A Forrester Total Economic Impact™
Study Commissioned By Partnerize
July 2020

The Total Economic
Impact™ Of Partnerize
Cost Savings And Business Benefits
Enabled By PartnerizeTable Of Contents
Executive Summary
Key Findings

1
1

TEI Framework And Methodology

3

The Partnerize Customer Journey
Interviewed Organizations

Project Director:
Veronica Iles

4
4

Key Challenges

4

Investment Objectives

5

Why Partnerize?

5Composite Organization

6

Analysis Of Benefits
Incremental Affiliate Program Growth77Commission Payment Savings

9

Productivity Lift For Accounting Resources

10

Avoided Legacy Network Fees

11

Unquantified Benefits

12

Flexibility

13

Analysis Of Costs
Partnerize Subscription And Fees

14
14

Implementation And Training

15

Ongoing Platform Administration

17

Financial Summary
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact
Appendix B: Endnotes

18
19
20

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Executive Summary
Investment Benefits

Incremental affiliate program
growth:$5.9 million

Partnerize is a partnership management platform software-as-a-service(SaaS) solution for digital partner marketing. Designed to simplify partner
sales and marketing management, the platform enables brands to control
and manage all aspects of partnership, including discovery/recruitment,
management, tracking, reporting, brand protection, and payments.
Partnerize commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total
Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on
investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Partnerize. The
purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate
the potential financial impact of Partnerize on their organizations.
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with thisinvestment, Forrester interviewed several customers with years ofexperience using the solution.
Prior to using Partnerize, most of the customers were partnered with anoverride-based affiliate marketing network. Customers decided to leave
their legacy networks behind to take control of their programs, improvetransparency, and apply data-driven insights to improve performance.

Commission payment savings:$3.2 million

Forrester developed a composite organization based on data gatheredfrom the customer interviews to reflect the total economic impact that
Partnerize could have on an organization. The composite organization isrepresentative of the organizations that Forrester interviewed and is used
to present the aggregate financial analysis in this study.

Key Findings
Quantified benefits. The following risk-adjusted present value (PV)quantified benefits are representative of those experienced by thecompanies interviewed and modeled by the composite over a three-year
analysis:
Productivity lift for accounting
resources:$440,838

Avoided legacy network fees:$1.8 million› Partner-driven revenue increases 10% to 25%. Adding more partners,
shifting to KPI-based commissioning approaches, improved purchasevalidation, and the ability to have direct partner relationships result inincremental channel revenue growth of 10%, 20%, and 25% in Years 1,
2, and, 3, respectively. Over three years, the incremental net income
versus the performance of a legacy network is worth almost $5.9 million
to the organization.
› Reduction in commissions expense of 18% to 22%. The composite
organization realizes savings due to the solution’s flexible commission
structures and more accurate validations. Over three years, the savings
are worth nearly $3.2 million to the organization.
› Reallocation of 2.0 to 2.5 FTEs. Partnerize provides partnershipautomation and payments services and automates reporting andvalidation, improving productivity and allowing resources to focus onother tasks. Over three years, the productivity improvement is worth
more than $440,000 to the organization.
› Avoided legacy network override charges of 12%. Replacing thelegacy managed service approach with the Partnerize platform allows
the organization to avoid percentage-based override fees in favor of
simple, predictable SaaS payments. Over three years, the savings areworth more than $1.8 million to the organization.

1 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeUnquantified benefits. The interviewed organizations experienced thefollowing benefits, which are not quantified for this study:

Partnerize
ROI
330%
Total
Benefits (PV)$11.3 million› Partnerize customers form business relationships with new partners andpartner classes.
› Partnerize enables direct (and better) relationships with partners.
› Content-based partners create brand equity benefits.
› Partnerize provides transparent data and insights› SaaS model creates predictability and more stable margins.
› The Partnerize customer success team acts as a strategic resource andenabler.
Costs. The interviewed organizations experienced the following riskadjusted PV costs:

Net Benefits(NPV)$8.7 million› Tiered licensing that aligns with program growth. The company uses
a SaaS model, charging a predictable, fixed fee per month for a given“tier” of annual sales through the platform. For the organization with a$66.5-million program at launch, the licensing costs total just over $1.8
million.

PaybackTime<3 months› Initial implementation efforts and training, requiring 204 hours overthree years. Initial internal efforts to implement, train, and migrate
partners onto the platform requires 156 hours. After implementation,
resources partake in an additional 16 hours per year of training. Over
three years, these efforts total under $10,000 for the organization.
› Ongoing platform administration costs for 2.5 to 3.5 FTEs. For the$66.5-million program at launch, ongoing channel management andplatform administration cost the organization $775,000 over three years.
Synopsis. Forrester’s interviews with four existing customers andsubsequent financial analysis found that the composite organization basedon these interviewed organizations experiences benefits of $11.3 million
over three years versus costs of $2.6 million, adding up to a net present
value (NPV) of $8.7 million and an ROI of 330%. The organization
recovers payback for the costs of the Partnerize solution in less than threemonths.
Financial Summary

Payback
period:<3 months

Total
benefits
PV,$11.3M
Total
costs PV,
$2.6M

Initial

2 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

TEI Framework And Methodology
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester has constructeda Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) framework for those organizations
considering implementing Partnerize.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, andrisk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep
approach to evaluate the impact that Partnerize can have on anorganization:

The TEI methodology
helps companies
demonstrate, justify,
and realize thetangible value oftechnology initiatives
to both senior
management andother key businessstakeholders.

DUE DILIGENCE
Interviewed Partnerize stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data
relative to Partnerize.
CUSTOMER INTERVIEWSInterviewed four organizations using Partnerize to obtain data with respect
to costs, benefits, and risks.
COMPOSITE ORGANIZATION
Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of theinterviewed organizations.
FINANCIAL MODEL FRAMEWORK
Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the
TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues
and concerns of the interviewed organizations.
CASE STUDY
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling Partnerize’s
impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing
sophistication that enterprises have regarding ROI analyses related totechnology investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology serves to provide acomplete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions.
Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.

DISCLOSURES
Readers should be aware of the following:This study is commissioned by Partnerize and delivered by Forrester
Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that otherorganizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own
estimates within the framework provided in the report to determine theappropriateness of an investment in Partnerize.
Partnerize reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester
maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept
changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure themeaning of the study.
Partnerize provided the customer names for the interviews but did notparticipate in the interviews.

3 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

The Partnerize Customer Journey
BEFORE AND AFTER THE PARTNERIZE INVESTMENT

Interviewed Organizations
For this study, Forrester conducted four interviews with Partnerizecustomers. Interviewed customers included the following:
INDUSTRY

INTERVIEWEEGEOGRAPHY

SIZEMultichannel retailer

Performance marketing
manager

APAC$1.8 billion in revenue, 400
employees

Apparel eCommerce

Head of acquisition

EMEA$300 million in revenue, 250
employees

DTC eCommerce

Director of partnerships

North America$375 million in revenue, 200
employees

Multicategory eCommerce

Senior affiliate manager

North America$4.8 billion in revenue,
12,000 employees

Key Challenges
Before the investment in Partnerize, three of the four interviewed
organizations were partnered with a pay-for-performance affiliate
marketing network and had a managed service approach to channelmarketing. The fourth customer’s legacy environment was a small,internally managed partner program. Interviewees noted the following
pain points in their legacy environments:› High override on commissions. The customers with a legacy affiliate
marketing network noted that a major pain point was the override fees
charged by their networks. Customers cited override rates oncommissions over 20%. This commission structure was not favorable
for improving program margins or creating economies of scale.
› Limited brand partnership options. The second challenge described
was the limited types of partners offered by their legacy networks. The
performance marketing manager told Forrester: “The other challenge
was that we were looking for brand growth and more brandpartnerships beyond the day-to-day that we already had with different
publishers.”› Generic commission structures that did not incentivize specificaffiliate behavior. Legacy networks provided only basic commission
structures, like percentage, flat rate per sale, and cost per lead (CPL).
As a result, customers could not directly influence or incentivize
specific behaviors to align with targeted KPIs such as new customer
acquisition or margin-based commissioning.
› Channel growth stymied by manual limitations. One customer’s
prior environment was a small, self-managed partner channel thatproved difficult to scale. The senior affiliate manager told Forrester,“Our system wasn’t going to allow us to scale and achieve partnerships
en masse.” The biggest factor contributing to scaling issues was thenumber of payments that had to be made. The senior affiliate manager
continued, “The finance team was cutting individual checks eachmonth to those 12 partners, which is one of the reasons it wasn’t going
to be scalable.”
4 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeInvestment Objectives
The interviewed organizations searched for a solution that could:› Accelerate program growth and drive efficiency. Frustrated with thelimitations of their legacy environments, interviewees hoped the wider
options offered by Partnerize combined with a more tailored approach
would drive channel growth. The director of partnerships said: “Before
Partnerize, we were very focused on the last click. But since Partnerizedeals with other nontraditional partners, the goal was to expand andbring in more partners and manage our margins better.”“We were trying to manage our
margins and grow thepartnership program, andthat’s what fueled our switch toPartnerize.”
Director of partnerships, DTC
eCommerce› Provide better visibility into systems and processes. Interviewees
searched for a platform that would provide granular visibility intotransactions and yield insights, as opposed to the legacy black-box
view of their network.
› Support international expansion. Interviewees searched for a onestop shop to support both international and domestic partners. The
director of partnerships told Forrester, “We felt the Partnerize platform
was well suited to allow us to expand internationally and/or to otherregions if we still felt the need to.”Why Partnerize?
Forrester recommends that when evaluating channel incentives andsolutions of this type, organizations should “pick the provider that offers
the right combination of size, channel breadth, geography and language
breadth, vertical expertise, agent skill and training, and technology
sophistication to match what your partner program demands.” 1
Interviewees evaluated potential vendors and cited the following reasonsfor selecting Partnerize:› SaaS fee structure modernizes the partner program. Partnerize
breaks the mold with its delivery model, moving away from theoverride-based structure of legacy networks to a subscription model.
The performance marketing manager shared, “The main reason why
we moved to Partnerize was for the SaaS fee structure.” The head ofacquisition echoed, “The biggest driver to move to Partnerize wasultimately the fact that we’re not paying override charges anymore.”› Direct relationship with partners improves results. Frustrated by
the arms-length nature of their legacy partnerships, interviewees
identified opportunities to deepen their partners’ understanding of thebrands. “If you operate through an agency, the agency doesn’t have an
understanding of your business,” noted the head of acquisition. “The
network has a basic understanding of what you do and how you work,
but it doesn’t have the same level of detail or the same passion thatyou have for your business. It makes such a difference having direct
relationships with the affiliates.”› Partnerize fits with a self-reliant company culture. For one
customer, the network-controlled partner model was outdated and nolonger fit with the company’s can-do attitude. The head of acquisition
told Forrester: “We try and do as much in-house as we can, and that’s
because we’ve historically had a shoestring budget. Instead ofoutsourcing, we upskilled everyone working in-house, and it’s driven
great ownership of our work. So we got to the point where we thought
we could do a better job.”

5 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize“Partnerize’s SaaS model fits inwith how we operate, and so,
it was a match made inheaven.”Head of acquisition, appareleCommerce“Partnerize has been a hugeenabler for us. We joined
because we could move theprogram in-house and we
could save money. I can’t
speak highly enough ofPartnerize, to be perfectly
honest.”Head of acquisition, appareleCommerce“One of the key selling points
with Partnerize is that there isthe capability to initiate larger
brand partnerships beyond theusual.”
Performance marketing manager,
multichannel retailer› Partnerize has a wide (and growing) range of enterprise partner
options. Looking for channel growth and partnership expansion,interviewees selected Partnerize for its global ecosystem, traditional
affiliates, influencers, content publishers, channel sellers, and leading
brands.

Composite Organization
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, acomposite company, and an associated ROI analysis that illustrates theareas financially affected by the Partnerize investment. The composite
organization is representative of the four companies that Forresterinterviewed and is used to present the aggregate financial analysis in
the next section. The composite organization that Forrester synthesizedfrom the customer interviews has the following characteristics:
Description of composite. The composite is a multimillion-dollar
business-to-consumer retail organization. The company has a strong
brand, global operations, a large customer base, and a strong online
and offline presence.
Description of Partnerize program. The company has total revenues
of $500 million, 70% of which ($350 million) is driven via digital sales. Of
that $350 million in digital revenue, 19% comes from the partnershipprogram. This translates to a $66.5 million revenue partnership programat launch of the Partnerize engagement.

6 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

Key Year 1 assumptions$500 million revenue
70% digital sales
19% of digital sales frompartners
200 employees

Analysis Of Benefits
QUANTIFIED BENEFIT DATA AS APPLIED TO THE COMPOSITE PROGRAM($66.5M REVENUE AT PARTNERIZE LAUNCH)

Total Benefits
PRESENT
VALUE

REF.

BENEFITYEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3TOTAL

Atr

Incremental affiliate program growth$1,077,300$2,530,440$3,704,778$7,312,518$5,854,091

Btr

Commission payment savings$948,024$1,360,814$1,593,878$3,902,716$3,183,984

Ctr

Productivity lift for accounting
resources$153,000$191,250$191,250$535,500$440,838

Dtr

Avoided legacy network fees

$632,016$742,262$869,388$2,243,666$1,841,184

Total benefits (risk-adjusted)$2,810,340$4,824,767$6,359,294$13,994,401$11,320,097

Incremental
affiliateprogram
growth52%

Avoided legacy
network fees16%

Benefits (Three-Year)
$5.9M

$3.2M

$11.3 million
three-year
total benefits
PV
Productivity
lift foraccounting
resources4%$1.8M$440.8K

Commission
payment savings
28%

Commission
Productivity lift
Incremental
affiliate program payment savings for accounting
resources
growthIncremental Affiliate Program Growth
The top reason interviewees invested in Partnerize was to improve andgrow their channel programs. Interviewees measured their program
growth in terms of number of productive partners, return on ad spend(ROAS), cost per click (CPC), new customer acquisition cost (CAC), andyear-over-year revenue growth. Interviewees migrated their existing
partners to the Partnerize platform and used the Partner Discovery tool
to identify relevant partners to add to their growing programs. Customers
measured the success of their programs by 20% to 62% year-over-year
revenue growth, ROAS growth of 17:1 to 23:1, and a CAC decline.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on customer results, Forrester
assumes for the financial model:› Total company revenue is $500 million. Of total revenue, 70% to 72%
of revenue is derived from digital sales. Of digital sales, 19% to 21% isderived from channel sales.
7 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

Avoided legacy
network fees

The table above shows the total of all
benefits across the areas listed below,
as well as present values (PVs)discounted at 10%. Over three years,
the composite organization expects
risk-adjusted total benefits to be a PVof more than $11.3 million.

“Partnerize helped us recruit
more affiliates onto thePartnerize platform.”
Director of partnerships, DTC
eCommerce› As a result of the Partnerize investment, the composite organization
increases its number of partners, tailors commission structures todrive desired sales behavior, and has a direct relationship with its
partners, educating them to improve brand understanding. The
financial result is incremental partner revenue growth of 10%, 20%,and 25% in Years 1, 2, and, 3, respectively.

Partner-driven revenue
increases 10% to 25% inthree years.

› The ROI analysis calculates the incremental revenue driven by thePartnerize investment excluding organic program growth in the legacy
environment and then assumes an 18% net income margin to capture
the additional net income Partnerize drives.

Impact risk is the risk that the businessor technology needs of theorganization may not be met by theinvestment, resulting in lower overall
total benefits. The greater theuncertainty, the wider the potential
range of outcomes for benefit
estimates.

Risks. The growth that organizations realize will vary, and readers
should consider the performance of their legacy environment partner
program, organic growth rates, and number of partners. Also consider
the potential growth associated with new markets, which may be evenhigher than growth in existing markets.
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by
10%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of $5.9 million.
Incremental Affiliate Program Growth: Calculation TableREF.

METRICCALCULATIONYEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3

A1

Total company revenue

Composite; 10% YOY
growth$500,000,000$550,000,000$605,000,000

A2

Percent of revenue from digital sales

Composite

70%

71%

72%

A3

Percent of digital sales from affiliate

Composite

19%

20%

21%

A4

Legacy environment affiliate revenue

A1*A2*A3$66,500,000$78,100,000$91,476,000A5Partnerize-driven affiliate revenue
growthInterviews

10%

20%

25%

A6

Incremental new affiliate revenue with
Partnerize

A4*A5$6,650,000$15,620,000$22,869,000

A7Income margin

Interviews

18%

18%

18%

At

Incremental affiliate program growthA6*A7$1,197,000$2,811,600$4,116,420

Risk adjustment↓10%$1,077,300$2,530,440$3,704,778

Atr

Incremental affiliate program growth(risk-adjusted)

8 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

Commission Payment Savings
While customers still make commission payments to partners with thePartnerize platform, interviewees realized savings due to the solution’s
flexible commission structures and more accurate validations.
Before Partnerize, affiliate managers relied on black-box or “blind”
networks, with limited transparency into partner-level data. The
performance marketing manager said: “The visibility into partnertransactions is much better than it was in [previous network], so thatgives us a lot of insights into the group granularity that we can validate,
which is good. It has helped us in terms of savings.” Customers canreinvest commission savings to drive further program growth or into otherstrategic investments.

$3.2 million
three-year
benefit PV
28%

Partnerize’s flexible commissioning structure also contributes tocommission savings because organizations incentivize morestrategically. The head of acquisitions shared, “We’ve worked to change
our commission structures because we want to reward existingcustomers and encourage investment to shop with us.”Commission paymentsavings: 28% of total
benefits

In addition to cost savings, a sophisticated commissioning structure
tailored to drive desired KPIs contributes to the incremental value of apartner sale.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester
assumes:› Legacy environment affiliate revenue includes organic growth and is
calculated in the previous benefit.
› The average commission rate in the legacy environment was 8.8%.
› As a result of improved validation and flexible commission structures,the composite organization reduces commission payment expense by
18%, 22%, and 22% in Years 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
Risks. The reduction in commission expense will vary by company
depending on the legacy environment commission rate, how well anorganization utilizes and tailors commission structures, and how well anorganization validates network performance in both the previous andPartnerize environments. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted
this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total
PV of $3.2 million.

Reduction in commission
expense: 18% to 22%

Commission Payment Savings: Calculation TableREF.

METRICCALCULATIONYEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3

B1

Legacy environment affiliate revenue

A4$66,500,000$78,100,000$91,476,000

B2

Average commission rate in legacy environment

Interviews

8.8%

8.8%

8.8%

B3

Legacy commission payments to affiliate partners

B1*B2$5,852,000$6,872,800$8,049,888

B4

Reduction in commission payment in Partnerizeenvironment

Interviews

18%

22%

22%

Bt

Commission payment savings

B3*B4$1,053,360$1,512,016$1,770,975

Risk adjustment↓10%$948,024$1,360,814$1,593,878

Btr

Commission payment savings (risk-adjusted)

9 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeProductivity Lift For Accounting Resources
Three of four customers interviewed relied on Partnerize to be a clearing
house for partner commissions, which reduced the manual efforts
required for validation, reporting, and accounting. The head of acquisition
told Forrester: “Within my team, every week we had been runningvalidations [of network-provided data] and reporting, which was timeconsuming. Now that is now all automated through APIs. It’s a hugeamount of stuff that we don’t worry about anymore.” The director ofpartnerships also noted that from a reporting perspective: “With all things
being equal, it’s not so much the speed, but the format of the data thatcomes in. And the format of the data helps us combine it faster.”Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester
assumes:› The composite uses Partnerize to streamline its payment efforts,
reallocating 2 to 2.5 FTEs to other tasks.
› The annual burdened cost of the accounting and finance resources is$85,000.
Risks. Productivity-related benefits will vary by organization, and readers
should consider the following:

4%$440,838
three-year
benefit PV

Productivity lift foraccounting resources:
4% of total benefits› Organizations will likely realize a variety of productivity improvements
after investing in Partnerize. Productivity may impact additional rolesand departments.
› Organizations that leave a network environment to adopt Partnerize
will bring a previously outsourced job into their business, requiringownership and internal effort. See the Ongoing Platform Administration
cost section for quantification and discussion of these new efforts.
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by
10%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of $440,838.

Reallocated payment
resources:
2.0 to 2.5 FTEs

Productivity Lift For Accounting Resources: Calculation TableREF.

METRICCALCULATIONYEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3

C1

FTEs reallocated from payment tasks

Interviews

2.0

2.5

2.5

C2

Burdened cost of accounting and finance resource

Composite$85,000$85,000$85,000

Ct

Productivity lift for accounting resources

C1*C2$170,000$212,500$212,500

Risk adjustment↓10%$153,000$191,250$191,250

Ctr

Productivity lift for accounting resources (risk-adjusted)

10 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeAvoided Legacy Network Fees
A primary objective cited by interviewees for investing in Partnerize wasto avoid a network’s high cost. The performance marketing manager told
Forrester: “Based on the lower fee, we had huge savings whencompared to [previous network]. That’s versus the 20% override fee
structure that [previous network] was charging us.” This benefit wasshared by the head of acquisition, who echoed, “We’re paying a flatmonthly fee for Partnerize, and before we were paying 22% on every
order.” Since Partnerize is a SaaS solution, the interviewees were able toleave their prior networks and their override fees behind.

16%$1.8 million
three-year
benefit PV

See the Unquantified Benefits section for additional benefits related to
SaaS licensing.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester
assumes:

Avoided legacy network
fees: 16% of total
benefits› Commission payments made to affiliate partners in the legacy
environment are calculated in the Commission Payment Savings
benefit› Although the interviewed customers cited override fees as high as
22%, to provide a conservative financial estimate, the composite’s
legacy network charged a 12% override fee.
› The composite organization ends its network-managed affiliate
program and completely replaces the network with the Partnerize
platform.
Risks. The benefit will vary by organization, and readers should
consider:› Override rates vary by network provider and may be higher (or lower)
than 12%.
› Organizations may choose to retain their legacy network provider torun part of their partner program, in which case this benefit would be
reduced based on how long and to what extent the organization
continues to utilize the network provider.
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by
10%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of $1.8 million.

Avoided network fees:
12% override

Avoided Legacy Network Fees: Calculation TableREF.

METRICD1

Legacy commission payments to affiliate partners

D2
Dt
Dtr

YEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3B3$5,852,000$6,872,800$8,049,888

Legacy environment network overrideInterviews

12%

12%

12%

Avoided legacy network fees

D1*D2

$702,240$824,736$965,987

Risk adjustment↓10%$632,016$742,262$869,388

Avoided legacy network fees (risk-adjusted)

11 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

CALCULATIONUnquantified Benefits
In addition to the benefits quantified above, interviewees noted several
benefits as measurements of success that Forrester did not quantify forthis study:› Partnerize customers form business relationships with newpartners and partner classes. The solution enables organizations tooperate in a private network or leverage the global ecosystem ofpartners. Customers can engage with the partner ecosystem in two
ways: 1) by using the partner discovery tool, an AI engine thatsuggests potential partners based on their brand fit and likelihood todeliver conversions at scale and 2) by collaborating with Partnerizeteam members who use their experience to recommend new partners.
Partnerize can be used to connect organizations with a variety ofchannel partners including affiliates, influencers, loyalty, referral, brand,
and content partners. While the interviewees use these approaches tovarying degrees, the performance marketing manager said: “The typeof partner that we work with has expanded because we’ve got morebudget now, and it’s enabled us to open up a whole new world.
Partnerize helped in the sense that they have a partnerships manager
that has recommended partners that we now work closer with.”› Partnerize enables direct (and better) relationships with partners.
After removing the network middleman, interviewees found that therelationships with their partners improved. The performance marketing
manager shared: “We are still working with the same larger partners
that we did in the past, but now we’ve got better relationships withthem because we get more direct contact with the publishers than we
did at [previous network].” Interviewees named more attention, better
deals, and more favorable results as outcomes of a closer working
relationship.
› Content-based partners create brand equity benefits. One
interviewee described how the company’s previous partner assortment
leaned heavily into discounters, which was a concern for the brand.
With Partnerize, the company chose partners that would not “cheapen”
the brand while still driving partner revenue. The performancemarketing manager shared: “We don’t want to label ourselves as a
discount store. With content-based partners, you get a different type of
audience, and not just people looking for a deal. They might be more
inclined to purchase products even at full price because it’s arecommendation that they trust from a blog, or there’s a certain level oftrust on a comparison site.”› Partnerize provides transparent data and insights. In the legacy
environments, networks did not share channel data transparently,
limiting the view into customer and partner behavior. The performancemarketing manager told Forrester: “What we find helpful is therecommendations from our partner managers at Partnerize. They are
more strategic, and they look at the data and make recommendations.
With [previous network], we were not capturing variables or data, butwith Partnerize, we are, so we see transactions details and makebetter choices.”› SaaS model creates predictability and more stable margins. The
final quantified benefit computes the financial impact of avoiding
excess network override, but the benefit extends further. Interviewees
noted that they were better able to forecast expenses with the SaaS
license, improve overall margins, and avoid uncertainty that plagued
12 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize“A partnership automation
platform is only as good as thetrust that your partners put intoit. Kind of like currency, youknow, we trust money
because it was backed by gold
at one point. But now we justtrust it because we trust it.”Director of partnerships, DTC
eCommerce“I think the core value of having
Partnerize is their strategic
approach and their strong
support network.”
Performance marketing manager,
multichannel retailer

their previous environments. The director of partnerships said:“Partnerize has been crucial because when we recruit a new partner, it
offsets the overall risk of lower margins because we now have stable
margins. We don’t have to suffer from fluctuations.”› The Partnerize customer success team acts as a strategic
resource and enabler. Interviewees lauded the service provided byPartnerize’s customer success teams, emphasizing the value of theircontinued involvement. The director of partnerships noted: “Ourphilosophy on Partnerize is that it is not the tool itself, but how well you
use the tool that drives value. We believe that Partnerize has enabled
us to use their tool better. Unlike [our previous network], there wasn’tmuch support or much continual involvement after the initial
engagement. So, from an incremental value perspective, as arelationship of vendor to partner, Partnerize has brought a lot of value
relative to their competitors.”

Flexibility
The value of flexibility is clearly unique to each customer, and themeasure of its value varies from organization to organization. There are
multiple scenarios in which a customer might choose to implement
Partnerize and later realize additional uses and business opportunities,
including the following:› Enabling flexibility from the service model. Partnerize’s service
model scales from self-serve to managed, providing support along thejourney and evolving to fit the changing needs of an organization.
› Using Partnerize to determine incrementality of partner program.
Determining the incremental value of a partner is a challenging
endeavor, and many program managers and executives want
quantitative proof that their partners are driving value that otherwise
would not have been realized. While there is no simple calculation forincrementality, both the quantified and unquantified benefits noted inthis study contribute to the incremental value that Partnerize drives.
Organizations looking to determine the incremental value of theirprogram may consider working with Partnerize to capture the related
KPIs.
› Holistically managing channel partners. Partnerize allows
organizations to holistically manage multiple types of partnerships in asingle platform, reducing data and technology silos and potentiallyrevealing unknown trends, behaviors, and opportunities. Organizations
can use Partnerize to make informed, data-driven decisions to improveand optimize their program performance in new ways.
› Expanding internationally. Partnerize has a global network ofpartners, along with the ability to make payments in 220+ countries
and 60 currencies, providing an opportunity for organizations to
expand into new countries or markets as well as drive same-market
growth. The head of acquisition told Forrester: “We’ve got a fairly
decent affiliate network in Germany, but we’ve got a burgeoning
network in Ireland and the Netherlands that we’re really keen to tuck
into and grow more. There’s so much growth potential across all matterof affiliates, and Partnerize will help us with maintaining presence inthe U.K. while working on an influence strategy internationally.”
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specificproject (described in more detail in Appendix A).
13 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

Flexibility, as defined by TEI,
represents an investment in additional
capacity or capability that could beturned into business benefit for a future
additional investment. This provides anorganization with the "right" or theability to engage in future initiatives but
not the obligation to do so.

Analysis Of Costs
QUANTIFIED COST DATA AS APPLIED TO THE COMPOSITE PROGRAM($66.5M REVENUE AT PARTNERIZE LAUNCH)

Total Costs
PRESENT
VALUE

REF.

COST

INITIAL

YEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3TOTAL

Etr

Partnerize subscription andfees$10,500$656,250$787,500$787,500$2,241,750$1,849,578

Ftr

Implementation and training$7,862

$806

$806

$806

$10,282$9,868Gtr

Ongoing platform
administration$0$262,500$315,000$367,500$945,000$775,075

Total costs (risk-adjusted)$18,362$919,556$1,103,306$1,155,806$3,197,032$2,634,521

The table above shows the total of all
costs across the areas listed below, as
well as present values (PVs)discounted at 10%. Over three years,
the composite organization expects
risk-adjusted total costs to be a PV of
more than $2.6 million.

Ongoing
platform
administration30%$2.6 million
three-year total costs
PV

Implementationand training
0%

Partnerize
subscription and
fees
70%

Partnerize Subscription And Fees
Partnerize pricing is usually based on gross transaction value — a small
percentage of the revenue generated by the partnership program. The
company uses a SaaS model, charging a predictable, fixed fee permonth for a given “tier” of annual sales through the platform. The senioraffiliate manager told Forrester: “The cost of the solution is incredibly low
in terms of the pricing. They really provide us with the best bang for our
buck.”As a program grows, clients move to higher tiers of service with lower
effective costs per transaction at each tier. This approach is different
from the traditional affiliate override model where clients pay a variable
monthly fee based on the total value of commissions processed throughthe platform. This model is designed to align Partnerize revenue growth
to growing a client’s program rather than to increasing commission costs.
“They have a lot of efficiencies,” continued the senior affiliate manager.
“If you’re running a program at scale and you’re looking to optimize,Partnerize definitely allows for that type of flexibility.”

14 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

Tiered SaaS licensing
model based on grosstransaction valueModeling and assumptions. To capture the Partnerize subscription andfees, Forrester assumes:› The composite organization incurs a $10,000 onboarding fee.
› The composite’s licensing costs are based on its gross transaction
volume (calculated in the first benefit).
Risks. License and onboarding costs will vary by organization,
specifically with the gross transaction volume that flows through theplatform. The best way to determine these fees is to speak directly with aPartnerize representative. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted
this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of$1.8 million.

Implementation risk is the risk that a
proposed investment may deviate fromthe original or expected requirements,
resulting in higher costs than
anticipated. The greater theuncertainty, the wider the potential
range of outcomes for cost estimates.

Partnerize Subscription And Fees: Calculation TableREF.

METRICCALCULATIONINITIAL$10,000

E1

Onboarding fee

Interviews

E2

LicensePartnerize

Et

Partnerize subscription and fees

E1+E2

Risk adjustment

↑5%

Etr

Partnerize subscription and fees (risk-adjusted)

YEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3$625,000$750,000$750,000$10,000$625,000$750,000$750,000$10,500$656,250$787,500$787,500

Implementation And Training
The implementation costs of the Partnerize platform are unusually low fora technology investment. Interviewees noted timelines between two
weeks and two months and included internal efforts related todevelopment work to embed pixels, testing, identifying key information tocapture, and creating dashboards. They estimated internal labor of 5hours from the IT team, one day of a martech resource, and a dedicatedprogram manager.
Not included in the quantified implementation cost is the time required tomigrate partners onto the platform. Migration timeline and efforts are at
the discretion of the partners and requires light facilitation from theorganization. Interviewees cited the process as taking anywhere fromtwo weeks to a few months, depending on the partner.
Modeling and assumptions. To capture this cost, Forrester assumes:› The composite organization dedicates a program manager for two
weeks to facilitate the implementation of Partnerize.
› The composite dedicates one day of a martech resource to theimplementation.
› To facilitate partner migration, one resource spends 30% of their timeover the course of a month.
› Four resources who will be working closely with partners and thePartnerize platform receive training. The initial training is 5 hours, andeach year the resources complete 4 hours of additional training on theplatform.
Risks. Implementation and training costs will vary by organization.
Readers should consider their specific use case, program size, andimplementation complexities. The best way to determine the cost of an
implementation is to speak with a Partnerize representative.
15 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeInternal implementation
efforts: 156 hours

› Partnerize offers technology and assistance in migrating partners.
Some integrations can be easy to migrate while others can be more
complex. One interviewee noted that migrating the organization’s mixof partners onto the platform required significant internal effort. In thiscase, the implementation costs will be higher to account for the
additional internal efforts of the organization.
› There may be additional costs around creation of learning materials,
required travel, meals, or other training-related expenses.
› Complexities, integration requirements, and change management
issues may contribute to longer implementation timelines.
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%,
yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of $9,868.
Implementation And Training: Calculation TableREF.

METRICCALCULATIONINITIAL

YEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3F1

Program manager dedicated hours

2 weeks @ 100%80

F2Martech resource dedicated hours

1 day

8

F3

Partner migration dedicated hours

1 month @ 30%

48

F4

Training hours

4 resources, 5 hours
initially, 4 hours ongoing

20

16

16

16

F5

Total hours for Partnerize
implementation and training

F1+F2+F3+F4

156

16

16

16

F6

Average burdened hourly cost of
program manager and martech
resource$100,000/2,080 hours(rounded)

$48

$48

$48

$48

Ft

Implementation and training

F5*F6$7,488

$768

$768

$768

Risk adjustment↑5%$7,862

$806

$806

$806

Ftr

Implementation and training (riskadjusted)

16 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeOngoing Platform Administration
Ongoing platform administration makes up about 30% of total costs. This
cost captures the additional labor that interviewees incurred whenbringing their partnership programs in-house.
Modeling and assumptions. For the analysis, Forrester assumes.
› The composite dedicates 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 FTEs’ time to manage anduse the Partnerize platform in Years 1, 2, and 3, respectively. This
includes time spent assisting partners and the day-to-day operations of
the program.
› The annual burdened cost of an FTE is $100,000.

2.5 to 3.5 FTEs
spend 100% of their timeon ongoing managementof the affiliate program.

Risks. The amount of ongoing internal effort will vary by organization.
Forrester has conservatively estimated the number of resources who will
be managing and using Partnerize. The size of a program is a goodproxy for the number of people required to manage it. A small program
can be managed by one or fewer FTEs. Larger programs require more.
Readers should consider their existing expertise and asses any need for
additional resources. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted thiscost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of$775,075.
Ongoing Platform Administration: Calculation TableREF.

METRICCALCULATIONINITIAL

YEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3

G1

Number of FTE resources

Interviews

2.5

3.0

3.5

G2

Burdened cost of resource

Composite$100,000$100,000$100,000

Gt

Ongoing platform administration

G1*G2

$0

$250,000$300,000$350,000

Risk adjustment↑5%$0$262,500$315,000$367,500

Gtr

Ongoing platform administration (risk-adjusted)17 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeFinancial Summary
CONSOLIDATED THREE-YEAR RISK-ADJUSTED METRICS

Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)

The financial results calculated in the
Benefits and Costs sections can beused to determine the ROI, NPV, andpayback period for the composite
organization’s investment. Forrester
assumes a yearly discount rate of 10%
for this analysis.

Total costs
Total benefits
Cumulative net benefits
Cash
flows

$12.0 M
$10.0 M
$8.0 M$6.0 M$4.0 M$2.0 M-$2.0 M

InitialYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

These risk-adjusted ROI,
NPV, and payback period
values are determined byapplying risk-adjustment
factors to the unadjusted
results in each Benefit andCost section.

Cash Flow Analysis (risk-adjusted estimates)
INITIAL

YEAR 1YEAR 2

YEAR 3TOTAL

PRESENT
VALUE

Total costs($18,362)($919,556)($1,103,306)($1,155,806)($3,197,032)($2,634,521)

Total benefits$0$2,810,340$4,824,767$6,359,294$13,994,401$11,320,097

Net benefits($18,362)$1,890,784$3,721,460$5,203,487$10,797,369$8,685,576

ROI

330%

Payback period(months)<3

18 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of PartnerizeAppendix A: Total Economic Impact
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester
Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making
processes and assists vendors in communicating the value propositionof their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps
companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT
initiatives to both senior management and other key businessstakeholders.

Total Economic Impact Approach
Benefits represent the value delivered to the business by the
product. The TEI methodology places equal weight on themeasure of benefits and the measure of costs, allowing for a
full examination of the effect of the technology on the entire
organization.

Costs consider all expenses necessary to deliver the
proposed value, or benefits, of the product. The cost category
within TEI captures incremental costs over the existing
environment for ongoing costs associated with the solution.

Flexibility represents the strategic value that can beobtained for some future additional investment building on
top of the initial investment already made. Having the ability
to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.

Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates
given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original
projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be
tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular
distribution.”

The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the
beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted
using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated foreach total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are
the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year.
Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, andCash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.

19 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize

Present value (PV)The present or current
value of (discounted) cost andbenefit estimates given at aninterest rate (the discount rate).
The PV of costs and benefits feed
into the total NPV of cash flows.

Net present
value (NPV)The present or current value of(discounted) future net cash flows
given an interest rate (the discountrate). A positive project NPV
normally indicates that theinvestment should be made, unlessother projects have higher NPVs.
Return on
investment (ROI)
A project’s expected return inpercentage terms. ROI is
calculated by dividing net benefits(benefits less costs) by costs.
Discountrate
The interest rate used in cash flow
analysis to take into account thetime value of money. Organizations
typically use discount rates
between 8% and 16%.
Payback
periodThe breakeven point for aninvestment. This is the point in timeat which net benefits (benefits
minus costs) equal initialinvestment or cost.

Appendix B: Endnotes
1 Source: “Now Tech: Channel Onboarding, Q4 2019,” Forrester Research, Inc., November 11, 2019.

20 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Partnerize