Dexterra scales up channel sales, promotions

Mobility applications provider Dexterra has outlined plans to boost its channel sales to 90 percent of its revenue by adding staff and targeting specialist resellers with connector applications.

Drew Mitchell, vice-president for Dexterra Asia-Pacific, told CRN the software vendor had 40 percent direct and 60 percent indirect sales but wanted to boost its indirect sales to 90 percent of its business.

Channel sales were netting best results for the company, which had grown its sales revenue each quarter in the last year by 40 to 50 percent, he said.

"You can't grow that fast and deliver all the stuff yourself," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he could not give revenue or profit figures.

Dexterra would hire two more people in the coming quarter to support the expected growth in partner numbers. One would probably be a business development person and the other a technical pre-sales person to educate and support resellers, he said.

Mitchell said Dexterra was targeting resellers with a focus on verticals that used or could use quantities of mobility applications. Examples included financial services, government and fast-moving consumer goods sectors.

The vendor would aim its applications for connecting mobile devices to centralised backend systems such as Siebel CRM, he said.

Berri Juices was one of Dexterra's Australia-based customers, he said.

"Anyone who is delivering in a van to warehouse sites, that line of business lends itself to further mobility. A [suitable] customer might have 500 handheld devices," Mitchell said.

He said US-based Dexterra had connector applications for Siebel and other applications that worked with Oracle. Siebel's recent acquisition by Oracle would not affect Dexterra's business, he said.

"It just means we will have to talk to Oracle as well. We have connectors for Oracle applications," Mitchell said.

Many businesses wanted their staff to be connected to centralised databases and other corporate information as much of the time as possible. Dexterra -- a Microsoft .NET partner -- made its connecting applications run whether the user was connected to a wired or wireless network, he said.

"That's a key principle," Mitchell said.