Redwood City Ð Looking for more partners to help sell NEXTSTEP to corporate sites, NeXT has set up a special sales, marketing, and support effort armed at medium-sized systems integrators.
The new program, called the Object Channel, "will serve integrators whose major thrust is consulting and development services and who will create demand by recommending NEXTSTEP in their deployments," according to Bill Wesemann, NeXT's vice-president of North American sales.
Object Channel partners will include integrators and value-added resellers with sales in the $5Ð$20 million range. The key qualifier is that the organization creates demand for NEXTSTEP through the other services that they offer.
Integrators must apply for admittance into the program and then pay a $7000 fee in return for a basket of services, including: two copies each of NEXTSTEP developer and user versions, one two-week course and two shorter courses, telephone support for one year, some form of certification yet to be determined, and reseller discounts on product.
"With NEXTSTEP's shorter development cycles, integrators can bid a project at a lower overall cost and win the bid. Further, the integrators increase their profit margins on subsequent projects for other customers because so much of the code is reusable," Wesemann said.
NeXT has hired five dedicated sales reps to recruit and service the new partners. According to Wesemann, NeXT has structured its relationship with the existing direct sales force to encourage teamwork between groups.