Wholesale application service provider (ASP) Cavillon Systems has signed a new reseller that will also add value to the range of applications and services Cavillon offers.
Sydney-based WebSecure Technologies offers a range of IT security products and services to its customer base, and will now begin reselling messaging, CRM and e-business applications hosted and managed by Cavillon. The agreement also sees WebSecure offering its managed security services to Cavillon's clients.
WebSecure Technologies director Stewart Sim, formerly channel manager for networking products at Intel Australia, said using a wholesale ASP to offer additional services meant he could add significant value to the firewall, e-mail content filtering, intrusion detection software and digital rights management software his company offers.
WebSecure has begun two trial implementations of Cavillon's suite of messaging applications. It is reselling a managed messaging service, based on Lotus Domino at the back-end and Microsoft Outlook at the front-end, to two companies with between 200 and 600 users.
Cavillon CEO Kent Duston said that although messaging was already an application most businesses in Australia had invested in, the necessity and the high cost of an upgrade makes renting an attractive option.
"A lot of companies are running messaging programs that are over five years old, and want to upgrade," he said. "But the cost of an upgrade is too much, they'd rather be spending it on their core business. So they are looking for an alternative."
Sim believes the current economic conditions add further fuel to the ASP fire. "When capital expenditure is refused, but there is still a need to upgrade, there is nowhere else to go," he said. "It's almost forcing them to look at ASPs."
Under the agreement, WebSecure will manage the customer relationship and billing, and will also be the first point of contact for technical support. But if WebSecure consultants cannot solve a particular ASP-related problem, it will be passed on the Cavillon staff.
Duston said most of Cavillon's current Australian reseller base, which now comprises about a dozen consultants, IT resellers, ISPs and telcos, add value to the ASP in some way by bundling the applications with their existing services. So while Cavillon's hosted applications are pitched to WebSecure's 300-strong medium and large-size customers, the agreement also gives WebSecure a new channel for its security services.
"It's a bit of a you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' scenario," said Duston. "This is a typical reseller agreement for us. The reseller adds on other services and products that are relevant to their customer base."Photograph: Stewart Sim, WebSecure Technologies director
