Building Successful Partner Channels is a book laying out the roadmap for achieving global market leadership through independent channel partners in the software industry. When Microsoft acquired Navision in 2002, there is no doubt that the value of our channel partner ecosystem heavily influenced the price they paid. I can think of no one better suited than Hans Peter to write a book titled Building Successful Partner Channels.

Preben Damgaard, Co-founder and CEO of Navision

Predictable growth and market leadership through independent channel partners are in the minds of the software industry CEO and sales executive. However, it is rarely achieved. With Building Successful Partner Channels, Hans Peter Bech provides a great tactical approach toward reaching this goal.

Torulf Nilsson, Product Executive, Visma Retail, Oslo, Norway

Hans Peter Bech has been at the forefront of developing indirect channels in the software industry for more than three decades, and his track record is impressive. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone searching for the route to global market leadership in the software industry.

Yusuf Soner, School of Management at the Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey

Building Successful Partner Channels provides a powerful, practical approach to building a solid network of independent channel partners to optimize sales and marketing activities. The book helps senior sales and marketing executives understand how to work in concert to achieve global market leadership through the indirect-channel approach.

Toke Kruse, Founder and CEO at Billy, San Francisco, USA

Companies that have business in foreign markets are worth much more than companies that only have customers domestically. Even just small export ratios can increase the value of a technology company more than ten times.

Software companies typically commence international expansion before they are firmly settled in their domestic markets, before they have a professional management infrastructure in place and at a time where they can allocate only tiny budgets to the endeavour.

Going Global on a Shoestring is a handbook for the executives and business developers in small and medium sized software-companies (20-200 employees) that lay out the strategies for global expansion as well as perform the actual field work with winning the first customers abroad.

It is a book about how to get the first customers outside your domestic market. We could call it establishing the bridgehead or building the foundation for further growth. Getting the foundation in place and then scaling it to market leadership are two very different tasks. This book is mainly about the first task and not so much about the other.

The book is based on Everett M. Rodger's principles around Diffusion of Innovations, Alexander Osterwalder's business model framework, thirty case software industry stories and the author's personal experience with growing companies from incubation to global market leadership. It provides a practical approach to international expansion, when you cannot afford making big mistakes.

It's 1979. Henrik Bertelsen, a baby boomer, is an economist at the Ministry of Labour in Copenhagen. Married to Englishwoman Sammy, they pour their hearts into building a co-housing community in North Zealand while navigating the complex process of adopting a child from Indonesia. Henrik craves a period of undisturbed stability to secure his career as a civil servant.

Unexpectedly, he is asked to renovate and manage hospital kitchens in Saudi Arabia. His inner adventurer awakens, and with a short leave of absence from the ministry, he seizes the opportunity. The project escalates, and suddenly, he is caught in an armed religious uprising in Mecca. Trapped between rebels and police, Henrik is in trouble.

He manages to escape and is whisked out of the country. As he catches his breath, an American computer company offers him a lucrative job, setting his life on an entirely new path.

How do you build and manager a channel of more than 2,000 resellers serving over 100,000 customers across 30 countries? From a small corner of the world where English isn't the main language.

Navision did just that

When Microsoft took over in 2002, the total turnover of and around Navision's products was in the order of DKK 17 billion (USD 3.4B) and the entire ecosystem employed over 20,000 people.

5,460 Miles from Silicon Valley reveals the full story of two of Denmark's undisputed business successes - from cradle to adolescence. It reveals an industry that is completely unpredictable, where strategies do not necessarily lead to success. But it's also a tale of people, ambitions, and resourcefulness. How to pursue your dreams and build a successful business up from scratch - in one of the smallest markets in the world.

With the price tag of USD 1.45 billion, Navision was Microsoft's biggest acquisition to date.

5,460 Miles from Silicon Valley is a book primarily about Damgaard Data, a company set up in 1984 by two brothers, 23-year-old Erik and 21-year-old Preben Damgaard. Less than eight years later, the company had an annual turnover of USD 12.5 million and employed 100 people.

In 1994, with the objective of bringing the company's products onto the global market, IBM bought into Damgaard Data. This turned out to be a troublesome collaboration and in 1998, Erik and Preben bought out IBM's share of the business.

In October 1999, Damgaard Data was listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and within three weeks, its value soared to nearly USD 1 billion. Unfortunately, the excitement was short lived. Only a few months later, at the beginning of December, a sudden drop in revenue sent the share price plunging.

The company's principal competitor, Navision Software, soon suffered a similar fate and the two companies decided to merge under the name Navision. The goal was to re-establish market trust by once again producing impressive growth and earning rates.

The strategy worked and in 2001 Microsoft called.

The book, more than 500 pages long, is a detailed account of the history of Damgaard Data and Navision Software. Based on more than 200 hours of interviews as well as on research into more than 1,000 internal and external sources, it is an in-depth analysis of the grit, perseverance and more than a little good luck necessary for entrepreneurial success.

Anyone, including those without a business background, interested in the corporate world or simply in a fascinating real-life story, is sure to enjoy this remarkable tale.

The book illustrates the conditions and challenges facing a company seeking growth and success in the world's most turbulent sector. It reveals situations and describes episodes into which the general public has never previously been given insight. It contains many surprises and debunks several myths about what determines commercial success.