Cloud shift set to benefit insightsoftware channel

Insightsoftware is looking to expand the number of products sold by its partners and recruit more as it looks to beef up its channel business.

The financial reporting and business process specialist has seen a shift in its customer base to the cloud and is keen to make sure its partners can address that move and provide users with more options.

The firm has a sizeable channel, about 1,300 partners globally, with many selling the Jet Reports product that it acquired back in 2019. But there is a sense that adding other products would return more revenues for partners.

“We have such a portfolio of products that we sell to the office of the CFO,” said Jorge Martin, senior vice-president of global alliances and partnerships at insightsoftware. “We really enable our partners to sell other stuff, too. If you’re a Jet Reports reseller, we now can enable them to sell our budgeting and planning solution.”

Martin said the business is also on the hunt for fresh blood to swell its channel ranks and the door remains open to those that want to get involved. “We actually have channel recruiters or partner recruiters, one in the Nordics and another one that is actually on the European continent, but we are always looking for brand new partners to work with,” he said. “And not just to sell those Jet products that I was talking about, but also the broad swath of products that we have had inside software.”

Martin added that the move to the cloud was a trend that should benefit insightsoftware’s channel because it was being driven by other players in the market, including Microsoft, so customers were feeling the pressure to transition to a hosted system.

“A lot of the customers that were formerly using on premise versions are now working to move over to a cloud version of the product, which creates additional opportunities for partners and also creates additional opportunities for insightsoftware,” he said.

Earlier this summer, the firm published its latest annual Finance team trends report, which made it clear that there was a role for the channel to help finance teams transform their businesses.

The survey revealed that even with some digitisation, finance teams were still lagging behind when it came to tapping into using technology to support decision making and giving faster access to data.

“Recent global crises and disruptions have exposed the fragility of today’s market and permanently changed finance as we know it,” said Lee An Schommer, chief product officer at insightsoftware. “Along with digitisation, we are also seeing a shift in finance teams’ roles as organisations strive to prepare for the next big event.

“The Finance team trends report illustrates that while progress has been made, finance teams are still lagging in key areas of digitisation. We recognise the final stretch in digitisation is often the most difficult to navigate, but it is also the most critical. Completing the journey will require further fine-tuned data control, streamlined processes, and intuitive systems to bridge the gap.”