Disclaimer: This post was written from the Atlassian Marketplace Partner (or a Vendor) perspective.
Discounts for Atlassian Partners
The Atlassian Marketplace allows vendors to participate in automatic Discounts for Atlassian Partners. Vendors can opt-in or out of the discount on a per-app basis. This is covered in section 2.8 of the Marketplace Publisher Agreement. If the vendor turns off automatic discounts, Solution Partner may only resell the app at the full listed price.
Our company has no plans to disable automatic discounts. The basis of our business activities is a partnership. From our point of view, the discounts for Solution Partners are justified. Why? In the following article, we’ll explain how it works.
The biggest vendors on the Atlassian Marketplace
Below you can find a list of vendors who create apps that are on the 10 Top-Selling list:
- Tempo Timesheets-Time Tracking & Reports by Tempo for Jira
- ScriptRunner for Jira by Adaptavist
- Gliffy Diagrams for Confluence by Gliffy
- Zephyr Squad – Test Management for Jira by SmartBear
- Xray – Test Management for Jira by Xblend
- draw.io Diagrams for Confluence by //SEIBERT/MEDIA-Draw.io
- Zephyr Scale – Test Management for Jira by SmartBear
- Structure – Project Management at Scale by ALM Works
- Jira Misc Workflow Extensions (JMWE) by Innovalog Atlassian Apps (an Appfire company)
- BigPicture – Project Management & PPM by SoftwarePlant
From the list above, only Adaptavist has default partner discounts disabled. Some of them (not listed above) started their partner programs but almost all still stick with the default discounts for Solution Partners.
What is included in the price of the app?
Let’s start with what makes up the final price of the app’s license. The Atlassian Marketplace shows the final price that the customer pays. For example, if the price for a license is $ 1,000 on the listing, then:
- 15-30% is charged to Atlassian (depending on hosting),
- 10-20% is the fee for the Solution Partner (depending on the partnership level),
- the remaining amount goes to the vendor.
As you can see, the full amount never goes to the vendor. Even so, many (including Appsvio) choose to opt-in to automatic discounts. Why?
Why are automatic discounts so important to all Atlassian Solution Partners?
Atlassian gets a fee as they provide Marketplace platform, app SDK, marketing around products and apps, payments gateways, and many more. It’s something that vendors understand well. But what about Solution Partners? Some people think they sell apps. Only. This is a misconception that we would like to disprove.
Solution Partners are an extremely prominent element in the Atlassian ecosystem. Thanks to them, products of companies such as ours can reach a wider group of customers. Thanks to their business contacts, our applications are recommended to companies that would probably never find our solution on the web. This is especially important for vendors with little experience in the ecosystem. It allows them to break through and show that they also have a lot to offer.
Partners do a lot of pre-sale activities. One of them is application configuration. They must take the time to familiarize themselves with the app. The more complicated it is, the longer it takes. Imagine that some consultants configure the app manually in 500 Jira projects. It is a lot of work! It cannot always be automated. Being close to the customer brings great value to the plugin. Partners are also a mine of ideas for new functionalities for vendors. They make our products better. The work of Solution Partners is invaluable, so it is natural for us to pay them for success and a happy customer in the form of discounts.
Is vendors’ resignation from automatic discounts fair?
Vendors have the full right to opt-out of automatic discounts. There may be various reasons for this. However, in our opinion, they should then propose something in return. This is what Adaptavist did. They have prepared their partner program where they have full control over discounts. It also helps them build closer relationships with others. They have been known in the ecosystem for years, work closely with many vendors, and have the experience and business maturity that allows them to make such a move. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that they are in a specific situation, being at the same time a Marketplace Partner (Vendor) and a Solution Partner.
Conclusion
The basis for cooperation between Vendor and Solution Partner is trust. Partners recommend to customers apps that are reliable, meet their expectations, and bring significant business benefits. They pay attention to support or the vendor’s willingness to add new functions to the app. They do a great job and should be rewarded for it: be it in the form of a discount or a favorable partner program (when vendors opt-out of these automatic discounts – they are entitled to do so). In Appsvio, this collaboration is important to us, which is why all our apps participate in the discount program.
Do you want to talk to us about the possibilities of cooperation? We’ll be happy to organize a short demo for you and talk about your company’s requirements. Don’t hesitate to book a session via calendly 👩🏻💻👨💻
If you want to read more about our solutions, look at the articles listed below:
Credits:
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
