May 07, 2009 10:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Research and Markets: SaaS Channel Research, Part 2: How Can ISV Channel Partners Differentiate in the Brave New SaaS/Cloud World?

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/39932c/saas_channel_resea) has announced the addition of the "SaaS Channel Research, Part 2: How Can ISV Channel Partners Differentiate in the Brave New SaaS/Cloud World?" report to their offering.

“SaaS Channel Research, Part 2: How Can ISV Channel Partners Differentiate in the Brave New SaaS/Cloud World?”

Recent research has shown that executives prefer to buy SaaS through the channel. Indeed, the channel will be critical to the continued growth and penetration of SaaS in the market, with the development of value-added services a key success factor for the channel partner. But what types of value-added service offerings will be most compelling in the SaaS cloud world?

Research from our Global SaaS Survey suggests that these offerings fall into two categories: domain expertise-based services and IT management-based services. Based on this research, we posit that over time, channel partners will choose one of these two areas as the foundation on which to differentiate their value and their services - choosing either to develop horizontal or vertical domain expertise, or to develop a capability to manage a portfolio of SaaS offerings on behalf of their customer base.

This shift in business model on the part of the channel partners will have deep and lasting implications for the IT ecosystem, as the "balance of power" between service provider and channel partner with regard to who is truly providing the business value will be permanently altered.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/39932c/saas_channel_resea