As consolidation hits the business intelligence market, a brand new BI player has come to town – literally.
Panorama Software, a BI software developer formerly based in Israel, recently moved to Toronto and announced a reseller recruiting drive.
The company has developed a Global Alliance
Program designed for consultants, VARs, systems integrators and ISVs that offer services and products complementary to Panorama’s business intelligence solutions.
The plan comes on the heels of Cognos’ new channel plan (see page 8) and at a time when the BI industry is changing.
San Jose, Calif.-based Business Objects, which has four offices in Canada, acquired Vancouver-based Crystal Decisions, while Hyperion purchased BI vendor Brio.
According to a Meta Group research paper, these vendors face potential challenges from several other organizations. Microsoft appears to be moving into the BI market.
If it becomes serious about BI, it can be expected to make a strong play for a dominant role using a combination of internal development and the purchase of existing vendors, much as it is doing on the low end of the ERP market. Meta research predicts an industry shakeout. The winners, it says, will be vendors with complete suites.
Also in the BI mix are companies such as SPSS, SAS, Information Builders, Oracle, SAP, and Siebel.
And then there is Panorama, whose Global Alliance Program will enable partners to receive training, and technical and marketing support.
The plan will also see OEM and ISV partners use Panorama technology for private label solutions and referral partners paid a finder’s fee.
“Panorama’s strategy in the past was to leverage partners, but did not formalize a plan with partners,” said Mike Delgado, regional partner sales director for Panorama.
“The level of intimacy resellers have presents a tremendous amount of value to customer understanding. They understand customer pain and their issues and partners can overcome those issues. What we did was a process of best practices and came up with a program that is worldwide.” Currently, Panorama has a 50/50 direct to indirect revenue split, but Delgado believes indirect revenues will increase.
Margins are high with Panorama software. Simply reselling nets the partner 30 per cent, but it could go up depending on the level of commitment, the services offerred and which niche markets they serve, Delgado said.
Delgado is looking to attract around 100 VARs to the program, but insists it is not about defining a number – instead he wants partners to bring value to the marketplace. “Those are the partners we want,” he said.
Partners include Topinet of Montreal and Simeulex Catalytics of Toronto.
With that, Panorama will try to expose its name and product solutions during the VAR recruitment campaign by using its direct sales force, said Lee Ho, marketing manager for Panorama.