Novell specialist Open Channel Solutions (OCS) has signed six new vendors and is considering signing another 16 in a virtual superstore venture that will give its resellers access to a massively expanded portfolio.
Geoff Quinn, national business manager at OCS Australia, said the superstore diversification would ramp up the opportunities available to Novell resellers with developers emerging in the Australian market.
Brisbane-based Moonwalk, Canberra’s intermine, Sydney Advansys, Bulgaria-based OpenNet, US-based Bakbone Software and British security vendor Sophos were initial signings in OCS’ expanded portfolio, he said.
“Sophos has never used a distributor in Australia before,” Quinn said. “We’re going to do the Novell-related stuff but could expand it later.”
OCS was poised for expansion in Australia, so major vendor partner Novell and OCS had put their heads together to cook up the superstore scheme, he said.
Con Fiamegos, managing director at OCS, said BakBone Software competed with Veritas and similar vendors in backup and restore. Its offerings were proving popular with American SMBs.
OpenNet was an Israeli company that had migrated to Bulgaria, but whose solutions were attracting potential deals in Western Australia, he said.
Also, Novell’s Brainshare forum in the US last week had thrown another 16 possible signings into OCS’ path. The distributor was developing a shortlist but the final number was yet to be decided, he said.
OCS’ 300 resellers accounted 60 to 70 percent of Novell’s customer base in Australia, mainly in the public sector. Novell’s other local distributor was Express Data, Fiamegos said.
“So with this, we’re going to get mostly government [customers] and use our Novell work to branch out,” Fiamegos said.
The distributor would add another salesperson to its team of nine, and a new technical hire was likely by August or September, Fiamegos added.
OCS’ online superstore is scheduled to open early April.
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