Workshare promotes new partner program

Software vendor Workshare has introduced a new global partner program to boost sales of its corporate document security applications.

Workshare said in a statement that its new Integrity Partner Program would target partner sales around the world in the corporate document security applications market -- a sector that Workshare claims is worth around US$274 million globally.

The company said the program would offer "strong financial rewards" to resellers, system integrators and partners, such as rebates and incentives for exceeding sales targets.

Also, proposal-based co-op funds would be given for partner marketing initiatives that raised volumes and profit. A partner relationship system would offer a "lead to close" business tracking method by the end of the year, the company said.

Andrew Pearson, managing director at Workshare Asia-Pacific, said the vendor had a "channel-first" approach. Integrity partners would each be assigned their own dedicated sales, marketing and technical people from Workshare, he added.

"We ... provide each partner with a full commitment of time and resource to grow in document security," Pearson promised.

The partner program would let resellers extend their product, consulting and service offerings to include document security. The potential market comprised 200 million Microsoft Office System business users globally, he claimed.

The program launch would be supported by various activities and events this year, yet to be outlined, he said.

Pearson claimed document content security was a fast-growing part of the market. Workshare made twice as much money via indirect channels in the last year. It boasted about 750,000 users, comprising 5,000 customers in 60 countries.

Workshare offered a suite of products for Microsoft Office, including Workshare Professional for secure document compliance, Workshare Protect for policy-enforced document security and Workshare DeltaView for document verification.

Workshare products were compatible with Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise. Also, Workshare applications worked with Microsoft SharePoint and document management systems from Hummingbird, Interwoven and Documentum.