BCS signs partnerships to broaden SAM sales

Vendor signs technology partnerships with several software vendors for combined products

Licence compliance software vendor BCS has announced a glut of new technology partnerships as it looks to spread the software asset management (SAM) message to a wider audience.

The firm, whose flagship product is the Software Organiser tool, has signed technology partnerships with software vendors LANdesk, 413 Technologies and Dutch firm Soluza BV, among others, and is confident that the combined products will help it broaden its channel reach.

Andrew Fisher, business development manager at BCS, said: “We did not start out specialising in software licence management, but we developed an electronic auditing tool and also became a Federation Against Software Theft partner to help our customers ensure compliance.

“Over the past 12-18 months we have seen increased activity in the SAM compliance space – particularly with the recently adopted ISO standard.”

Fisher said the firm is planning to sign more technology partnerships in the future and is also confident of spreading the SAM message fur-ther afield.

“There are a lot of companies developing complementary technology that will fit with our product – not just on the SAM side, but also other areas such as configuration management,” he said. “We are keen to evolve with the right vendor partners in the UK, Europe and eventually the US.”

John Dawson, channel development manager at LANdesk, welcomed the partnership.

“Software Organiser is a very well known and well established tool in this industry,” he said. “The integration with our products will enable our partners to sell it to their customer base and provide more value add. In addition BCS’s partners can also use LANdesk technology and help us increase our market reach.”

The strategy was welcomed by BCS channel partners.

Matt Ward, leader of the SAM team at VAR Softcat, said: “We use Software Organiser in our SAM portfolio and it is a great product. We have two types of customer; those that are non-compliant and those that are compliant license-wise, but are trying to prove that they are compliant.

“Technology partnerships like this really open up the market and as a SAM team it means we can offer solutions to every size of customer.”

VARs opt to converge in the SAM space