Severa adds channel program for its project management automation software 23 June, 2009 By Mark Cox

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"We are completely a SaaS (software-as-a-service) operation," said Zaki Usman, director of marketing at Severa. "Direct online sales have been our base. And 30 per cent of our sign-ups have been North American-based."

The market for this type of SaaS solution is quite competitive, Usman said.

"It's a crowded space, but there are clear winners emerging," Usman said. "Companies like OpenAir are significant with more of a hand-holding sales model. We are in the more self-service end of it. And there are others as well, others at the low end, the Ladas of project management, which go after small shops and the one-man shops. But Severa is the only one of all of these which is reaching out to the channel aggressively."

The Severa reseller program, which Usman termed the oil to get the partner gears moving, offers incentives such as free and unlimited technical support, no initiation fees, and online registration. Once resellers register their clients, the system will generate an activation key via email. Resellers can then collect commissions from their paying clients. Resellers are entitled to receive their clients' first month entire subscription fee.

"To get the word out there, we are offering one free user for each install," Usman said. "One man shops could use the system free, with the idea being that they would purchase additional licenses when they upgrade."

Usman said that presently, 90 per cent of sales are direct, and that they would like one-third to be coming through the reseller program by the end of the year, and one-half by the end of 2010.

Usman said that the Severa 2 customer, on the last version of the software, had an average base of 15 users. In the Severa 3, it's more like 10-12 users per install. Typical customers include professional services organizations in the fields of advertising, architecture, engineering, IT services, management consulting, legal, and marketing/public relations.