EPiServer in talks with Logica

Swedish vendor EPiServer has entered talks with Logica to join its local systems integrator ranks less than three weeks after it set up shop in Sydney.

The vendor, which makes content management system (CMS) and online community software, appointed Andreas Stjernström as its country manager for Australia and New Zealand and has also hired a sales engineer.

Its partners include the trans-tasman integrator Intergen and web and digital agencies such as Ares and 303. The vendor is 100 percent channel-focused, Stjernström said.

Before it set up a Sydney office, the vendor's Swedish head office would send out a representative once a year to help local partners out.

"It's a very long trip," Stjernström said. "It's crucial for us to have someone down here because it's such an important market."

Stjernström said Logica were already a "very good" partner for EPiServer in the Nordics and confirmed local discussions with them had commenced.

He was also eyeing a relationship with Fujitsu but discussions were yet to be initiated.

Web development agencies were also a key "channel" for the company. EPiServer in particular targeted agencies that had developed their own in-house CMS that they used in client projects.

Stjernström believed Australian and New Zealand agencies would follow the lead of their counterparts in Europe in dumping in-house systems in favour of vendor products.

"The feeling I've got from talking to customers here is they like the web agencies and the job they do but they don't like the CMS product they use - they want it to be better," he said.

"The problem is when they want updates or new features added web agencies can't always see they can make money from putting in the development hours required to create that specific feature.

"Web agencies should focus on customer needs [rather than product development]," Stjernström said.

Stjernström said EPiServer partners received "some sort of discount" on the list price of the software, depending on their partnership level in the program. He did not reveal the different margin sizes.

Australian customers included Museum Victoria, Diabetes Australia and Perth Zoo. In New Zealand, it counted 10 local councils as customers as well as financial services firms AXA, AMI and AMP.