Great Plains is taking great pains to embrace potential application service
provider partners and open up new sales channels.
The Fargo-based solutions provider this week expanded its ASP initiative in
order to meet the diverse needs of its partners and their customers.
Due to growing segmentation in the ASP market, Great Plains has taken the next logical step to diversity its ASP
portfolio. It now offers three different relationship tracks for business
that want to tap into its e-commerce solutions.
Jim Traynor, Great Plains ASP business development director, said its ASP
partners are helping the firm reach incremental customers by providing
access to its solutions.
“Together, we’re helping transform brick-and-mortar businesses into
e-businesses, and we’re blurring the lines between services and software,”
Traynor said.
Great Plains designed the top stratum of its service to fit the needs of
strategic ASP partners. Businesses that attain a strategic ASP partnership
tag are able to deliver Great Plains full array of hosted services and
sales programs.
Each strategic ASP partner has unique strengths, and collaborating with
them allows Great Plains to meet the various application deployment needs
of its customers and partners. Some of Great Plains’ strategic ASP partners
include Digex , IBM Global Services,
and PSINet Consulting Solutions,
among others.
Great Plains’ second service layer of service is made up of 29 different
approved ASP partners. These ASP partners either self-host or contract with
Great Plains to host mission critical applications. Many approved ASP
partners also work with Great Plains solution developers and other channel
members to offer specialized, hosted vertical applications.
Approved data centers resellers comprise Great Plains’ third level of ASP
solutions. Resellers can host applications and work with authorized Great
Plains’ partners to sell and deploy it e-business solutions.
Great Plains offers a variety of hosted e-business solutions that automate
processes among financials, distribution, enterprise reporting, project
accounting, e-commerce, human resources and payroll, manufacturing, sales
and marketing management, as well as customer service and support functions.
