Data Quality Software Developer Naveego Launches First Channel Program, Steps Up Partner Recruiting

Data quality software startup Naveego is launching its first formal channel program, providing training, marketing resources and deal registration to the company's handful of current partners, and is recruiting a dozen more to sell the vendor's cloud-based software.

Naveego is also promising that the new Naveego Partner Success Program will provide channel partners with generous margins of as much as 60 percent.

"We just want to formalize how we work with partners," said CEO Derek Smith in an interview with CRN. "We are 100 percent channel. We have no direct sales force. We are absolutely channel-focused."

[Related: Naveego Expands Data Quality Offering, Touts Big Data Management Opportunities For Partners ]

Naveego's cloud-based data quality and master data management tools are designed to help detect, manage and eliminate data quality issues across hybrid cloud systems. The software monitors and measures data across cloud and on-premises business applications, identifying where data quality problems lead to business process breakdowns.

As businesses and organizations accumulate and process ever-larger volumes of data, often across disparate IT systems and applications, maintaining data quality has become a major challenge for IT departments.

Naveego, founded in 2013 and based in Traverse City, Mich., has touted the opportunities its data quality and master data management software create for channel partners to work with customers to manage the quality of the data that increasingly drives their business processes.

The company has worked with a few partners since it began selling its software, particularly data management consultants, but until now it did not have a formal partner program.

But as sales are ramping up and a dozen or so additional partners are in various stages of recruitment and on-boarding, the company was ready to make the move.

In addition to data management consultants, the company is recruiting systems integrators, particularly those that tackle large-scale data integration projects, and managed service providers. Solution providers that focus on data-centric business processes and bring vertical-industry expertise to the table are also being recruited.

The company expects to have about two dozen partners by the end of 2018, Smith said.

The Partner Success Program includes dedicated marketing resources such as market development funds, co-marketing campaigns and lead-generation activities. The program offers sales and technical training, deal registration and a newly built partner portal.

Naveego is also providing a proof-of-concept system that partners can use to perform data health assessments for prospective customers.

"Our partners are going to get a lot of focus from us," Smith said.

Stonebridge Consulting, a Tulsa, Okla.-based business advisory and technology services firm focused on the oil and gas industry, has partnered with Naveego from the software company's beginning. Stonebridge uses Naveego's software as part of its data management services and also implements the software for customers' master data management and data warehouse projects.

"This opens up new channels for us to generate new leads and grow our business," said Stonebridge Managing Director William Cummings, speaking with CRN about the new sales and marketing assistance the partner program will provide. And he praised the expanded training opportunities. "They're going to help our consultants get up to speed more quickly."

Cummings ultimately sees the increased assistance helping Stonebridge expand beyond North America into global markets. "We know we're going to be reaching out to a larger audience," he said.

Smith said Naveego's data quality and master data management cloud software also offers recurring revenue opportunities for solution and service providers.

The vendor charges partners a base price and partners then set the price for their customers – with margins ranging from 30 percent up to 60 percent "depending on how much value they can bring," the CEO said. Either Naveego or the partner handle the customer billing.

Partners also provide the first line of customer support.