UK channel strategist IDL opens Sydney shop

UK-based channel marketing company IDL has opened an Asia-Pacific headquarters in Sydney, with a view to selling more of its channel sales programs to locally based multinationals.

Carolyn Henley, marketing director for IDL Asia-Pacific, said IDL makes and sells channel marketing and strategy programs. Sales enablement, partner marketing planning, pipeline generation and sales tools would be offered.

The company did target system integrators and other channel players but its main clients were multinational companies or other organisations with offices abroad, she said.

“Repeatable solution sales – this is a core principle. A repeatable sale as opposed to a one of a kind sale is going to increase the bottom line profit,” she said.

A local office would help it lift sales not only in Australia but across the Asia-Pacific. Sydney had been chosen as the Asia-Pacific headquarters because of the number of IT companies of all kinds with local headquarters or strong operations in Australia, Henley said.

Customers globally included Accenture, Avnet, BEA, Cisco, HP, IBM and RSA Security.

Initially, Henley – who hailed from a 10 year IT background in companies such as FrontRange, Computer Associates and IBM – would be the only staff member in the new office. However, more employees would be eventually come on board, she said.

“We do have a couple of subcontractors who we'll probably look to bring in. We're waiting to see how we go,” Henley said.

Large IT companies had become more aware of time and money constraints, especially if those restrictions related to non-core business, she said.

Outsourcing channel marketing strategy let a customer harness the experience and expertise of a third party with broader and deeper view than was easily achieved within that customer's own business, she said.

Channel sales were again increasing after a couple of stagnant years. Meanwhile, new compliance issues around local and global regulations and legislations – such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II – made channel marketing more complex, Henley added.

She was surprised more companies weren't yet offering a similar service, although competitors – particularly in the form of smaller consultancies – did exist, she said.

IDL opened its first office in the UK in 1986 and its US office in 2001, she said.