From its inception, InvoiceCloud has been a partner-first company. No one knows this better than one of InvoiceCloud’s longest-tenured employees, Sam Evrard, who has had a unique front-row seat to the development, implementation, and success of InvoiceCloud’s partnership model.

Sam had been working at Northern Data Systems – a small, family-owned software company based in Falmouth, Maine – for 21 years when InvoiceCloud co-founders, Bob Bennett and Bob Lapiedes (BobL, for short) came to pitch their digital billing and payments solution to the Northern Data Systems team.

“I went home that night and told my wife, ‘I think I want to work for those guys,’” Sam said of his initial reaction to the InvoiceCloud founders. “And I had been at NDS for 21 years, so that was a huge jump for me.”

After a few months of successfully selling the InvoiceCloud solution to his NDS base, Sam joined the InvoiceCloud team in April of 2011.

“Some would say I took a big risk, but I never questioned it,” he said. “It was a revolutionary platform. At the time, there was nothing even close to what InvoiceCloud was doing. I recognized that right away. The database and technology tell you a lot about a software’s capabilities and InvoiceCloud’s was amazing. I knew they hadn’t just built a solution that was great looking, it was well-built – and I knew because I was part of the earliest partner integrations.”

Over the next 11 years, Sam would witness the InvoiceCloud team grow around 50% each year, develop relationships with over 150 partner organizations, and eventually go public under its parent company, EngageSmart. Now, preparing to retire after a lifetime in the software industry and over a decade with InvoiceCloud, Sam reflects on that one constant that defined InvoiceCloud’s success: its one-of-a-kind partnership model.

The Importance of InvoiceCloud’s Partner Ecosystem

After developing the sales team for a young InvoiceCloud, Sam eventually shifted from the VP of Sales into a partnership-focused role as the VP of Strategic Alliances. It was obvious to both Sam and the team at large that he was meant to work within the organization’s partner ecosystem; not only had he started his InvoiceCloud journey as a partner, but he also had a deep understanding of how critical partnerships are to InvoiceCloud’s growth, which he credits to CEO Bob Bennett.

“Bob understood that partner ecosystems were the way forward, right from the start,” Sam said. “InvoiceCloud makes our partners feel like they’re part of our team – because they are part of the team! They’re not just revenue generators; we make them part of the solution.”

While InvoiceCloud has over 150 partnerships and technology integrations with a variety of key CIS systems, the organization places much more emphasis on the quality of these relationships, rather than the quantity of partners.

“InvoiceCloud has always been a partner-first organization,” adds Paul Applegate, VP of Alliances and Business Development at InvoiceCloud. “The roots of this can be traced back to the original business plan and the founder’s belief that partners were the only route to the incredible growth InvoiceCloud has enjoyed. The reason we’re able to drive over 80% of our business with partners is not a function of the number of partners we have. Rather, it is a direct result of the deep, jointly beneficial, partnerships we build over time.”

Partners win with InvoiceCloud’s repeatable processes for integrations, dedicated implementation experts, excellent NPS scores, and industry-leading adoption rates. We meet partners where they are and put in the work to develop tight relationships at every phase, from go-to-market to implementation.

Most importantly, billing organizations win as a result of these relationships. Billers select InvoiceCloud as their digital billing and payments solution because we work seamlessly with their existing operating systems, not only to offer effortless implementations, but quick and collaborative problem-solving efforts, as well.

Looking Forward

Over a decade later, Sam Evrard leaves InvoiceCloud as confident in the organization as he was when he joined the team.

“I want to see more of the same,” Sam said when asked what he’d like to see for the organization’s future. “As I leave the company, I leave confident that the culture that helped build this company is still thriving. If it’s not broke – and it’s not – don’t fix it, and I think leadership understands that. As a result of InvoiceCloud’s thoughtful partnership model, more communities across the country are benefiting from the services we deliver. That means literally millions of payers getting access to tech that will improve their lives. I see us as a leader among companies that care about community and not just their bottom line, and I’m incredibly proud of that.”

Want to learn more about InvoiceCloud’s partnerships or how your organization could become a partner? Check out our partner page or email alliances@invoicecloud.com for more information.