Your partner program is growing. This is fantastic news! But behind the scenes, you see that things are done manually and just looking for information gives you a bit of anxiety. You start thinking that you need a bigger team, but then the thought of new partner manager onboarding makes you feel even more unsettled. Partner data is in one spreadsheet, communications are in another tool, and deal tracking happens somewhere else entirely. How’s the newcomer going to navigate this chaos?
Then comes the tempting idea: "Let's build our own DIY PRM system!"
It seems like a cost-effective solution. You’ll just stitch together a few powerful tools to create a custom platform. It’s like deciding to build your own house - you have the materials, but what you end up with is less of a coherent system and more of a shaky structure that requires constant repairs.
DIY PRM System: The 5 Core Tools
A typical DIY PRM system is constructed from a handful of popular and powerful tools, each chosen to manage one piece of the puzzle.
1. The Central Database
Usually an Airtable or Google Sheets.
Every DIY PRM system needs a brain. This is usually a sophisticated spreadsheet where you meticulously track everything: your master partner list, their contact details, shared leads, and commission calculations. With neat rows and color-coded tabs, it feels like you have a powerful database at your command.
2. The Communication App
Usually Slack or Microsoft Teams.
To avoid slow and messy email chains, you turn to instant messaging. The plan is modern and simple: create a private channel for each key partner. This becomes the 'official' place for quick questions, deal updates, and co-marketing brainstorming. It feels fast, collaborative, and efficient.
3. The Workflow Board
Usually Trello or Asana.
Spreadsheets are poor for visualising workflow, so you bring in a project management tool. You create a "Partner Deal Board" with columns like "New Lead," "First Meeting," and "Closed-Won." Each deal gets a card that moves across the board, giving you a satisfying, visual sense of momentum and control over your pipeline.
4. The Resource Library
Usually Google Drive or Dropbox or Notion.
Partners constantly need marketing assets, sales decks, and contracts. To solve this, you create a master "Partner Assets" folder in a cloud storage tool. By sharing one link to this self-serve library, you empower partners to find what they need, 24/7. It feels organized and professional.
5. The “Glue”
Most of the time - Zapier.
This is the critical component that’s supposed to turn your separate tools into a true DIY PRM system. Using an automation tool like Zapier, you create "Zaps" to connect the pieces. For instance: "When a deal card moves to 'Closed-Won' in Trello, automatically update the commission spreadsheet." This 'magic glue' is meant to ensure data flows seamlessly and your system runs on its own.
With all the pieces in place, it looks like you’ve built a brilliant, functional system. But then, the system failures begin.
Why Your DIY PRM System Will Fall Apart
Your clever solution quickly becomes a high-maintenance problem. Here’s why the system will ultimately fail:
1. The Hidden Subscription Costs
“DIY” is not free. When you add up the monthly subscriptions for all these separate tools for your team, the cost quickly climbs.
- Airtable (~$20/user) + Slack (~$8/user) + Trello (~$12/user) + Zapier (~$30+) = Over $150/month, or $1,800/year.This cost balloons as your team and partner program grow.
2. The Constant Maintenance
The real cost is your team's time. Your partner manager becomes a full-time mechanic for your DIY PRM system. An automation breaks, and deal data stops syncing. A spreadsheet formula gets deleted, and commission reports are wrong. You spend hours patching the system instead of building relationships with partners.
3. The Disconnected Data
This is where the illusion of a 'system' completely breaks down. Because these tools aren’t natively built to work together, data integrity suffers. The deal value in your spreadsheet doesn’t match the Trello card, and neither reflects the latest conversation in Slack. There is no single source of truth, just a maze of conflicting information.
4. The Poor Partner Experience
Ultimately, the greatest failure of the DIY PRM system is the experience it creates for your partners. They are forced to navigate a confusing, fragmented system instead of a single, unified platform. They get frustrated, disengage, and your program's growth stalls.
The Better Way: An Integrated System Built for Growth
So, what’s the alternative to constantly patching a broken DIY PRM system? Adopting a platform that was designed as a complete, integrated system from the start.
This is where Journeybee comes in. Journeybee is an affordable and powerful PRM designed specifically for scaling teams who need centralisation and simplicity. It was built to solve the exact problems your DIY system creates. No more need to juggle five apps. Journeybee allows you to consolidate tools and enables your team to have a centralised space for all things partnerships. It puts everything in one place:
This becomes the professional "front door" for your entire partner program. Your partners get one login to one simple, branded portal where they can access everything they need to succeed with you.
For co-selling and strategic collaboration, you can create dedicated virtual spaces. These rooms allow your team and a partner's team to work together on specific deals, account plans, and joint opportunities in a secure, shared environment.
Forget needing a separate Trello or Asana board. Journeybee includes built-in project management tools designed for partnership activities like co-marketing campaigns, integration projects, event planning, and tracking partner onboarding tasks.
Journeybee was created to be incredibly accessible and affordable. With plans starting at just $90 per month per seat, it's also genuinely affordable for small and scaling teams. It provides far more power and reliability than a DIY PRM system at a fraction of the cost of traditional enterprise PRMs.
The future of partnership management is intelligent automation, but AI can only deliver results when it runs on structured, clean, and well-integrated data. This makes it nearly impossible to launch effective AI on a messy DIY PRM system. By providing a structured, all-in-one system, Journeybee creates the perfect foundation to leverage AI for predicting partner success or recommending the next best action.
Because it’s a single, professionally built system with everything from partner portals to project management built-in, it just works. There are no broken automations to fix or spreadsheets to cross-reference. Your team can finally stop being system mechanics and start being strategic partner managers again.
The appeal of building a custom DIY PRM system is strong, but the reality is a costly, fragile setup that fails both your team and your partners. Instead of building a problem, you can choose a solution that’s ready to help you scale from day one. Check out our flexible pricing plans or start your 14-day free trial right away!