Alternative Partnership Strategies for your Startup

Our leak detection and water usage SaaS application needed a source of hourly usage data delivered several times a day. AMI or "smart meter" systems provide this data. Several large companies in the US and around the world manufacture these platforms.

On numerous occasions, we called the partner and alliance leaders at these businesses. Our goal was to secure a "white label" partnership where they would slap their logo on our application, and then sell it through their established sales channels.

This approach didn't work very well because many of these companies had already developed their own portal solutions. They expected their resellers and distributors to bundle the company solution with the AMI network.

AMI implementations can range in price from $500,000 to millions of dollars, depending on the number of meters being installed and the geographic area that the water utility covers. The portal application represents a fraction of that cost.

But the AMI manufacturer's options were still very expensive and prospective clients were noticing.

We learned that there was a distributor network of businesses that sold, installed, and supported AMI deployments. These were independent businesses with their own management teams.

It was usually the case that a company in say, Colorado, would obtain an exclusive license to sell a supplier's AMI system in that state. Sometimes, larger distributors would have rights in multiple markets. And in large states like California and Texas, the manufacturer might have multiple resellers.

We used this to our advantage. Many of the distributors recognized that the customer portal application offered by the AMI companies was expensive and didn't work that well.

We had priced our solution competitively and it offered some compelling features.

When a distributor submitted a proposal for an AMI project, and most were competitive bids, we convinced them to include our portal as an option.

But we did more than that. We showed these distributors how they could use our platform to strengthen their sales pitch.

An AMI system is comprised of a radio retrofitted onto an existing water meter. The company then installs radio towers or uses an existing cell phone network, to transmit the usage data back to a central database.

This database is referred to as a "headend" system. It allows the utility to gather reads for billing and to monitor the health of the meter reading network.

A normal sales presentation involved the AMI vendor bringing in a water meter radio, a diagram of how the network was going to be installed, and a bunch of photos. They really struggled to paint a persuasive picture of how this system would positively transform the lives of utility staff and customers.

When we joined them on sales calls and showed utility management how the data could be used by customers to see their water usage, and be notified by automated call, e-mail, or text when they had a potential leak, they were blown away.

We were providing tangible and visible reasons for the water utility to invest in the AMI network in the first place.

So even though they were required to show the "company solution," they ended up recommending our application as an alternative but "preferred option."

As you're looking for companies to partner with, see if there are other players in their distribution networks that you might join forces with.

Ganbatte kudasai!

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