Ian I agree with you completely, I have had set up a number of alliance programs, and management quite often have two problems, the first of these is an unrealistic expectation of what they are going to achieve and the second is conflict.

 When people talk about what they are going to achieve it is not only a monetary value, it is also about change in the organisation. Managers need to think about how this will effect there services, support, marketing and sales operation as each one of these will be effected by the addition of a channel.

 The conflict is caused by a lack of understanding by all parties of what this change means.