Managed Objects Inc plans to tap emerging demand among Fortune 5000 companies with solutions that are packaged and priced to appeal to reseller channels. Managed Objects president and CEO Siki Giunta said a newly recruited VP has been “charted to find new channels to the mid-market.”
Last month, the company hired Andrew Howard to head up Corporate Alliances and Channels. He previously global alliance director at Hewlett-Packard Co. The US channel operation will be up and running by June, with four new reseller partners already identifed, said Giunta.
Today the company does 75% of its business direct with customers, but next year Giunta has targeted that 35% will be through indirect sales.
The company intends offering its resellers a subscription pricing model rather than a perpetual license, with the business service management software customized into packaged solutions with pre-canned service catalogs and tailored dashboards that better suit distributors targeting certain vertical markets.
We have always been strong in financial services sectors, but we can now see that there are new opportunities in other sectors, Giunta said. We are going to be pushing very strong into utilities and energy, for instance. We have learned a lot from an earlier OEM arrangement with Ericsson on how to package our software to better suit certain market needs.
The CEO of the privately held McLean, Virginia-based vendor said the business has now been profitable for three quarters, and is generating respectable levels of cash.
Giunta said Wall Street is starting to take an interest in the company, and hinting at the possible prospect of an IPO, she said analysts have told her the business is now right in the zone.
