The last time Corel made significant news was in 2003 when private equity firm Vector Capital acquired the one-time biggest software company in Canada for just over a buck a share. Kevin Thornton, Corel’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing for the Americas, wants the maker of CorelDraw to return to its former glory.
In 2011, Corel presented a full line-up of digital media and graphics software products at one of the must -attend trade shows, Computex in Taipei, and Thornton unveiled a new partner portal called Corel Partners.
This portal offers the channel access to current company product information, marketing collateral, sales tools, campaign information, box shots, promotions, and training services, as well as not for resale order forms, video tutorials, and sales webinars.
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One thing the portal doesn’t have is a lead generation engine. Thornton said that might come in the future if channel partners want it.
“It’s important for partners to have choices and they should represent products they believe in. Corel has long established channel relationships and we engage directly with partners. We have sales reps meeting constantly with larger partners and with that we created a strong base of value added resellers to Mom & Pop integrators who put bundles together for customers,” Thornton said.
Thornton also partnered with a specialty distributor in the virtualization market, Lifeboat Distribution. All of Corel’s products are still available at Ingram Micro Canada and Synnex Canada, but will now be on Lifeboat’s line card. Lifeboat sports a channel network of about 5,500 solution providers.
Besides Lifeboat, Corel also has a relationship with pure-play retail distributor Navarre of Minneapolis, Minn.
Thornton added that Corel’s Large Account Resellers will get a better licensing offer from Lifeboat.