Brainshark Launches Innovative Solution to Increase the Impact, Reach and Visibility of Channel Communications

WALTHAM, Mass., March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Brainshark, Inc., the leader in on-demand presentations, today announced new product capabilities and services designed to give technology suppliers and their channel partners unprecedented insight into the effectiveness of the communications they deliver. Through the Brainshark Channel Solution, suppliers can equip their partners with on-demand, multimedia presentations for sales and marketing outreach, as well as training and certification. This model for delivering content helps technology suppliers cut through the communications clutter, measure their impact, and increase the reach and ROI of their channel communications – all while reducing the time and cost of doing business.

Technology suppliers today face an uphill battle as they seek to deliver vital information and marketing materials to their channel partners through a mix of often-ineffective vehicles – including underutilized portals, cost-prohibitive travel and inconveniently timed webinars. Brainshark is proven to maximize knowledge retention and viewer interest, with customers reporting a 90% reduction in the cost of face-to-face meetings and live Web conferencing, a 50% reduction in training time and an increase in lead generation results by five to 10 times (and more).

Now, through the Brainshark Channel Solution, Brainshark is extending these benefits to technology suppliers and their distributors, who face enormous channel enablement pressures including recruiting, training and certifying partners; generating demand; supporting the sales process and maintaining mindshare.

With the Brainshark Channel Solution, technology suppliers and their partners each have access to their own unique and secure site with Brainshark multimedia content. Suppliers can create and publish on-demand presentations – incorporating audio narration, video, survey/quiz questions and more – and instantly share this material with their global partner community using the Trusted Networks capability in Brainshark's Channel Solution. Authorized partners can then view presentations from all the suppliers they work with – gaining knowledge on supplier offerings and/or using the pre-approved content in their own sales and demand generation activities.  

Benefits for Suppliers

Technology suppliers achieve the following benefits from the Brainshark Channel Solution:

• Message and brand consistency and control – When a supplier updates any presentation, the change is reflected everywhere that presentation exists in the channel, including in any personalized partner versions.
• Differentiated, high-impact communications – Brainshark's interactive multimedia format, with content delivered directly from subject matter experts in short, digestible nuggets, helps communications stand out from the sea of static e-mails and newsletters.
• Visibility into what works – Brainshark's tracking capabilities show suppliers which content is being consumed by partners and the ultimate customers – as well as how effective that content is at capturing audience attention.
• Increased reach and supplier 'stickiness' – Suppliers can add more value to their channel relationships with timely and relevant content that is easily accessible and viewed anytime, and that partners can use to drive their own businesses.  
• Cost-effective way to maintain mindshare – Suppliers can reach all tiers of partners on a global scale with professional, timely communications to maintain tighter relationships.

"It's critical that our 25,000 partners are up to speed and on message when discussing our comprehensive portfolio of virtualization solutions," said Ben Matheson, senior director, Global Partner Marketing, VMware. "With Brainshark, we can extend our global reach to enable greater success for VMware and our diverse partner ecosystem."

Benefits for Channel Partners

The Brainshark Channel Solution also brings significant advantages to technology distributors and resellers. Upon logging into their Brainshark network sites, they can instantly view, send and track presentations from all the participating suppliers they work with.

Additional benefits include:

• Timely tracking information – With Brainshark's Channel Solution, channel partners can track individual viewing activity and see, on a granular scale, how their prospects and customers are engaging with content. This helps them qualify interest and provides actionable information for sales follow-up.
• Convenient training and certification – Partner reps can access direct-from-the-expert training at any time and as often as needed, without taking up valuable selling time during the day.
• Improved lead generation and sales prospecting results – Partners can leverage supplier content to improve the effectiveness of mass e-mail marketing campaigns, while sales reps can send customized Brainshark content to their individual prospects. Brainshark's multimedia format is proven to make content more memorable and engaging.
• Easy identification of the most compelling content – Identifying the hottest content to send or view is a cinch. Partner comments and content ratings, combined with a view of most frequently watched content, allow the best content to surface to the top.

Partners can access the Brainshark content for free with their own network site login granted through their supplier relationships. Upgrade options include the ability for partners to add their own logo to presentations and the ability to further personalize content – incorporating voice-enriched introductions and closings to the pre-approved supplier presentations. In addition, major distributors looking to create their own content and publish it to their own partner networks may also license the full Brainshark Channel Solution.

"Our account executives immediately jump on leads from our Brainshark campaigns – because they know exactly who is most interested and how interested they are, setting the stage for a valuable discussion," said Michelle Follman, marketing manager for Enterprise Microsoft Solutions at Sogeti. "Plus, as a channel marketing manager, I get the tracking and analytics I need to demonstrate ROI for any jointly funded programs with our suppliers. Brainshark has proven to be our most cost-effective way to generate demand."

For more information on the Brainshark Channel Solution, please visit:  http://presentation.brainshark.com/solutions/channels.aspx.

"Brainshark's new solution for technology channels solves critical challenges for any company that wants to increase channel revenue," said Brainshark CEO Joe Gustafson. "We look forward to continuing to meet the groundswell of demand among the channel for simplified, enhanced and cost-effective communication solutions."

About Brainshark, Inc.

Brainshark is the leader in on-demand presentations, transforming static business content into high-impact communications. Delivered via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Brainshark enables audiences to access and engage with business content when and how they want. More than 1,100 companies – including a third of the Fortune 100 – rely on Brainshark software and services to help sales, marketing, training and HR experts cost-effectively deliver measurable results. In addition, organizations and individuals use the myBrainshark site to create, share and track publicly available multimedia presentations for free. For more information on these offerings, visit www.brainshark.com.

VMware is a registered trademark and/or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

    
    
    MEDIA CONTACTS:
    
    Joan Babinski
    Brainshark, Inc.
    781.370.8001
    [email protected]
    www.brainshark.com 
    
    Sara Card
    Davies Murphy Group, Inc.
    781.418.2431
    [email protected]
    www.daviesmurphy.com

SOURCE Brainshark, Inc.