Plumtree reaches out to pick more partners
Vendor to expand channel after taking on dedicated executive
Web collaboration and portal vendor Plumtree aims to widen its partner base after taking on a dedicated channel executive.
Tony Sanders has been appointed as vice-president of worldwide channel operations and plans to recruit more partners to the vendor's two-tier channel programme.
Sanders admitted Plumtree has been mainly regarded as a direct vendor in the past. But he said it has made "significant internal management changes" to become more indirect.
"We have now finished our internal changes, but we are still in the infancy of revamping our channel. My job is to ensure that our direct and channel sales are on an equal footing," he said.
Sanders added that Plumtree will offer partner incentives such as a preferred rates structure and co-marketing funds.
"We are particularly interested in partners that can bring industry-specific solutions to bear on our platforms," he said.
Sanders said Plumtree will offer varied levels of accreditation which are currently "under review". The official new programme is due to be rolled out towards the end of the year.
James Governor, principal analyst at RedMonk, said: "Portal vendors are under pressure from application server vendors as they take on more portal functionality. Plumtree needs to get third parties to build its infrastructure to grow further."
Governor added that there is a market opportunity because Microsoft's products in this space "are not being that well received".
Channel players may look for alternatives to meet customer demands, but going up against the big guys is not easy, he added.
"IBM, Microsoft and SAP have unbelievable channel resources at their disposal, which makes competition tough," Governor said.