Qliktech sets sights on growing channel

BI vendor aims to reverse its direct/indirect ratio in the channel's favour

Building presence: QlikTech intends to bolster channel sales

Business intelligence software vendor QlikTech plans to ramp up channel sales.
Currently possessing a 60 per cent direct and 40 per cent indirect model, the vendor aims to reverse that ratio.

QlikTech claims it has added more than 3,800 new customers in 2008, with about 10 of every 13 coming through partners.

John Campbell, UK alliance director at QlikTech, said: “This year we aim to change our model to at least 50/50, which will eventually settle at about 60 per cent indirect and 40 per cent direct. We have launched a Salesforce.com [portal] to improve the flow of information.”

The portal will initially offer QlikTech Qonnect Elite and Reseller partners free licences before extending it to its System Integrator and OEM partners.

Campell said that keeping track of the vendor’s expanding partner base is like trying to ‘keep hold of a slippery bar of soap’. “We have about 500 partners worldwide, with 60 in the UK ­ 12 of which were recruited in the last quarter,” he said.

Jon Collins, chief executive of market watcher Freeform Dynamics, said: “Businesses are looking for a better way to handle fragmented information. The channel can help by showing customers how to manage several pools of information.”