Information Builders Aims New Partner Program at Bigger Clients, Deals

**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of recent important channel-program changes you should know.**

Information Builders this week launched Analytics Accelerator, a new partner program for systems integrators (SIs) and infrastructure companies to sell its WebFOCUS BI and analytics software globally.

The program includes the highest referral fees and highest margins of any Information Builders program. In addition, when discounting is required, the company will provide margin protection for an initial percentage — with shared responsibility for margin after that point.

Jake Freivald, Information Builders’ vice president of product marketing, tells Channel Partners the program was designed in conjunction with partners to “elevate the discussion to larger clients, larger applications and larger deals.”

“We have another reseller program, for example, that’s focused specifically on the analytical tool market,” he said. “Because it focused on the smaller reseller market, the number of Information Builders products that can be resold is more limited than in the Analytics Accelerator program, and the flexibility isn’t the same, either.”{ad}

While previous reseller programs only allowed partners to refer deals to Information Builders’ direct sales team or resell the WebFOCUS Business User Edition, the new program allows partners to refer or resell all WebFOCUS products, making it possible to do “extreme analytical applications,” Freivald said.

“The largest analytical applications in the world tend to be customer-facing (think of portfolio analytics for a bank or package tracking for a global logistics company) and serve millions of customers,” he said. “Instead of focusing only on the smaller side of the market, the Analytics Accelerator program will help us partner to attack the larger market, too, with large distributors and systems integrators.”

Program benefits include: business planning and co-marketing, including market development funds (MDF); joint opportunity development with dedicated account management; a tiered discount structure; protected deal registration; free sales and technical enablement; and mentorship from Information Builders sales and services.

“We really want our partners to feel confident that they will be able to talk about, sell and implement our solutions,” Freivald said.

The program has attracted more than 20 charter members, including LRS, Systech and Meridian IT.

“This partnership is a strategic step forward, accelerating our joint engagements and better serving our current and future clients,” said Steve Bickford, Meridian IT’s president. “Information Builders’ powerful analytics and visualization platform, combined with Meridian’s technology solution and support services expertise, deliver exceptional business value and greater return on investment to our clients.”