Socialtext is partnering with a variety of firms that provide Enterprise 2.0 and business transformation consulting services. Through these partners, and our own Professional Services group, we have long concentrated on delivering solutions, not just software, to our customers. Socialtext’s four core Solution Areas announced last week evolved from this work and, now, they enable our partners to focus and expand the value they are providing to their clients.

And, in addition to delivering these solutions to our customers, we use these same solutions to manage our relationship with prospective, new and established partners.

We set up a wiki with each new partner that provides efficient and organized access to the Socialtext information needed to be successful. It really accelerates the productivity of new partners to have a central location for information and interactions with us, rather than a series of disconnected emails. Now, with the introduction of the Socialtext Dashboard, partners will be able to personalize the presentation and navigation of this information to best suit their business needs.

One of the greatest benefits of these solutions is the direct and open feedback channel we get with partners. Participation is not limited to Socialtext channel management; participants include product development, marketing, customer support and others that benefit from the current information provided by the field and the sharing and communication in both directions that result. We add further immediacy to this channel by providing our partners with a number of NFR licenses that they can use, in turn, to collaborate with their clients.

Last, but not least, I am really excited about the introduction of Socialtext People. The rapid expansion of our global partner ecosystem means that we can’t meet face to face with our partners as often as we would like. Socialtext People provides another great tool to enable our partners to get to know us better and for us to better understand their strengths and be able to search for particular expertise needed by our customers.