Oracle broadens reach with Northamber deal

Appointment of Callaghan to head up Channels and Solutions Organisation among major new changes at Oracle

Oracle has made sweeping changes to its channel by appointing its first broadline distributor and creating a Channels and Solutions Organisation.

Following the shock departure in February of Trudy Norris-Grey, former vice-president of multichannel sales and now the managing director of Sun UK, the vendor has now appointed David Callaghan to head up the new Channels and Solutions Organisation.

Callaghan was formerly responsible for Oracle’s specialist technology and applications sales across all sectors, which has now been folded into channels to form the new channel organisation.

As one of his first moves, Callaghan has appointed Northamber to sell its SME products, such as Standard Edition One, alongside high-end distributors Open PSL and Sphinx. “They [Northamber] will be able to help us get into the IBM base. It has a respected brand, expertise and relationships with resellers,” he said.

Paul Berry, managing director of Compelsolve, said the appointment of Northamber had been a surprise. “I wouldn’t have thought Oracle needed three [distributors], because business has not ramped up dramatically recently,” said Berry.

“When Trudy left, Oracle waited to see if they needed to appoint a separate VP, but they have decided to roll everything in under Callaghan’s role. He is already looking to get more quality and focus into Oracle’s channel.”

Callaghan’s responsibilities include getting the firm’s ISVs, VARs and systems integrators to work with sales consulting and business development experts from his old organisation.

Sources close to Oracle said the process of amalgamating the two business units is still going on, although channel sources have welcomed moves to pull more of Oracle’s direct sales teams into channel sales.

“Some of the resellers I’ve spoken to have said we are responding to some of the things they want. Specialisation is one of those things. Combining their, and our, expertise gets them more,” said Callaghan.

“Our engagements with Oracle have been more positive recently,” said Philip Anthony, solutions manager at VAR Repton. “We hope it continues.”