Cognos South Africa, the local subsidiary of Ottawa-based business intelligence vendor Cognos Corporation, has reaffirmed its commitment to its South African channel partners amid recent concerns that Cognos is adopting a direct sales model.
The concerns were first voiced by a number of US- and Canadian-based resellers at Cognos`s recently held annual channel event, Kickoff 2002, but according to Gavin Lipshitz, divisional manager of Cognos SA`s largest channel partner PQ Business Intelligence, local resellers have nothing to be concerned about.
"The roles of Cognos SA and its channel partners are clearly defined and have minimal overlap where it matters most - the bottom line," says Lipshitz. "As a Cognos Premier Partner, our role has always been to sell, implement and support Cognos for all current and prospective Cognos users and customers throughout the region. We also provide training to Cognos users and are the only Cognos-accredited training centre in the country.
"Cognos SA is answerable to its corporate head office for the seats, or licences, sold in the region and their ongoing maintenance. It is therefore responsible for promoting and marketing Cognos to clients and to lay the foundation for our sales and implementation teams."
Cognos SA MD Peter Gerson says resellers should not confuse Cognos`s client-facing activities as a compromise of its channel commitment. "It`s no secret that we employ a hybrid direct sales model with existing and potential Cognos clients, but not on the same level as our channel," he notes.
"We engage all customers as Cognos and see the channel as an extension of Cognos the better to serve our customers. Our team is focused on engaging the customer at the enterprise level to ensure Cognos is installed as the business intelligence solution of choice; the solution is then always delivered by an integration partner."
Cognos has a three-tier channel structure that includes system integrators (SIs), channel marketing associates (CMAs) and application value-added resellers (AVARs). SIs are a full business intelligence shop, able to provide a total Cognos business intelligence solution from training and consulting to implementation, planning and ongoing maintenance and support. CMAs are associates with a niche market who use SIs to deliver a business intelligence solution to their customer base. AVARs are application resellers that front-end their specific applications with the Cognos products for business intelligence functionality.
Although the structure is currently under review, Gerson says this should be seen as a step forward to improving rather than weakening the successful five-year relationship Cognos has enjoyed with its partners since establishing itself in SA.
"The entire channel is under review and has been since the beginning of the Cognos financial year. This is due to the revamping of the certification programme worldwide and to local changes in our reseller base.
"Before this period we had only two qualified SIs in the country, and only one Premier Partner, PQBI. We hope to have the review process complete soon, and that our partners again match up to our exacting qualification standards.
"Looking ahead, we`re also hoping to add a few more partners to this list and continue to feed and grow the local channel," Gerson concludes.
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PQ Business Intelligence - a division of PQ Africa - is the centre for customer-oriented applications (COA) in the PQ Africa group, with offices throughout the country. In addition to its long-standing partnership with the world`s leading business intelligence and information delivery vendors, Cognos and Actuate, PQBI has also been appointed a Remedy master reseller and Verity International Partner, incorporating the group`s IT service management and CRM solutions and providing an end-to-end COA platform from the back-office to the customer-facing agent.
With over 85 specialist consultants, PQBI has the largest focused COA team in the country. It is also the largest Ascential Datastage software partner in SA, and the exclusive system integrator for Whitelight Systems, offering its clients the most comprehensive set of data warehousing and analytic application skills and products available for all their enterprise information requirements.
PQ Africa
PQ Africa was formed as a result of the merger of Persetel Holdings and Q Data. Comparex Holdings Limited has a 50% minus one share interest in PQ Africa. The black empowerment group NITAC (the National IT Acquisition Consortium), led by Real Africa Holdings Limited, holds a controlling interest of 50% plus one share in PQ Africa.
PQ Africa is SA`s leading provider of competitive, innovative and flexible business solutions based on information and communications technology. These comprehensive business solutions include systems integration, consulting, package implementation, software development, outsourcing, hardware, software, peripherals, voice, video and data communication systems, customer relationship management solutions and networking equipment and services. Internet solutions include the development and deployment of electronic commerce and electronic data interchange-based solutions and digital authentication.
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