BMC in fresh channel drive

Enterprise management software company BMC Software has promised to double its reseller numbers to target potentially $30 million worth of channel business over the next year.

As part of the drive, BMC intends to increase the channel's contribution to Asia-Pacific revenue from 40 percent to 60 percent, including Australia and New Zealand.

It is targeting 25 percent to 30 percent growth in Australia and New Zealand or around $50 million in sales revenue for its financial year ending 31 March 2005.

The new BMC Partner Program is separated into two streams; one managing partner sales for traditional BMC Software solutions and the other managing sales for Remedy IT Service management solutions, the company said.

Over the past two years, the company has been on the acquisition trail, buying help desk software company Remedy and mid-tier helpdesk provider Magic. The company is also about to finalise its acquisition of Marimba.

BMC has also restructured its Melbourne-based internal sales division to focus exclusively on providing support services and demand generation opportunities for partners and resellers.

This division employs 16 staff that speak nine languages. It would focus on demand generation campaigns and deliver new business opportunities to partners, BMC claimed.

Telesales staff identify sales leads for new customers in various markets across Asia-Pacific. Once the lead is qualified, the customer is matched to a local partner that offers the right mix of skills to complete the sale.

In addition, the company has invested in developing a partner relationship management system which allows reseller partners to access BMC Software infrastructure to obtain product and sales information and access customer data and forecasting tools.

"The enterprise systems management market landscape is changing from one where players talk about software to manage technology, to one where clients are looking for a better value proposition in management of their technology," said

Paul Williams, MD, Australia and New Zealand at BMC Software. "Partners have to understand that and make that transition," he added.

BMC sells direct to a list of around 60 named accounts in Australia and 15 in New Zealand. The rest is open slather for channel partners.

A year ago, the company had 120 named accounts in Australia, Williams said. Today, it has around six named account reps and nine channel partner reps, he said. "Two years ago, it was 24 to 1," he added.

Steve Dixon, sales director at reseller Kinetica, said BMC was the company's best vendor partner and had developed clear rules of engagement when dealing with the reseller.

He claimed BMC was the only company "in our space" that was undertaking lead generation activities specifically for its channel partners.