News
Adesso To Launch Partner Program
Adesso Systems, Inc. will use Microsoft's WorldWide Partner Conference,
which kicks off in Boston on Tuesday, to raise the curtains on its first partner
program aimed at developers looking to create Web-based mobile and distributed
applications.
The AppsNow Partner Program, which comes a month after the company launched
its Web-based AppsNow development platform, has three levels of membership.
Those levels are distinguished by the level of commitment a business partner
is willing to make to marketing and selling the company's development
platform and not the volume of product they sell, according to company officials.
"This program is less about volume and more about a partner's business
commitment. Commitment not in the sense of dollars but to the amount of resources
they apply and the level of training and certification levels they want to achieve,"
said John Van Siclen, who was appointed CEO of Adesso late last month. "We
envision this program will be the cornerstone of our business model going forward,"
Van Siclen said.
Adesso will not focus on partners who specialize in any one particular vertical
market given the AppsNow development environment can be used to customize applications
for virtually any market, Van Siclen said. Adesso hopes to sign up "hundreds
of partners" over the next six to 12 months, he said.
"We have four constituent audiences, ISVs, systems integrators, enterprise
class developers and entrepreneurs," Van Siclen said.
The three levels of the new program are called Now.Registered, Now.Partner
and Now.Gold Partner. All three entitle developers to receive free development
software, free marketplace access for beta testing and feedback, free developer
support, and free access to the company's NowForums.
The Now.Registered program has a low barrier to entry, according to Van Siclen,
and is intended for those developers who primarily want to simply investigate
and evaluate the technology to see is they might be interested in making a more
serious commitment.
The Now.Partner level is the first "business level" where developers
create applications using the company's development environment with Adesso
supplying the hosting for and marketing and selling of those applications. Adesso
charges a fee to host the applications and takes a cut of the net revenues from
the sales of the applications.
The Now.Gold Partner program gives partners preferential treatment involving
a number of different marketing opportunities such as preferred positioning
in catalogs and access to on-premise solutions.
"It will take more certification and support requirements [to qualify
for Now.Gold Partner status] but it offers added flexibility to their business
models," Van Siclen said.
Now.Partner and Now.Gold Partner members are also given access to Adesso's
AppsNOW Marketplace, a new hosted, software-as-a-service platform designed to
accelerate a partner's "time to revenue," while helping them
maintain control over sales, marketing and support. Members pay a monthly hosting
fee, as well as a portion of net revenue proceeds they derive from their applications,
to Adesso. Adesso handles all the hosting, analysis and billing, so partners
can focus more on development efforts.
Adesso will not sell the development environment direct and will depend solely
on partners for sales. The company will be out pitching users on the products
but all leads will be turned over to partners, company officials said.
"It is similar to the (Lotus) Notes business model in that there will
be demand stimulation on our part but that demand will all be fulfilled by a
partner. Once we introduce the partner it is their ball to pick up and run with,"
said John Landry, chairman and founder of Adesso, and former CTO of Lotus Development
Corp.
About the Author
Ed Scannell is the editor of Redmond magazine.