With a presence already established in the U.S., Canadian-based e-mail archiving solution vendor Jatheon Technologies Inc. is going back to its roots as it aims to build a base of Canadian channel partners says the company’s president, Kieron Dowling.
The Toronto-based company was founded in 2004 and launched its first product in 2006. Dowling says the company originally sold its products through a direct sales force before deciding it needed to build a channel community and strategy.
“We wanted to migrate to a channel model and build a network of channel partners,” Dowling said. “At first, we turned all of our attention to the U.S. market but then we realized there are also market opportunities in Canada. Since Canada is our home base, we wanted to make Canada one of the main pillars for our growth strategy.”
Today, the company has relationships with more than 50 active channel partners including large account reseller Softchoice, which sells into both the U.S. and Canadian markets. While more than 90 per cent of the company’s overall revenue currently comes from its indirect channels, Dowling said he hopes to eventually move towards a 100 per cent channel model.
By the end of the year, Dowling said he’d like to have 20 “good Canadian resellers” signed up with Jatheon. In terms of an ideal partner profile type, Dowling said he’s looking for regional-focused value-added resellers in major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
“We’re looking ideally for a partner who’s in the IT security space who wants to add e-mail archiving solutions into their portfolio,” Dowling said. “Resellers who sell spam filters, firewall and other IT related products would also be a good fit. They’d also need a good base of customers and would need to have the infrastructure of sales and technical support.”
Jatheon’s flagship Plug n Comply appliance focuses on ease of use and simplicity, Dowling explained.
“You essentially take the device out of the box, plug it into your mail server and 10 minutes later, it’s up and operational,” Dowling said. “It’s very easy to use.”
The Plug n Comply appliances suit the needs of businesses that are under 100 employees, and can scale up to organizations between 5,000 and 10,000 users, Dowling explained.
Partners achieve 30 points of margin on Jatheon products, with the ability to earn more through other complementary product and services sales.