Touchpaper launches channel program in North America 21 June, 2006 By Dave Chappelle

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With the upgrade and introduction of its new IT Business Management Suite, and recognizing the market opportunity its products can address, Touchpaper has decided to significantly expand its market/sales coverage by embracing an alternate channel model and formally launch its Channel Partner Program.

The alternate channel strategy is designed to expand business through a multi-tiered Value Added Reseller and Referral partner program, supported by its existing direct sales force.

"VARs and Systems Integrators in North America can take advantage of Touchpaper's technology and expertise in ITIL best practices for the IT Service Desk/Help Desk, Asset and Configuration Management Technology for their customers," said Carl Grieves, Senior Vice President, Touchpaper Corporation.

According to industry analysts the market for IT Service Management solutions is growing significantly.

"VAR and Referral Partners who join the Program have a tremendous revenue and margin potential. Touchpaper's Channel Partner Program is totally integrated with its direct sales & marketing group," Stewart Dennis, vice president, channel partnerships, Touchpaper.

Isn't a direct/channel model a sure formula for channel conflict?

"For some competitors yes, but not for Touchpaper," said Dennis.

"We took the decision to adopt a 'no conflict' model, from the start, in developing our North American Partner Program. As Partners are appointed, they are teamed up with their Touchpaper Regional Sales Manager, and effectively become an extension of Touchpaper's sales force. Registration of leads/prospects is carefully managed, and we work together with the Partners to ensure that conflicts are avoided. Feedback from the Partner community thus far has been very, very positive, particularly for those who have had 'bad experiences', in the past, partnering with other software vendors. As one partner told me recently: "Working with Touchpaper is refreshingly different".

Most of its competitors have a combined Direct/Indirect Channel sales model. Before formally launching its channel partner program, Touchpaper conducted research among prospective channel partners, and identified many incidences of channel conflict between the direct and alternate channels.

"Where the manufacturer had a local presence, they would actually compete with the VAR/SI," said Dennis.

"Touchpaper has designed its North American Partner Program to avoid such conflicts. By encouraging and rewarding our direct sales to work closely with and support our alternate channel, we are truly partners, and both elements are key and integral to our NA Sales Team."

Customers are expected to benefit from an increased level of local coverage through the appointment of carefully selected Partner organizations, all of which will pass through the Touchpaper Partner Accreditation Program.

"Customers will also gain from the wealth of complementary, customer knowledge, skills, and services that our partners bring to the party," said Dennis.

"We are specifically seeking to appoint partners with experience in the Desktop Management arena (LANDesk, Novell and Microsoft), and companies with ITIL and Business Process Management consulting capabilities. These all marry well with the value proposition of Touchpaper ITBM solution, and offer additional value to the customer, and increased revenue opportunity for the Partner."

The Partner Program has already attracted a number of VARs and Referral Partners in the Northeast, West Coast and Canada.

"We are aggressively pursuing Partners in the South East and Midwest. Further expansion is planned for 2007 and beyond, as our Partner Program is regarded as strategically important to the development of our North American business," said Grieves.

North American partners will be selling and supporting IT Business Management solution, ITBM, a process driven software solution based on Microsoft .Net technology, for the management of a company's IT Infrastructure, in support of their business. The solution is designed to address the needs of IT departments grappling with the challenge of providing Service Support to the business in a changing environment.

"In particular, ITBM supports the key disciplines of Incident, Problem and Change Management, as defined within the ITIL methodology. Configuration Management is also addressed through ITBM's tight integration with complementary solutions such as LANDesk's LDMS, Novell's ZENWorks, and Microsoft SMS," Grieves said.

The firm considers BMC-Remedy, HP-Peregrine, FrontRange, CA, and Altiris as competitors. Its competitive edge is its new, innovative software solution: ITBM, supported by Touchpaper technical sales, service, and support organization.

"ITBM is a highly scalable solution, which can be utilized, to great effect, by organizations of all shapes and sizes," said Dennis.

"Our worldwide customer base represents all industries and public sector departments. As a rule of thumb, any organization with 500+ PCs installed can gain value from the deployment of ITBM. Our Partners are not restricted in terms of their target markets. However, some have historically focused on specific segments, such as Finance, Education, Government etc. and we will gain from their expertise in those markets."