CA tunes US resellers into Masterpiece

Computer Associates (CA) is to roll out a US reseller channel strategy for its financial software suite, Masterpiece. But CA executives in the UK do not expect to launch a similar programme here for another year.

Dick Lietch, CA European marketing manager for Masterpiece, said the product is aimed at organisations with revenues of more than $200 million and because of this, it is taking its time to organise the right channel strategy. The product is currently being sold directly and Lietch does not expect this to change even after it has organised an indirect sales channel.

'We don't want to make a mess of it. We are drawing on lessons learnt by other financial software suppliers such as SAP and Oracle,' he said.

'We know there is a distinction between resellers and implementors, such as IT consultancies, and there should be an internal dedicated channel management team as well as a dedicated helpdesk. We are waiting to see how it is working in the US first.'

CA is looking at the possibility of working closely with the big six management consultancies as well as resellers that may be industry-specific.

CA's indirect sales team would also be involved in the sale by offering consultants, facilities and other resources, explained Lietch.

CA is relatively new to dealing with resellers as it only began the transition from direct to indirect selling three years ago when it acquired Ask - owner of the Ingres database - which was partly sold via resellers. The firm has since extended its channel model to Unicenter, its system management offering.