Like Amazon.com Inc. and other major players in the cloud, Salesforce.com Inc. relies heavily on partners to address customer demands that fall outside its main focus area. The company announced two major updates today that aim to help members of its ecosystem step up their work.

The first is a commitment to allocate $100 million for backing developers who are building apps on top of the Salesforce Platform. The move comes a year after the company launched a $50 million fund to support the creation of addons for Lightning, the interface powering its core customer relationship management system. Salesforce.com plans on making it easier for partners to secure external financing as well by teaming up with leading venture capital firms.

Rounding out the new financial incentives is a revamped revenue-sharing scheme that is rolling out as part of the Salesforce AppExchange Partner Program, the other update announced today. The main highlight is that the company has cut the starting participation fee from 25 percent of app revenue to 15 percent. Firms with existing agreements will be able to take advantage of the change once their contracts are up for renewal.

The new sales model is joined by a set of technical resources aimed at supporting partners’ sales efforts. Salesforce now offers access to a library of engineering guides, payment processing tools and a ranking system designed to help app developers stand out from the competition.

The system will reward partners who perform well in key criteria related to their business.  Each company’s AppExchange Trailblazer Score, as Salesforce.com calls it, will take into account customer reviews, product security and the number of certificates earned by its personnel when applicable. The inclusion of the latter point is meant to accommodate partners that offer professional services.

Salesforce.com’s heavy investments in its ecosystem are already paying off. The company claims that its app marketplace features more than 3,000 partner offerings and has served up some 4 million downloads to date. 

Image: Salesforce.com