Leading "PRM" company plans to use the new funds to accelerate its aggressive roadmap in support of Impartner's growing global customer base
If you're an entrepreneur, business executive, or salesperson, it's highly likely you use (ar at least know about) CRMs, software tools used to keep track of your customers and prospects.
According to market research firm, Gartner, such Customer Relationship Management applications have grown into a $69 billion industry, led by such notable firms as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Adobe, and Microsoft.
To be clear, CRM apps are lightyears beyond the functionality of the Rolodexes and spreadsheets of old.
Impartner: A PRM, not a CRM.
Back in 2015 I was serving as Chief Marketing Officer of a Utah County-based startup that had created a next generation walkie-talkie for business and government applications.
As we began to ramp-up operations it soon became clear that although we would sell direct to certain customers, we would also need to work with indirect channel partners as well ... distributors, resellers, and rep firms ... organizations and teams that would help us take our products to market.
Unfortunately, as we examined the various CRM offerings then available, I was generally underwhelmed by what we found ... until Impartner walked in the door (figuratively and literally).
Here, I thought, is a company that from the get understood that working with (and managing, leading and supporting) channel partners was a completely different animal than doing so with end-user customers.
In fact, Impartner defined its CRM system as a Partner Relationship Management platform, or PRM for short, which made tons of sense to me.
{NOTE: As a marketing professional, what wasn't to like about a firm that defined its own Blue Ocean? Besides, from my perspective, PRM was the very definition of identifying and owning a new market.
Not surprisingly, the more we looked into Impartner, the more impressed we became.
So we signed up and became an Impartner customer some six years ago.
{NOTE: The two-minute Impartner video below provides a brief sense of what the company does and how its PRM approach is different than CRM offerings.}
Impartner Today and Moving Forward
Understandably, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since 2015, both professionally and personally.
But Impartner has kept plugging along, landing more and more clients (both domestically and around the globe) as more and more firms have recognized the value Impartner's PRM platform can bring to their indirect sales and marketing efforts.
In fact, such independent analyst and research firms like Forrester, G2, Gartner, and Research in Action have each identified Impartner as an industry leader in the PRM space.
So ... was I surprised to read the news that Impartner had raised $50 million in a new round of funding last week? No, not really.
In fact, Crunchbase reports that South Jordan, Utah-based Impartner has now raised over $110
But having the release "drop" on the first day of the 2021 Silicon Slopes Summit made my life a bit more challenging, to say the least.
So ... with apologies to you (our readers) and Impartner for the delays in getting this story published (that includes you, Kerry Desberg) ... the reality is that Impartner is a pretty big deal, especially in "the channel," let alone in a growing omnichannel sales and marketing world.
According to Impartner CEO, Joe Wang, its PRM offerings are critical because ...
“As companies worldwide shift from resiliency to scalability, the channel has never been more important. We are confident we have the technology, team and investment partners to continue to transform how companies worldwide manage their distributors, resellers, OEM partners and other indirect sales channels.”
So at the risk of coming across as a fanboy, way to go, Impartner.
I look forward to seeing where y'all go next.
