SaaS - What role resellers?

Lots of teeth gnashing by resellers these days on how they can add value and , of course profits, in the emerging SaaS era where the big fat license fee of upfront software sales and maintenance is replaced by a MUCH smaller per seat monthly recurring fee.

I’ve been talking to many ISVs in the Enterprise Mobile app space recently — who see a huge need for reseller partnerships . 2GoSoftware out of Dallas is a great example — they do no direct sales of their Windows Mobile app and actually rely 100% on hardware resell partners that bring:  market reach, sales teams, and implementation expertise. And the have no plans to add a Direct Sales force as they expand into new app areas beyond their core Field Service / Routing, and Scheduling.

Salesforce.com — of course the shining pioneer in this space - has embraced firms like Blue Wolf who enable and implement complex CRM implementations.  And aren’t they all a little complex ?  I have yet to meet an end  user who implemented SFDC without wanting to bridge to content and other apps n the enterprise.

SaaS is here to stay and will only grow. The value prop for the end user is too strong for this reality to not come to be.  The challenge for resellers is defining thier value add with SaaS ISVs.