Many of the “great” technology products on the market create an economic ecosystem around them - unending volumes of iPod accessories, powerful Photoshop and After Effect plugins for specialized effects, and even loads of system level utilities to fill in the cracks in operating systems. This is the third party product market. In fact, although you may hear of how Lucas Films utilized Alias (now Autodesk) Maya to create most of the 3D scenery in the newer Star Wars films, what made those special effects special wasn't the out-of-box experience of Maya but specialized tools and add-on renderers that Lucas Film either made or paid a lot of money to use. Many tool ecosystems end up generating far more money per sale than a sale of the “host” product!

Development systems, although not as flashy as the special effects products, create a perfect ecosystem: users expect to be able to make any sort of software with their development systems! Because of this, as a development tool matures, it should naturally develop a third party vendor market.

It Takes Two For a Third Party Program

Runtime Revolution Ltd charged me with developing a third party partner system that provides a win-win opportunity for both the vendor and Runtime. I have a unique perspective on this given my own experience. First - my separate consulting company created, managed and expanded the international channel business of REAL Software’s REALbasic from the release of REALbasic 1.0 to REALbasic 2005, so I have years of experience in dealing with third party developers wanting to leverage the host product. Secondly, I also co-own Paradigma Software; Paradigma Software develops the Valentina database system utilized by developers that develop with Revolution, Visual Basic, .net tools, Delphi, Director and more.

If you have experience in channel management (I have been at this for well over a decade), you probably read the industry magazines such as eWeek, InfoWorld, NetWorld and CRN (Computer Reseller News). These weeklies constantly cover the disconnects and mis-steps in partner relations - especially third party product integrators. Even the big guys like HP and Apple have a hard time developing partner programs that makes third parties happy!

With this experience, I have gained an understanding of not only what’s good for the tool developer but also what exactly the desires, wants and concerns are for the third party vendor. RevSelect was in an embryotic state when I took it over, but its rapidly becoming the ideal program: for everyone!

One Size Doesn't Fit All

One rule in product sales is to offer enough choice to maximize the market without confusing it, or generating unnecessary support costs. For that reason, there are two commercially oriented versions of RevSelect program; I'll come back to these in a moment. Runtime provides a special venue (RevOnline) for sharing projects, and non-Revolution tool set (the Externals SDK). These venues are also an extension of RevSelect but can have very non-commercial applications (as well as commercial ones). For this reason, the Externals SDK license was modestly revised and, RevOnline, in the months to come, will have a standardized license for any user provided example code there. This reduces confusion and costs for everyone.

Silver and Gold

The RevSelect support programs that specifically target commercial development come in two flavors: silver and gold. Ultimately, the goal of the program is to help third party vendors productize their creations and market them in a way that is profitable for both the third party vendor and Runtime. Let's first look at what’s common between silver and gold, then how they are different, and why that’s a good thing.

They are both about maximizing return on investment, so the first step is to cooperatively determine with a third party vendor that their product is ready for RevSelect. RevSelect doesnt accept products that are unlikely to provide a solution to Revolution developers in the creation of Revolution based solutions. Also, Runtime does not automatically accept all products as Gold products.

They both incorporate a promotional element. Silver and gold partners both get enhanced listings on all third party pages on the runrev.com and revdeveloper websites that Runtime would otherwise provide at no cost to third parties. They also allow one or more banners that run through not only all the websites but also the Revolution html based newsletters. Gold partners can also qualify to get a dedicated forum on RevForums. This is to allow them to directly support their products and, have a way to evangelize directly to end users. Both silver and gold partners also get a dedicated wiki space on RevDeveloper.com as well as a developer blog. Both also can participate in a weekly one hour marketing chat session with Runtime management.

In the next part of this article, I'll cover the differences in the Silver and Gold programs.