But Harris says that resellers who occasionally sell his product are most unlikely to use the site at all. "We find they simply aren't interested." And he notes: "Our biggest partners, the top 20 or 30 in a country, may well use the website extensively, but they are very sensitive to being always told to go to the web. You have to integrate the site with face-to-face and telesales."

Wallace-Jones at FNL reckons PRM can help persuade a large number of small partners to sell more. "A PRM solution should make it easier for partners to go to market," he claims. But even major suppliers may face huge resistance getting partners to the site.

Wendy McKenzie, EMEA partner programme director at software vendor BMC said: "We have monthly meetings where we get a bunch of partners together. I always ask them how many of you have seen our website? And I am always surprised how few have. You have to show them where to find specific information. So we send out emails inviting them to click through on a link to see our pricing page. If I simply told them to go to the homepage, many would forget their passwords!"

Wallace-Jones agrees. "Leads management systems work best where leads are dispatched by email. Otherwise, many partners will simply fail to go the website to pick up the leads."

He adds: "Not all tools fit all partners. Some people buy into tools which give them an extra discount if they replace a competitors product. Some want to do online training. You have to put a broad spectrum of tools out there."

Ultimately, he says: "PRM systems will fail unless the partners can see a clear benefit from using them. And the supplier has to be prepared to send out a stream of new initiatives to get partners to visit the site."

Duncan Forrester is in charge of communications with dealers at BMW. He believes that, historically, many suppliers have failed to understand the information needs of their partners. Previously, companies published elaborate brochures and assumed they were read. The web has allowed them to measure real response and the results are sobering.

One obvious way of getting buy in from dealers is to ensure that the information is relevant, not just to the partner, but also to the job title of employees inside the partner. Both FNL and Oracle give different information cuts, depending on the viewer's job title.

If partners buy direct from their supplier, there is little doubt that electronic ordering can save time and money. McKenzie says: "Online ordering had really worked. It enables us to cut through all the bureaucracy and ship product much faster."

A major promise of PRM is the ability to carry online profiles of your partners, updated by them. In theory, this should save your time and money, and also ensure that information on partners is always up-to-date. It is very much in the partners interest to update his profile, as this will affect the prices he pays, and the leads he gets. Harris at Filemaker said: "Self-profiling works with those companies who feel their relationship with you is important, which is good - because those are the ones you will do most with anyway."

Others are unconvinced. Steve Dunn, European channel manager at Sybase says: "In my experience if you let partners self-profile, they exaggerate their skills and size. It is much harder to detect these problems if you don't fill out the information yourself." But Wallace-Jones at FNL argues: "People who lie will lie face-to-face and on the phone, why should they lie more online?"

Everyone agrees that it is vital that such PRM databases feed into the company's wider customer relationship management solution. McKenzie at BMC says: "The database allows our direct salesforce to see who our resellers are and what skills they can offer."