PRM Product Support
Chanimal Partner Portal – Product Support
Main Phone - 512-263-9618
8 – 5 pm CST weekdays. Please leave a message if no immediate reply since the system also converts to text and sends product support an email.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Product Support
What if I mess up my WordPress portal?
As the admin, you can mess up and fix the portal in minutes (just like you can mess up your own PC if you don’t know what you’re doing (ask my kid’s Grandma about her laptop—she is the “mess up” that just keeps giving! Hint: if in doubt, do NOT delete!))—so don’t just play around with it.
There should only be one admin (no, every member of the team is not an admin), and they will receive as much training and help as they need (one-on-one and self-help). Other user’s access can be limited, and most cannot make any changes or do any damage to the portal (including dubious hackers—when security is turned on).
What about Integrations?
Most of the integration effort is connecting the portal forms to your CRM or Marketing Automation. All data and online partner interaction flow through the forms. The portal includes many popular integrations, but some non-common programs require you to upgrade the forms app license to access (typically only $59).
Other times, your connecting application already supports and has an application plug-in for the forms database—often at no cost. Other applications can be purchased separately from CRMPerks and others (ranging from $39 – $119 for the options you would need)). Not all integrations can be included as part of the Chanimal PRM—there are too many, many don’t offer development licenses anyway, and many may never end up being used anyway. But it already includes more integration options than any other PRM system—and most additional integrations cost next to nothing to add.
Can I add my own plugins?
When you get the Chanimal Partner Portal, you get a “snapshot” (a complete “Channel-In-A-Box”) with all the content (policies, agreements, and processes) and applications to run your partner program and everything has been regression tested and works. However, if you wish to remove and replace, or add entirely different features on your own, you may—but Chanimal may or may not be able to support them. That’s the nature of WordPress.
For example, one vendor added a paid plug-in to feed all their social media streams into the portal. It was great that they could add the feature. But when they didn’t auto-pay for the renewal (many only have a one-time cost), it stopped working. Chanimal could identify the problem, but they would have to renew their plugin for it to work again.
Another vendor swapped the theme (a major change), then turned off all the permissions, and added a complete support section—the VP of (direct) sales essentially hijacked the partner portal. It worked for him, but Chanimal wasn’t involved so it would be hard to support their revised system. Chanimal will try, but can’t always support all the changes that were not part of the original portal. In this case, the CEO was ticked, but we quickly re-cloned the portal so the channel team could have their own system again—and let the VP do what he wished with the other system.
The good thing is that most sites are backed up every 24 hours and the site can be reverted back if there is a problem. In addition, one of the included plug-ins allows you to take a backup snapshot at will, so you can revert to the latest or an earlier version if needed.
How much WordPress do I need to know?
The site is designed to require some, but relatively minor WordPress knowledge—some channel managers know WordPress, others don’t. Fortunately, in the Admin section (only seen when you log in as the admin), there is a link to a WordPress introductory video, plus there are instructions and videos for most of the common tasks.
In addition, because WordPress is the world’s most popular CRM, hundreds of thousands of people know how to use and manage it already—so it’s not hard to find support. Plus, a lot of folks (often several members of your existing team) chose the Chanimal Partner Portal because they already know how to use WordPress, and take to it like a pro.
PRM Resources
- Partner Relationship Manager (PRM) isn’t dead–it’s foundational. Great article from Lisa Lawson and Jay McBain, from the Canalys industry analyst group. It features functions to consider, but also several of the major plays and up-and-coming PRMs.
The Chanimal PRM was reviewed by Jay recently and he welcomed the introduction of a PRM specifically for start-up partner programs, but it was not reviewed in time for this article (he used the 2023 Tech Stack and sorted by revenues). However, some of those systems are over $50k–vs $2,750 – $6999–so it may take a while for the revenue “volume” to add up. ;-)
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