A Partnership for the Digital Age

"A strong partner programme to support customers and drive business is critical for today’s technology giants and how its new Partner Portal is an essential tool for the digital age."

It’s said that great partnerships thrive when people need each other and in many ways that has been the ethos behind Panasonic Connect Europe’s unified partner portal. When the new organisation of Panasonic Connect Europe was established almost 18 months ago – bringing together the B2B divisions under one organisation – we recognised the need to also enhance our working relationship with our channel partners.

As a channel dedicated organisation with almost 5000 partners across Europe, we wanted to create a unified digital platform for the modern age. A partner portal where ultimately the organisations that help to drive our business could interact with us online throughout their entire customer journey. We wanted to make partnering with Panasonic simple and intuitive to help both parties thrive.

It's critical to the success of our business. These partners are our vital touchpoints with our customers, and they offer an incredibly valuable service. They are specialists in their customers’ industry sector, they understand the local market in each of their territories and they see the emerging trends and challenges.

Unified platform

The first step was to bring together our disparate partner portals from different business divisions onto one modern platform. Once established, we were able to concentrate on increasing and improving functionalities for all our partners across Broadcast and ProAV, Visual Systems Solutions, Mobile Business Solutions, Smart Factory Solutions and Business and Industry Solutions.

Today, we have a partner portal that is light years ahead of its predecessor. As partners join the Partner Programme they are equipped with all the tools they need to become increasingly accredited and grow their business with us.

Driving business at the click of a button

We have ready to use co-branded marketing programmes to help partners generate new business. At the click of a button, partners can create their own microsites, co-branded emails, social media posts, banner advertising and other marketing materials – without the need to commission marketing agencies or designers. It provides a fast and cost-effective way for partners to raise awareness, create interest and flex to changing customer needs.

To support the outreach, partners can apply through the portal for Marketing Development Funds. As opportunities are created, they can register their deals to protect and secure additional support to convert the leads.

Our eLearning Academy provides online access for partners to educate themselves on our products and technology solutions – earning further accreditation and benefits as they progress. Qualified partners are listed on our user-friendly Where to Buy website search engine and they can even book our specialist service engineers for virtual consults.

And this is just the beginning. The next phase is to enable partners to be able to see real-time pricing and availability, to order their products through the system and real-time track the logistical flow through to delivery. This will be matched with real-time data on the current financial status – all at the click of a button.

Ultimately, with this next generation partner portal our partner processes are more streamlined. Applications are faster, more user and more mobile friendly – allowing our partners to interact with us while on the move.

At the end of the day, it’s about improving our connection with partners, to help them better connect with us and our customers. It’s a new partner portal fit for the digital age.

A Partnership for the Digital Age

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