FutureLink Corp. was all the buzz yesterday at NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas, making a handful of announcements regarding its various reseller partnerships, its ASP offerings and its channel partner programs.
FutureLink Corp (FTRL) announced yesterday it signed a letter of intent with Merisel, Inc (MSEL) to provide U.S. resellers with an ASP offering through Merisel’s North American distribution business.
The initial pilot program will launch in June. Merisel will support and manage the fulfillment of FutureLink’s offering of MS Office, called OfficeConnect, one of three products the company debuted yesterday. This marks Merisel’s entry into the ASP market, as well as the availability of MS Office as an ASP service via Merisel.
“This is the new way we will sell-through distribution,” Roger Gallego, senior vice president, strategic business unit, FutureLink, told ASP-News.
Gallego also said the fee for OfficeConnect is $100 per user, per month. This includes all licensing.
Merisel will provide various reseller services including: technical and marketing support, ordering and training support, configuration services, hardware products, financial services, direct ship and leasing.
In addition to OfficeConnect, FutureLink relaunched two other ASP services, structuring them as standardized families.
AppConnect is a subscription-based offering of Onyx, Great Plains, Panorama Business Views, SalesLogix, Pivotal and Microsoft apps.
According to Gallego, the per user, per month charge will vary by application.
Desktop is a more traditional outsourcing proposition. “We take all the existing applications a company runs and their data,” explained Gallego. “We put it into our data center and deliver it back to their users.”
The base fee for Desktop is $155 per user, per month. “The average cost runs $200 to $250 per user with a suite of five or six apps,” Gallego said.
FutureLink also announced two new programs geared towards supporting the channel partners through which it sells ASP services.
The Gold program is a new partner support resource, developed in response to channel demand. Requiring an enrollment fee, the Gold program provides partners with marketing funds for pre-approved activities, ASP training, lead generation, use of a special partner logo and inside and outside sales support.
“This is for resellers who want to sell to all their clients,” Gallego said.
The Silver program provides partners with co-marketing support for pre-approved activities, a commission schedule based on total contract value and inside sales support. No enrollment fee is required.
“The purpose of the Silver program is for those who want to try this concept out,” Gallego said. “Resellers make about an eight percent commission on hosting fees.
Although FutureLink is in a quiet period, when asked about growing its volume in ASP services, Gallego did tell ASP-News, “We are certainly hoping to grow our revenues.”
ASP-News also asked Gallego if the Citrix integrator business would get less of a focus now. “We don’t make a huge distinction between the Citrix integrator business and the ASP business,” Gallego said. “But we expect the Citrix integrator business to grow also.”
