ICS turns to channel to bring BI to the masses
Vendor looks to recruit additional resellers to lift sales of recently launched RSinteract
Business intelligence (BI) software vendor, ICS, is looking to recruit 50 new channel partners in the UK over the next 18 months to help it bring BI to the mass market.
The move follows the launch of ICS’s RSinteract product. This is a desktop reporting tool built on Microsoft SQL Server that it has been claimed enables partners to offer BI products to users at all levels within an organisation. Previously BI had been confined to specialist analysts and senior management because of its cost and complexity, the firm said.
Marcel Bonfrer, vice-president channel sales at ICS, told CRN: “We have done business directly over the past 10 to 12 years, but would now like to build up a channel for our RSinteract product. We believe three types of partners will be interested in selling RSinteract: ISVs, Microsoft Dynamics partners and BI consultancies.”
ICS has developed a channel programme consisting of pre- and post-sales support, sales training, technical support, and a flexible pricing structure to suit different partner models.
“The product is extremely easy to install and delivers tangible results rapidly,” Bonfrer claimed.
“It does not require expensive per seat licences or costly BI skills. It also brings a greatly reduced cost of ownership.”
ICS is a Microsoft Gold partner, and its partner programme has been fully supported by the software giant.
Karl Noakes, director partner development at Microsoft, told CRN: “This is a great opportunity for ICS to grow its business by partnering with other Microsoft partners. It illustrates how organisations can increase their reach and profitability by connecting and collaborating with other companies via the Microsoft Partner Programme.”
Diego Gagliano, SQL manager of Vorsprung, a Microsoft Dynamics partner, said: “RSinteract slashes the time it takes us to create reports for our customers from about four hours to a matter of minutes. Previously, high-level IT skills were required to create a report. Now a business user can create a report, without the need for any specialist IT skills.”