Partner programme set to make Progress

Progress software partners up

Software infrastructure vendor, Progress Software has launched a new partner programme designed to help ISVs migrate their applications over to the Progress OpenEdge platform.

The Accelerator programme, which was launched at the vendor’s Progress Technology World conference in Lisbon last week, is also an attempt to attract additional partners.

Julie Christiansen, director of partner marketing and development at Progress OpenEdge division, told CRN: “The programme is a three-step approach for partners – the Learning Accelerator, which is designed to educate new partners about Progress and OpenEdge; Development Accelerator, which supports partners with technical and education resources, and Market Accelerator, where we help partners actually go to market with their products.

“We designed the programme to give us more of a framework when we are recruiting partners, but also so that our existing partners can have additional help too. If the partners we speak to already know about us, or they already have business plans, they can simply join the programme at stage two or stage three.”

She said the vendor is particularly targeting ISVs in the healthcare, retail and manufacturing sectors.

The programme also includes the Application Transformation Approach strategy, which Christiansen said is for ISVs based around a rival platform who want to port over to OpenEdge without interrupting their day-to-day businesses. “We want our partners to be able to run their businesses at the same time they are making changes to it,” she said.

Mike Thompson, principal research analyst at Butler Group, said. “Progress’ partner history has always been strong. It is very conservative and unlikely to upset its partners, who know what to expect because Progress has come out with a consistent message, and recruited partners who fit in with it’s strategy.”