We tried six tools first
The honest origin story. The stack we ran on before, why every piece of it failed in a different direction, and what finally made us stop trying to fix it.
We did not start by building software. We started by trying to buy it.
We run a partner services firm. We had a problem you probably have: too many revenue streams, too many vendor relationships, and a spreadsheet doing the job of an operating system. So we did the rational thing first. We bought tools.
What we tried
- A best-in-class sales CRM. Pipeline got cleaner. Then a deal closed and the tool went dark. The delivery team opened an empty project and started asking questions sales had already answered.
- An agency PSA. Great at hours-against-projects. Did not know what a vendor commission was, or that the deal we just closed had license revenue that should never have entered the project budget.
- A second spreadsheet, for commissions. It worked for a quarter. Then a vendor changed a rate and nobody noticed for two months.
- A work management tool, configured into an operating system. This one almost worked. Then a senior person left, and most of the logic that held the configuration together left with them.
- An accounting system, asked to do too much. Revenue recognition stretched into “if we just add another tag.” It did not bend cleanly.
- A folder of SOWs, for subcontracting. Nobody reopened them. Twice we missed a non-circumvention window we did not know was counting down.
Six tools, one spreadsheet stitching them together by hand, and a weekly meeting whose entire purpose was to make the spreadsheet honest.
What it actually cost
The tools were not the cost. The reconciliation was. Every hour a senior person spent rebuilding the same join in the same spreadsheet was an hour we were paying for the fact that no tool understood our business.
We measured it once. It was more than the cost of all six tools combined.
Why we built
We are a software-capable team. Most partner firms are not, and that is the point. We built PartnerView because the alternative was to keep paying the operating tax forever, and because once we had built it for ourselves, the only honest thing to do was offer it to firms in the same spot.
This is the first time we have written this down. The rest of the field notes are about specific pieces of what we learned. This one is the why.