SAP is revising PartnerEdge, its channel program. The changes include a unified reward structure for giving members credit for their total SAP business, and eContracts that the company says reduce paperwork and speed processing. The company says partners can no longer be easily categorized as a pure service partner or VAR. That thought occurs frequently in trying to sort out candidates for Bob Scott's Insights Top 100 VARs and VAR Stars. SAP calls its new approach a holistic partner management model defines engagement types: build, sell, service and run.

Simply to have the CEO of Exact take time to arrange an interview with the press is a mark of how far this company has come. In a telephone interview this week, CEO Erik van der Meijden discussed plans for a channel and margins for Exact Online. The program is designed so "a VAR should be committed or dedicated to product," he said. Van der Meijden expects some overlap with the existing Macola channel, but it is more likely that this will attract a different kind of organization. "Most VARs don't have the business model to support that kind of business," he said.

The Sage-Salesforce alliance is moving in interesting directions as New York-based reseller Net@Work is exhibiting for the first time at Dreamforce, the massive Salesforce conference. By massive, I mean last year's registered attendance was 135,000. A post on the reseller's website by CRM director Danny Estrada said his company is happy to be participating in what it called the coming-out party for Sage Live, the new online, SMB product from the vendor.