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Ever since late last night, almost every communication channel we have here at SimpleFlame has been buzzing about the news of Adobe's buyout of Business Catalyst / GoodBarry. It seems as if there are mixed emotions about how the buy-out affects everyone involved, especially existing partners. The biggest question of the day is "So Jason… what do you think about the news?" Although I've had the opportunity to speak to some of you, I figured it would be best to dust off the old blog and communicate my thoughts.

First off, I'm really proud of the team at Business Catalyst. These guys (and gals) have been working their tails off on a system that has caught the attention of the most influential player in the web design space. After meeting the Business Catalyst team in San Francisco back in May, I have never felt more confident that these guys are fully committed to delivering the best possible platform to their partners. Now, with Adobe's backing, I am excited to see how the platform might evolve.

Business Catalyst Partners

What an incredible opportunity it is to be a Business Catalyst Partner. Basically, here is what happened overnight:

• The solution you sell to your clients is now backed by Adobe, which everyone knows. If they don't know the name, just tell people it’s the company that invented PDF files. You just gained an enormous amount of credibility and it didn't cost you a dime. You can now say to your clients/prospects "We are a Certified Adobe Business Catalyst Partner". Of course, you can only use the word "Certified" if you have completed the Designer Success Program. If you've been putting that off, now is the perfect time to sign up.
• For some of you, your biggest competitor is going away. The GoodBarry brand will expire on October 1, 2009 and so will the comments from your tech savvy prospects that recognize you as a GoodBarry look-a-like. Now they can only get the system from you. That's good stuff!
• All of the Adobe tools we already use to build websites will most likely have direct integration into Business Catalyst. Yeah, there’s Triangle integration already, but what about all of Adobe's products? I can imagine there will be a direct publish utility and CMS integration with Flash, advanced Flex integration, etc. The opportunities are quite limitless. Now, this is only a prediction on my part (which is pretty easy to make) but think about how this might change your productivity? Personally, I am curious how it will play out.

Most partners that I have spoken to in the last 24 hours are just trying to process the news. How does this affect my business? Will the commission structure change? Is Adobe going to dump all of us and pull off a GoodBarry on steroids? Will Adobe give all of the existing partners a full copy of CS5 (is that even out yet?) just for the fun of it? OK, nobody asked that last question but you have to admit that would be pretty cool, right?

If anyone was affected by the news it was us. How do you go from "GoodBarry Experts" to "Business Catalyst Experts" overnight? It's called a lot of coffee, a lot of jokes and an incredible team of people getting it done. Trying to squeeze "Business Catalyst Experts" in our logo without the need for a magnifying glass was the biggest challenge of all (right Cesar?). We're still not finished, but we are well on our way.

Here is my advice... take a deep breath. Adobe develops software that EMPOWERS web professionals, and that’s a great thing. I mean, if they want to hire an army of web designers and build every site on the planet, I guess they could try... but something tells me that their intention is not to take business from their core audience, but to empower it. I suppose anything could happen, but when Adobe purchased Business Catalyst, they also purchased the partner network... which is the bread and butter of their revenue model.

GoodBarry Website Owners

For those GoodBarry website owners that have an upgraded website (meaning you are currently paying for it) please visit the FAQ's on GoodBarry.com to see how this will affect you immediately. However, to sum it up, here is what you will experience as of October 1.

• Instead of seeing the GoodBarry logo in the upper left hand corner of your admin panel, it will be Business Catalyst
• Instead of your billing statement saying GoodBarry it will say Business Catalyst

For those of you who have not upgraded your GoodBarry website and plan to after November 1, you must have a Certified Business Catalyst Partner/Reseller handle the upgrade. Just in case you were wondering, SimpleFlame is a Certified Partner and can help you with your site upgrade (and support you too).

The best piece of advice I can offer up to a GoodBarry website owner is to align yourself with a Certified Business Catalyst Partner. Since GoodBarry is going away and Business Catalyst will be targeting web professionals only, I suspect that over time direct support will be pushed off to the Business Catalyst partner network. Aligning yourself now with an active partner will be critical so you can focus on your business and not on technology. Here at Simpleflame, we have been providing GoodBarry Support to users all over the world by email, phone and screencasts for quite some time. We answer all of the "how-to" questions for our clients at a small additional fee. (see SimpleFlame’s hosting plans with support)

Final Thoughts

If you're a Business Catalyst Partner, feel empowered to use Adobe's credibility in your sales pitch. Go get after it and use the news to your advantage. Stop reading the news on TechCrunch.com and start making calls.

If you're a GoodBarry website owner, start interviewing Certified Business Catalyst Partners and align yourself with a partner that has a proven track record in the system and can adequately handle your support needs. If you want to interview us, just let us know.

If you're currently building your website on GoodBarry and won't launch until after November 1, we'll happily upgrade your site for you when you're ready.

If you have any more questions that need answers, feel free to post them as comments. We’ll do our best to answer them or offer our perspective.