Data#3 signs deal with SharePoint specialist

Data#3 has picked up a new partner in local SharePoint specialist Scinaptic.

Scinaptic launched its flagship OnePlaceMail product in 2006 to provide connectivity from desktop applications to the cloud and is now looking to spread its wings and capitalise on recent strong growth.

CEO James Fox said the company identified a market opportunity to collect content that would otherwise sit dormant in personal inboxes, to bring it life in the cloud using Microsoft’s SharePoint, Office 365, or in private cloud environments.

Scinaptic began life as a direct sales operation, but as it grew became more reliant on partners to bundle OnePlaceMail with their own offerings.

It now conducts 80 percent of sales through the channel, but has avoided implementing a full 100 percent channel strategy due to an unwillingness to use a distributor.

“I don’t think it would be realistic to say it can ever be 100 percent, unless we go through distribution which we don’t want to,” Fox said. “We have sold through distribution into the enterprise market, but we don’t sign up overall. OnePlaceMail is always part of a bigger solution.”

Fox told CRN the company experienced growth of 35 percent year-on-year in its second quarter of 2012, from October to December, and 37 percent in the third. Fox attributed the growth to Scinaptic’s release of OnePlaceMail V6 in October.

Scinaptic is a licensed Microsoft partner across 28 countries. It recently updated its partner program to differentiate cloud partners and make it easier for customers to reach them, as interest in cloud services grows.

“Ultimately the clients are looking at a partner to build their solution, and with our new cloud partner program, they now know which partner to call on,” Fox said.

All partners are offered the same incentives, with margins ranging from 30 to 40 percent, and a 15 percent margin on support and maintenance revenue - Scinaptic’s strategy to stay engaged with clients. 

The company also offers partners not-for-sale licenses to use internally. 

Australian channel partners include OBS, nSynergy, Thomas Duryea, Gen-i, DSC-IT and RecordPoint. Fox told CRN the company was currently finalising agreements with two more cloud partners.