Indeed, there has been a wave of mergers in the USA bringing together commerce and PRM vendors.  Thus ChannelWave (PRM) has merged with Aqueduct (commerce). ClickCommerce (commerce) took over Allegis (PRM). Comergence, a commerce company, is also reputed to be shopping around for a partner.  "Commerce vendors are responding," she says.  "They realise that companies don’t just want to look at direct sales, they also need to understand channels. They need the relationship part of the equation."

“Companies are far less quixotic.”

This move has huge significance, argues Olivier Choron, head of Noroch Consulting, a consultancy which specialises in channel automation. "By combining e-commerce and PRM you end up with a much more complete solution.  The system is not just about relationships and leads distribution but covers procurement and order and inventory management. That makes it far more powerful."

The combination also means partners can be integrated in new ways. Choron points out that you can now buy a motorbike from Kawasaki thinking that one is buying direct when in fact one is buying from a partner.

Companies are also becoming more sophisticated in their channel strategy and less inclined to look at partners purely as pipes. This has huge implications for the data they collect and how they view their partners. Sokoloski says: "Typically, we find they want to profile their partners by their business strengths, rather than simply what the reseller buys from the supplier."

Simon Wallace-Jones at UK partner relationship management software vendor Foundation Network Limited (FNL) agrees: "Quite often you get companies which have invested in big content management suites from outfits like i2 or Broadvision.  This lets them profile partners by their transactional history.  But that is really not good enough. It doesn’t tell you that what looks like a small partner who buys infrequently is actually part of the largest reseller in the world."