AWS re:Invent 2024: Key Highlights for ISVs

AWS re:Invent conferences have been a major technology driver since its inception in 2012. Announcements and launches throughout these years have served as an engine for driving cloud business growth. Businesses have used these innovations to encourage technology adoption and maximize their sales. This year too, the event introduced groundbreaking announcements, particularly for SaaS businesses to deliver enhanced end-user experience and boost their SaaS growth. If you missed attending the event or want a comprehensive recap of its key highlights, this blog is your guide. Read on to discover key strategies to maximize your SaaS growth and capitalization.

The key highlights of AWS re:Invent 2024 for ISVs include:

• Empowering ISVs to build custom storefronts on their websites with the new “Buy with AWS” feature.
• A more flexible and streamlined approach to crafting engaging private offers with new enhancements.
• The launch of “AWS Partner Central API for selling” to enhance and simplify the ACE co-sell experience for AWS partners.
• Transformative initiatives to encourage co-selling with AWS.
• Best practices and insights from AWS leaders to accelerate your cloud growth and maximize SaaS capitalization.

Let’s explore the new AWS re:Invent announcements step by step!

Buy with AWS Feature

AWS announced a groundbreaking innovation with the launch of the “Buy with AWS” feature. Designed to streamline and simplify the SaaS procurement experience for ISVs and buyers, the “Buy with AWS” feature allows the creation of custom AWS storefronts on partners’ websites, transforming the website into a full-fledged SaaS procurement platform where buyers can browse, evaluate, and complete transactions using their AWS accounts. ISVs can curate their AWS Marketplace offerings or solutions they are authorized to resell. The approach reduces the buying friction for the customers and ensures easy access to the right set of tools for their businesses.

Why “Buy with AWS” Matters for ISVs

The “Buy with AWS” feature is a transformative solution for ISVs, allowing them to enhance their brand credibility and boost sales by reducing the SaaS procurement friction for the customers. Let’s look at some of its key benefits:

• Direct Transactions on ISV’s Websites: Customers can evaluate and purchase SaaS solutions directly from the ISV’s website, bypassing the need to navigate AWS Marketplace catalogs.
• Frictionless Customer Journey: The simplified buying process removes barriers, enabling quicker decision-making and SaaS procurement.
• Comprehensive Purchase Options: ISVs can seamlessly offer free trials, demo requests, and tailored private offers to maximize opportunities-to-cash conversions.
• Build Effective Co-sell Strategy: Customer interaction with the “Buy with AWS” call to action imprints metrics for their behavior such as cart additions, abandons, and conversions. This data can be utilized by ISVs to study and understand customers’ SaaS needs and create effective co-sell strategies to maximize opportunities-to-cash conversions.
• Streamlined Billing: AWS handles all financial transactions, ensuring security and transparency for ISVs and enhancing their brand credibility.
• Actionable CTAs: ISVs can incorporate actionable call-to-actions such as “Request a Demo,” or “Buy with AWS” directly into their websites to enhance customer engagement and buying experience.

How SaaSify Supports ISVs with “Buy with AWS”

As a trusted integration partner, SaaSify is at the forefront of implementing the “Buy with AWS” feature for ISVs. We have already integrated the feature on our website and extending support to ISVs to transform their platform into an AWS Marketplace storefront. With seamless integration, SaaSify ensures ISVs can offer a modern, frictionless purchasing experience that retains customers in the long run. Learn more about our integration support and the significance of Buy with AWS here.

Creating Private Offers is more strategic and flexible with the new enhancements announced at the event. ISVs now get the ability to break down the entire private offer creation and forwarding in manageable steps and expedite the flow with enhancements like auto-schedulers, bulk instance pricing, and PDF exports- enabling ISVs with greater flexibility and control over the pricing strategies. The new Private Offer workflow allows ISVs to:

• Draft and save the private offers for a later review.
• Access step-by-step assistance during the offer creation process with In-experience guidance.
• Request real-time support for queries over and above In-experience guidance with Partner Assistance.
• Automate installment plans with Payment Auto-Scheduler.
• Expedite pricing processes with group configurations.
• Replicate past offers for renewals or revisions.
• Export private offers for external review and documentation with a PDF export option.

How is SaaSify helping with the new Private offer developments?

With the recent enhancements to AWS Marketplace, creating private offers has become more streamlined for AWS Partners. However, given the intricate and often overwhelming workflow of the AWS Marketplace, leveraging these new developments can still be time-consuming and resource-intensive for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). SaaSify simplifies this process by providing a user-friendly, customizable dashboard that empowers ISVs to manage and execute the entire private offer creation and sharing workflow within the unified dashboard. We are also helping ISVs to integrate their native CRM (Salesforce or HubSpot) with the AWS Marketplace to automate the entire private offer creation and sharing process. This integration allows ISVs to manage and operate all ACE co-sell operations, including creating private offers right within their native CRM.

AWS advocates leveraging automation to boost SaaS sales. The event announced the launch of “Partner Central API for Selling, designed to integrate with partners' CRMs for a seamless co-selling experience.

Understanding Partner Central API for Selling

With the Partner Central API for selling, ISVs can integrate their native CRM with AWS Marketplace and manage all co-selling operations within their native system of record. This integration empowers the ISVs with,

• Improved Visibility- The CRM-API integration enhances visibility into co-selling opportunities. ISVs can collaborate more effectively with AWS field sellers and maximize co-sell conversions through joint efforts.
• Real-Time Data and Insights- With a unified system, ISVs get access to customer’s data synced in real-time with their CRMs to study the customer’s behavior and build effective co-sell strategies.
• Streamlined Co-Sell Workflow- Manual processes like data validation and entry are automated with Partner Central API integration, saving time and resources. This simplifies Private Offers creation, scheduling, and validation, enabling ISVs to achieve more with fewer resources in a defined time frame.

These highlights demonstrate how Partner Central API-CRM integration makes co-selling effortless. You might wonder if it is easy to implement these transformative capabilities. This is where SaaSify plays its role. In the next section, we will explore how SaaSify supports ISVs in integrating the newly launched Partner Central API without an engineering change.

Automating the Co-Sell Workflow with SaaSify!

While the Partner Central API-led integration redefines the co-sell strategy for the ISVs, the process can be resource-intensive and time-consuming. As a leading platform in cloud integrations and an official integration partner with AWS, SaaSify simplifies this complexity through automation. Our CRM Connectors for AWS ACE automate the AWS ACE Pipeline management, turning the ISVs interface into a cohesive dashboard to manage and operate all co-selling operations from their native CRM without context switching. The integration is seamless and requires no coding changes, making it simple to operate without additional training. This helps ISVs minimize operational overheads and focus their resources on other important business areas. Contact our experts to learn more or request a free demo here.

The event covered new initiatives to encourage co-selling with AWS, including:

• Expanding Benefits to AWS Sellers- AWS will be providing more resources and incentives to encourage AWS sellers to co-sell with partners, including quota retirement incentives for successfully closing private offers with ISV accelerate partners.
• SaaS Revenue Recognition- The SaaS co-sell benefit is now open to all ISV Accelerate Partners, including eligible startups transacting in the AWS Marketplace. The benefit was limited to invite-only large technology solution partners, previously.
• Business Planning Feature Launched- With the Business Planning feature, AWS is centralizing the co-selling business planning process and standardizing templates in AWS Partner Central. This will streamline collaboration and allow for setting goals and tracking progress in a single experience.
• Leveraging Opportunities with AI tool- AWS introduced a generative AI tool to study the customer's requirements and match them with a qualified partner, reducing the co-sell lifecycle, enhancing customer experience, and boosting revenue growth for AWS Partners- provided, the partner meets the minimum requirements of ACE eligibility and achieving SaaS Specialization for recommendation.
• Expanding BOX Program by Introducing Partner Connection- The new Partner Connection feature supports multi-party engagement and deal management by allowing AWS Partners to find and connect with other complementary Partners through search and AI-driven recommendations.
• Enhanced Collaboration with SlackConnect- Launched earlier this year, the Collaboration Channel in Partner Central simplifies and expedites communication between Partners and sales teams to keep them unified and updated on deal progression. With SlackConnect, ISVs can connect in real-time with Account Managers and Partner Managers on co-selling opportunities.

With these new initiatives, AWS aims to create improved ways for creating co-sell strategies and scaling revenue growth.

During the event, AWS leaders shared invaluable guidance to ISVs on strategies to drive cloud growth and maximize SaaS opportunities. These best practices serve as a blueprint for ISVs to achieve sustainable success in the cloud marketplace: Key takeaways include:

• Prioritizing customer needs and experience to build trust and loyalty
• Leveraging AWS Marketplace features to optimize sales
• Automating processes to enhance operational efficiency and reduce overhead
• Ensuring adherence to security standards and regulatory requirements
• Capitalizing on co-selling opportunities with strong collaboration with AWS sellers
• Investing in thought leadership and brand visibility
• Adopting a metrics-driven approach to track performance and areas of improvement
• Leveraging AWS Partner Network (APN) tools like “Partner Central API for selling” and “Buy with AWS” for SaaS growth.

AWS re:Invent 2024 proved to be a monumental event for cloud businesses, particularly for ISVs, technology enthusiasts, and learners looking to redefine their approach to SaaS solutions- in physical as well as cloud environments. With the given AWS re:Invent 2024 key highlights for ISVs, SaaSify is here to support ISVs drive their businesses through innovations, ensuring alignment with the current market trends and expectations. If you still find yourself stuck on how to leverage the new developments for SaaS growth, feel free to reach us. SaaSify experts are ready to help you navigate and capitalize on the latest AWS re:Invent advancements.