Tackle is Key to CircleCI's AWS Marketplace Growth
Executive Summary
CircleCI, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that delivers a continuous integration platform, saw the writing on the wall as its customers began changing the way they buy software. Carving out a presence on AWS Marketplace was key. By engaging Tackle, CircleCI navigated the AWS Marketplace integration and provided a solution to customers who wanted a simplified procurement process. Using Tackle to manage and drive its AWS Marketplace deals, CircleCI has seen revenue from that channel go from zero to 10 percent of its overall business revenue.
Download the Customer Story ->Key Highlights
10%+ Overall Revenue
Cloud business increased to 10 percent of overall revenue
185% ROI
Total return on investment (ROI) for Tackle has been 185 percent
100+ Deals
AWS Marketplace pipeline of up to 100 deals at any given stage
Customers demand an easier, faster way to buy SaaS
CircleCI’s customers run the gamut from large Fortune 500 companies to smaller SaaS startups, yet they share similar procurement challenges.
At the enterprise level, it can take several months or more to set up CircleCI as a new vendor. While resellers can alleviate this procurement hurdle, many smaller SaaS companies are moving away from resellers and prefer to work with vendors directly. Searching for a better process, CircleCI customers of all sizes determined cloud marketplaces were their procurement vehicle of choice. “We were experiencing some headaches with the new vendor approval processes,” said Larenzo Goodman, Senior Manager, Resellers, Cloud Alliances and Marketplace Partnerships at CircleCI. “Meanwhile, marketplaces were becoming the go-to mechanism for procurement because customers commit a cloud spend and the more they spend, the larger discount they get. We’ve seen a lot of our customers look across their stacks to see what they can obtain through a marketplace to increase their cloud spend.”
Tackle simplifies procurement and CircleCI nets 185% ROI
To deliver on customers’ demand for easier procurement, CircleCI engaged Tackle. The first task was listing CircleCI on AWS Marketplace and setting up a complex integration, which only took Tackle 48 hours. From there, Goodman and his team looked for other ways Tackle could help them drive channel growth. To date, Tackle has helped CircleCI develop stronger co-sell relationships with AWS sellers, streamline the auditing process, and scale its marketplace business. In just 12 months, CircleCI has seen its AWS Marketplace revenue grow by 452 percent.
Having Tackle not only led to more deals via AWS Marketplace, but it’s also enabled savings on the engineering side. Goodman estimates the total return on investment (ROI) for Tackle has been 185 percent. “If we didn’t use Tackle, we’d need three engineers to support the AWS Marketplace,” Goodman said. “With Tackle I don’t have to ask engineering to make simple adjustments. It makes my life a million times easier.”
CircleCI expands co-selling deals with AWS partners
After proving that AWS Marketplace held tremendous promise to execute new deals, CircleCI put more resources into developing co-selling relationships with AWS partners. “We even started to hire people to support the different functions of our AWS relationships and our co-selling efforts,” Goodman said. The result? Now CircleCI participates in lead-generation campaigns that net thousands of leads per year, which feeds an AWS Marketplace pipeline of up to 100 deals at any given stage.
“We’re seeing a lot more customers coming from that direction, and they ultimately end up transacting in the AWS Marketplace,” Goodman said.
Channel Partner Manager – Global, CircleCI