How NFON Supports Thousands of Partners, Across 6 Languages

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The PRM is such an essential piece of a partner program because it is the source of all partner activity where you can develop relationships, generate new business, and create champions of your solution.

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NFON launched their partner program first with an internal partner portal solution, but quickly realized they needed an advanced PRM platform to support their needs, and Allbound fit all of their requirements. Through Allbound, NFON has supported their entire pan-European channel, with tailored language support and personalized content distribution. Since the implementation of Allbound, NFON has grown their partner user and deal registration significantly.

Use Case

• Dealers (commission-based)
• Resellers (wholesale partners)
• Distributors

Headquarters

• Munich, Germany

Customer Since

• 2021

The Challenge

• Measuring partner engagement and pipeline
• Managing 2,200 partner accounts with varying languages spoken
• Custom integrations and automations required

The Solution

• Multi-language content support
• Engaging partner dashboard with tactical playbooks
• Enhanced deal registration experience

The Results

• Seamlessly manage international partners
• Increase engagement
• Drive greater deal registration

2,200 partner accounts

1,200 users registered

1,700 content assets uploaded

NFON was founded in Munich in 2007 and has developed rapidly in the years since. Today, NFON is the only pan-European provider of integrated business communication and is active in fifteen countries, supporting more than 50,000 customers, 500,000 installed extensions, and boasting a network of 3,000 partners.

Simplifying the complex can be challenging, but NFON believes communication should be simple, intuitive, and hassle-free. That is why they arm customers with modern communication solutions to satisfy the needs of tomorrow.

Long past the start-up phase, NFON is still full of energy and drive, helping them solve complicated problems for customers and partners alike.

NFON channels an entrepreneurial attitude, focused team results, and prioritizes respect to enable unparalleled experiences.

Since its establishment, NFON approached the market with an indirect business strategy where channels play a key role in promoting and supporting NFON solutions. In January 2022, NFON officially introduced its new channel partner program, called NGAGE.

NFON has provided pioneering technology to more than 40,000 customers for over a decade, and the new NGAGE Partner Program makes it even easier and more profitable for IT resellers to extend their offering and expand their customer base. NFON has achieved this success through dedicated services, benefits, initiatives, and tools.

“At NFON, we have channel teams in every country where we have operations,” explained Roberto Daveti, Channel Operation Manager at NFON. “Each team includes Channel Managers, Technical Consultants, and Channel Marketing People. The aim is to recruit, onboard, enable and support our partners to sustain their business efforts and provide them with a state-of-the-art partner experience.”

NFON measures the impact of the NGAGE partner program through a thorough and analytical reporting process built upon a set of predefined KPIs, spanning from the business results, level of engagement, and adoption of specific channel initiatives (i.e. Deal Registration or MDF spending).

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The PRM was instrumental in managing the onboarding of new partners and the migration of our existing partners to our new NGAGE partner program. It streamlined the communication towards our partner ecosystem and allowed NFON to automate and control specific channel business development initiatives like deal registration and lead distribution. Further, through a customized dashboard, we are giving our partners real time visibility on a set of business KPIs.

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NFON started to look at a PRM system after realizing their previous partner portal was not the ideal tool to handle new partner program initiatives and to increase their partner engagement. Their market research focused on the PRM tools that would provide a full set of features and enough flexibility regarding CRM integrations.

Allbound offered the features required, along with the option to customize the tool by developing specific integrations and automations that are (and will be) part of the partner experience NFON wanted to offer to their existing and new partners. Coupled with pricing aligned with NFON’s budget, Allbound was a perfect fit.

The implementation started with a massive cleansing of NFON’s partner database. Establishing a fine-tuned sync between the PRM and their CRM was crucial and, once completed, NFON shifted its focus on the PRM structure, design, content strategy, and integration with other tools and portals.

“The PRM plays a pivotal role in our NGAGE partner program. Through the tool, we are delivering partner-specific initiatives that are part of our partner experience. The implementation was initially focused on replacing the previous partner portal and it is now progressing with the key business and marketing initiatives and programs.”

Supporting an International Footprint with Multi-Language Support

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With NFON’s pan-European footprint, multi-language support is a critical feature for ensuring they could engage their entire channel. From a partner user experience perspective, NFON leverages multi-language support and the option to customize translations.

The option to develop localized emails and partner communications through the Notifications and Partner Journey Automation features also added value, giving local partners and teams a personalized experience. Moreover, the possibility to filter their huge library of content like contracts, price lists, product info, and more provided a better partner experience.

How Channel Insights Supports NFON’s Program Growth

Most recently, NFON deployed the Deal Registration feature providing improved visibility on the partner pipeline. For the very first time, NFON has a tool providing a comprehensive view of different metrics, spanning from channel recruitment to user engagement.

In particular, NFON uses Channel Insights to build reports on specific KPIs that are particularly relevant for NFON: Partners and users registered in the last 30 days, percentage and type of content engaged in the last 30 days, and more.

Feature Usage

Channel Insights provides a quick look at how the pipeline is growing.

Additional Features Enabling Partner Success

“Allbound supported us not only from a purely technical perspective but also helped us in designing the overall portal structure to fulfill our goals,” highlighted Roberto. “Moreover, they were available to customize specific features to properly handle our workflows. Timely technical support and regular alignment meetings with the implementation team were instrumental to the successful deployment of the platform in all regions.”

Apart from the PRM features they’ve deployed so far, NFON really appreciated the streamlined sync with their CRM, granular user management, the possibility to build dynamic groups, and the flexibility in terms of dashboard design. NFON also used the Prospect Page and Co-brand features to increase partner engagement.

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Establishing a fine-tuned sync with our CRM was helpful to deploy specific features like Deal Registration while the user roles and dynamic groups allowed us to segment our partner ecosystem to properly address communications and build the process. Finally, the option to pin contents and build playbooks allows the partner users to tailor their PRM experience according to their business and marketing needs.

Partner User & Deal Registration Growth

Since implementing Allbound, NFON’s partner user registration is growing fast, with peaks in correlation to the launch of new initiatives (i.e. Deal Registration) or the availability of new content, such as tutorials. Deal registration is also growing and NFON expects a peak when the feature will be released in countries with the most partners (Germany and UK).

Overall, implementing Allbound has been a game-changer for NFON,

allowing them to seamlessly manage their international partners, increase engagement, and drive greater deal registration.

Already an Allbound customer? Check out NFON led customer meetup and take a look at the NFON portal in action.