COVID-19 Crisis: ISVs Focus On Rescuing Merchants, Protecting Staff, Stimulating Creativity

By Jim Roddy, VP of Marketing, RSPA

When the RSPA Niche & Startup ISV Community launched last year to help software developer executives network with fellow RSPA ISV members, we figured the group’s conference calls would focus on their VAR channels, go-to-market strategies, and developer management. But this week’s discussions were dedicated to an issue nobody saw coming: COVID-19.

Below is some of the advice and comments shared by ISV executives during the March 17-18 ISV Community calls. (RSPA separated the community into two groups to avoid competitor conflicts and to accommodate the nearly 60 ISV executives who participate). We typically share meeting notes only with members of the Niche & Startup ISV Community but are publishing their COVID-19 thoughts publicly to help the entire retail IT channel during this crisis. Please note the views and opinions expressed are those of individual participants in the meetings and do not necessarily reflect the position of the RSPA.

To help you navigate this raw data, comments are divided into four categories: customer-related issues, VAR-related issues, staff-related issues, and general business issues. I’ll also share at the end resources RSPA has created to help VARs and ISVs deal with the COVID-19 crisis.