To push it to market, the software company has teamed with Tech Data Canada in hopes of broadening its reseller coverage in the small to mid-size space.
“When you look at the majority of Oracle’s existing reseller base, they are focused on enterprise accounts,” said Mark Edwards, channel manager at Oracle Canada.
Oracle needs help getting to SMB focused partners, he added, and so turned to Tech Data for help.
Greg Myers, vice-president of marketing at Tech Data Canada said, “these are two leading technologies in the marketplace that previously had not been widely available
to the Canadian resellers.”
Myers added that Fusion middleware is an opportunity for VARs and network integrators to begin developing more robust Web-based solutions for clients.
“The margin potential with this product set is outstanding,” said Myers. “As resellers try to increase their dependency on services and software to offset the challenges in selling hardware, this becomes a potential new opportunity to develop another practice within their organization.”
Edwards said Oracle is planning to work with Tech Data on “ramping and recruitment, training partner sales forces on how to prospect and find Oracle opportunities and bring them to closure, bringing up partners’ implementation capabilities up to speed and making sure they have the delivery capabilities to capitalize on the services opportunity.”
According to Randy Smith, Oracle’s director of global distribution, the SMB initiative which began with Tech Data in the U.S. seven months ago has been warmly received by the channel.
“There are products here that address SMBs,” said Smith. “We’re no longer just an enterprise-centred company, these are products that go downstream, enabling resellers to add more value to their solution stacks.” Smith added the base code of the products are the same as the enterprise suite, only with a smaller footprint and price suitable for SMBs.
The Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One, for example, has a list price in Canada of $177 per user.
Myers said Tech Data should be able to target 30 to 40 new partners for Oracle this year.
“We’ll analyze our customer base and take cues from Oracle to find out where their applications are being deployed,” Myers added.
