deliv­er pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices and support
• Mar­ket­ing Part­ners — Ampli­fy brand aware­ness and exposure