With a number of recent acquisitions Corel Corp. isn’t just Draw and WordPerfect anymore, and the Ottawa-based software vendor is launching a major push to help its partner community understand the new Corel and take the company’s vision to market.
Long known for its flagship CorelDraw graphics software and its WordPerfect office productivity suite, Corel has been rounding-out its software portfolio over the years, adding applications like WinZip, Painter, Paint Shop Pro and iGrafx.
Last year, the vendor made two significant acquisitions in the form of InterVideo, makers of WinDVD, and Ulead, a developer of video, imaging and DVD authoring software. The deals move Corel into the digital media arena and Muffin Mott, Corel’s vice-president for channel sales, said Corel’s unifying vision revolves around content creation in all its forms.
“Whether it’s office productivity or graphics or digital media it’s all about content creation,” said Mott.
As this is a new space, not only for Corel but also for its 3,000+ global channel partners, the vendor is launching a major push to bring the channel up to speed on the new offerings and new digital media vision. To that end, Corel has launched a new channel program that includes a Corel Digital Media Sales Certification to help partners navigate the new offerings and seek out revenue opportunities with their clients. New sales support programs and a new partner portal have been created as well.
“With these new product offerings we really want to enable our channel partners to set their own direction and with Corel to customize programs for their specific needs,” said Mott. “We’re making a very large investment in the training aspect of our relationship with our partners.”
Corel is partnering with Cyberscholar.com on the training component of the certification, and optional on-site training will be available as well. Online modules will focus on different Corel products, helping partners understand the product positioning, benefits, technical components and customer needs from both technical and sales perspectives. An online quiz will follow each module, and once all the modules have been completed a partner will be Corel digital media certified.
“We want to educate our solution providers and channel partners so they’re set for that growth and that Corel is top of mind when they think about digital media,” said Mott. “It’s a significant investment for Corel, and I think channel partners will see that.”
She added as this is a new space for both Corel and its partners the vendor isn’t asking for much in the way of qualifications, but is opening the opportunity to the entire VAR community and providing the education they need to get started.
Carmi Levy, an analyst and senior vice-president of strategic consulting with Toronto-based AR Communications, said Corel is taking a broader definition of desktop productivity software than most other vendors in the space. And by coming at it from the video and digital media angle, a market that has been largely ignored by larger desktop players like Microsoft, it’s an interesting play for Corel.
“Rather than just creating static documents, Corel looks at all types of media and believes all of the offerings it has under the content creation software umbrella meet that definition,” said Levy. “They want to be your one-stop shop for content, no matter what type of content you’re working with.”
Finding partners with the skillsets to play across the office, graphics and video spaces will initially be a challenge for Corel, said Levy, as Corel’s content creation vision isn’t easily explained in a 30-second elevator pitch.
“It will take some training, it will take some investment, and it will take some time for vendors, resellers and VARs to internalize the value-proposition of these offerings, build them into their offerings and bring them to their clients,” said Levy. “This is not just a box you can pick up and sell off the shelf today, it’s something that needs to be more carefully explained and built into a full-service suite.”
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