Found this on the Tech Investor site...
<< March 31, 1997, Issue: 729
Section: Service & Support
Datawatch seeks resellers to establish roots in U.S.
By Christina Torode
Wilmington, Del. -- Datawatch Corp. is seeking resellers to extend its stronghold from the
internal European help desk to the United States.
Datawatch's Q-Support help-desk and asset management system, marketed internationally
as Queztal through its London, England-based subsidiary WorkGroup Systems, may be used
in 1,000 sites in the United Kingdom and 3,000 sites worldwide, but it is virtually unknown
in the United States.
"It is difficult to come over here and say you're the No. 1 product in Europe and hear, 'Yes,
big deal,' '' said Bill Bostridge, general manager of Datawatch, based in Wilmington. "That
is why we need resellers to establish roots here. Right now, we are one of the smaller players
in this country, but we intend to change that."
At the Support Services Conference & Expo held earlier this month in Nashville, Tenn., an
estimated 200 vendors touted applications for the customer service industry, particularly for
managing help desks.
Fast-growing companies such as Remedy Corp. have established themselves in the midrange
market in part through partnerships with top systems integrators, leading Datawatch and
others to take the same approach.
"I hosted a seminar for the Help Desk Institute and when I asked the attendees why they had
not chosen a system yet, after several months of looking, they said it was because they were
overwhelmed by the choices," Bostridge said.
Another factor is committing to the cost of the systems, which range from $5,000 to
$500,000, depending on functionality sought by customers, he said. The average cost for a
15 to 20 Q-Support user license is $40,000 to $50,000. These factors result in hard sells and
lost interest on the part of resellers.
"There is usually no instant gratification on the revenue side when selling these products,"
Bostridge said. "Typically, lead times are pretty long, averaging one to six months and
sometimes longer before a sale is made."
The systems also are not easy to set up and maintain. Despite these roadblocks, Datawatch
is confident that with the right training and support, resellers will give Q-Support its needed
push into the midrange corporate marketplace.
"We will provide the backdrop for the resellers to start off with, but we expect the resellers to
take on responsibility for the accounts once they are up to speed," he said.
Datawatch wants to recruit a reseller for each of six U.S. territories and eventually establish
more branches once qualified resellers are found. The partners will be provided with five days
of on-site technical and sales training and a dedicated salesperson to help with demonstrations.
The company also is interested in partnering with vertically focused VARs due to
opportunities opening up in nontraditional help-desk markets such as banking and hospitals,
said Bostridge. |
