ChannelCandy: Sweeter Mobile Apps for Channel Partners?

From Cisco Sytems (CSCO) to Verizon (VZ), roughly 50 technology companies and associations now use ChannelCandy as the foundation for  mobile smartphone and tablet apps. But what exactly is ChannelCandy and where are company co-founders Bob Godgart and Jay McBain taking the mobile apps platform next?

First, a little background. As you may recall, Godgart and McBain co-founded ChannelEyes in late 2011. Earlier, Godgart was CEO and co-founder of Autotask, and McBain had channel-centric positions at Autotask and Lenovo. ChannelEyes is a Facebook-like platform is designed for technology companies and their channel partners. It’s certainly promising but building social networks and online marketplaces — that continually pull vendors and partners back into the conversation — is a tricky task.

Now along comes ChannelCandy, powered by ChannelEyes. Released in early 2013, it’s is a mobile platform (supporting Apple iOS and Google Android) for channel programs. It delivers:

The bottom-line goal: ChannelCandy hopes to empower technology vendors that want to communicate, engage and enable their partners.

ChannelCandy Mobile App Modules

The ChannelCandy platform has multiple modules that allow technology companies to push, engage, measure and manage content outcomes. Add-on modules include:

Interesting Stuff

Frankly, The VAR Guy is intrigued. Godgart and McBain offered some growth information on background during last week’s call — and the information sounded promising. Also, the ChannelCandy pricing model is extremely simple — an annual subscription fee, in fact. Sorry, The VAR Guy can’t spill the beans on exact pricing…

Will the ChannelCandy mobile app business enjoy sweet success? It’s always difficult for The VAR Guy to make firm predictions when he doesn’t have access to deep financial information — past, present, future. But Godgart and McBain seem to reaching out to all the right sources.

Axcient, HTG Peer Groups, StorageCraft and several other channel-friendly organizations use ChannelCandy for various mobile apps. The VAR Guy hasn’t had a chance to check in with those sources… But stay tuned for potential updates.