TouchStar Launches Channel Partner Program
TouchStar Launches Channel Partner Program
2008-02-08
By Sara Driscoll
Unified communications vendor TouchStar will back its channel program with $1 million
in marketing and incentives funding. Unified communications vendor TouchStar has
launched a channel onslaught backed up with $1 million in marketing and incentives
funding.
The company, which started life in 1998 as a predictive dialer vendor, has made three
acquisitions over the past three years, DigiSoft Computers, Sigmaworx and Data-Tel
Info Solutions, which has enabled it to expand its product line and channel.
Brian Smits, global director of Marketing at TouchStar, said the firm has concentrated
mainly on the small and midsize business market and has not actively promoted its
channel program in the past. "We are now moving up into the enterprise with our new
call center system, which will be priced aggressively," he said. "With our acquisitions
we have all the technology of the big three in our market—Avaya, Nortel and Cisco—
but with more attractive price points, so it is the right time for us to reach out to the
channel."
Smits said TouchStar has a three-tiered channel program and has added more
resources to its channel support. "We are backing this up with just under $1 million to
stimulate the channel and do things such as joint marketing with partners."
Smits said the vendor is on a recruitment drive for VARs to sell its SMB products: the
IP PBX, CallGenX and Unify. Unify is TouchStar's browser-based unified
communications application server, which is installed on-site at the user's location and
supports multiple offices in multiple locations.
The system can also support multiple phone systems and communications devices,
and gather information from multiple databases on the back end. Smits admitted that
the system does not yet contain a CRM (customer relationship management) element,
but he said this was currently underway.
Unify is also a module in the call center system, TouchStar 2008, a new enterprise
product. Smits said TouchStar would sell the enterprise product direct to end users in
the United States, while its channel focus would be on the SMB sector. "We are not
saying VARs in the United States cannot sell the enterprise product, and we only have
20 direct salespeople in the U.S., so it is very manageable if the channel has enterprise
deals."
About TouchStar
TouchStar is a rapidly growing world class provider of call centre software, hosted call centre software, predictive diallers, IP PBX, voice messaging, and call centre long distance services. TouchStar acquired Digisoft in 2005 and Sigmaworx in 2006, and has been named as one of the Denver Business Journal’s “Fastest Growing Large Private Companies in Colorado” for four years in a row. TouchStar is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has offices in Pune, India; Mumbai, India; New York, New York; Davenport, Iowa; Manchester, England; and Manila, Philippines.
Contact: Marketing Manager
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