Dragnet offers Site Manager as ASP

Web software will be sold exclusively through the channel

Software vendor Dragnet is launching Site Manager, its website content design and management product for the small to medium sized enterprise market, as an application service provider (ASP) offering.

The software is a web application and will be sold exclusively through the channel, hosted by Dragnet's data centre. The company has already signed up 18 partners.

Site Manager offers users the ability to design and manage website content in-house after a short training course with Dragnet's resellers.

Andrew Burgess, sales director at reseller JM Computing, said he was initially attracted to the product because it was useful to his business. He thought that if he could justify the expense of the product so would many of his customers.

Comparing its offering to other ASP applications, Richard Goodley, director of corporate development at Dragnet, said that many ASPs struggle because they are just selling the same products in a different way.

"Resellers will make money selling Site Manager because it is an application made for ASP delivery and is not just a product reformatted for this model. Obviously the reseller will get ongoing subscription margins but can also add income by supporting users and training them how to use the product. The reseller owns the customer relationship. We do not get involved with business users," he said.

Instead of charging the reseller for accreditation, the company is running a 'commitment scheme' for resellers of Site Manager. For £1000 resellers get two people trained on a two-day course and can use the product for their own business. If they achieve £10,000 worth of business in one calendar year they get the £1000 back.

"We don't want to charge resellers for accreditation so this is really more of an up-front commitment charge towards training," explained Goodley.