Last year, Melbourne, Fla.-based Innovative Routines International (IRI), Inc., The CoSort Company, took a step into the security space by introducing a new version of CoSort, its flagship file processing and data integration product. With new security and encryption features now built into CoSort Version 9 (V9), IRI executives say they are confident they will be able to build a channel partner base to increase the company’s presence in Canada by the end of this year.
CoSort is best known for its large data collection, processing and file capabilities, which include reporting, sorting, integration, conversion and manipulation, said David Friedland, vice-president of IRI. By introducing field-level data encryption and masking, including pseudonymization functions into CoSort V9 last year, Friedland said IRI is still developing its presence in the security market.
“We have not been in the security industry until very recently,” Friedland said. “For the last 30 years, we’ve been focused on data integration. Now, we’re looking for partners in Canada who can help us bridge data integration with security,” he added.
Although its main office is based out of the U.S., IRI has a global presence with customers around the world. In the U.S., Friedland said IRI deals direct to its customers, whereas overseas, IRI relies on resellers to help distribute its products.
Ray Corriveau, partner program manager at IRI, admits that IRI’s previous focus on the U.S. and its overseas markets has resulted in the company losing its focus on Canada.
“We haven’t paid enough attention to Canada,” Corriveau admits. “Over the years, I think we didn’t focus on Canada sufficiently enough and at this point, we realize we need to look at Canada again and get refocused. We’ve actually already started looking for Canadian partners,” he said.
Corriveau explains the company’s approach to building its Canadian channel base will be on attracting two types of channel partners across the country; resellers and solution providers. The company, he said will not be releasing any of its products to the Canadian distribution channel, but instead, will provide products to channel partners directly.
“With the nature of our products,” Corriveau said, “they don’t really fit in a distributor type of model because these are tools that are usually implemented as part of a project and are usually bundled together with other services.”
In Canada, Corriveau said IRI currently has FlexITy, a technology consulting, infrastructure and managed services solutions provider located in Richmond Hill, Ont. as its customer. He explains IRI hopes to further leverage on the business relations of Calgary-based CipherSoft, a software migration company and also a referral partner for IRI, as well to help the company build out its reach.
Corriveau said IRI is looking for companies that have a data integration, software and services business approach. He mentions Redwood City, Calif.-based Informatica Corporation’s Toronto location as an example of a prime target for IRI in Canada.
“We’d like to address and pursue the larger organizations,” Corriveau said. “My job is to reach out to potential channel partners and expose them to the benefits and features of our products.”
Along with establishing a tiered partner program and a solutions portal for its partners, Corriveau said depending on the level of partner participation, IRI’s incentives for various revenue levels will differ.
“As the partner’s participation rate grows, so do the incentives and training that’s provided to them,” he said. “Margins will start at 20 per cent.”
CoSort V9 is a product that provides IT managers and other business executives with the ability to manage data migration projects, application development and business intelligence needs. The solution, Friedland says, also can be used for a variety of other business needs since the product filters, selects and segments files and other business data. With respect to security, CoSort V9 can protect sensitive data that is either lying dormant or is in a transmission state by offering field-level data encryption and masking protection. The solution is also capable of running on the Unix, Linux and Windows platforms.
“CoSort protects flat files, which are also known as sequential files,” Friedland said. “With encryption, you can choose to encrypt your entire hard drive or a file. What our tool does is instead of doing it just at this level, we get even more targeted by allowing you to encrypt common files that go into applications like Excel or that are loaded into a database. For example, if you wanted to just encrypt the first name field in a file, you can do that at the column level,” he added.
Being able to encrypt at the field-level, Friedland said, is especially useful since the data remains in a more real-looking form. Protecting things that need to be protected offers users a more efficient approach to encryption since it still leaves data available and visible to those who need it, he adds.
Corriveau said IRI has a goal this year to sign on between five and 10 active partners to begin building its Canadian channel base. He also said he hopes to have five resellers who cover all of Canada within the next few months as well.
Friedland says IRI provides a unique value proposition for resellers since its CoSort product offers better efficiencies with the use of just one product.
“We’re offering a powerful and easy to deploy solution for people who want data processing and protection capabilities,” he said. “Its integrated security approach can be used as a standalone product or it can be combined with what’s already going on in an organization’s infrastructure,” he added.
