Talend Continues Channel Expansion Efforts, Touts European Success

One year after Talend launched its VAR program in Europe, the channel now accounts for about 20 percent of the big data software developer's new subscription business in that region, the company said this week.

The European program, which is focused on France, Germany and the U.K., has also recruited 30 reseller partners in those countries.

The expanded channel efforts in Europe are part of a broader push by Talend to grow its presence in the channel globally, including in North America. Founded in France in 2006, the company now is based in Redwood City, Calif.

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"Our VAR program has produced significant growth and momentum since it kicked off, enabling us to keep pace with the increase in product demand we are experiencing," said Francois Mero, Talend's senior vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), in a statement. "Importantly, our VAR program is empowering participants to expand their relationships with existing customers, acquire new clients and drive new and recurring streams of revenue."

Talend fields a number of products designed to help businesses and organizations work with the increasing volumes of data generated by transaction processing systems, sales and marketing applications, social media and external data sources.

The vendor's product lineup includes the Big Data Integration software for Hadoop and Spark, master data management (MDM) and data quality management tools, cloud and application integration technologies, and the Talend Data Fabric, which combines multiple products into one platform. Talend also offers free open-source versions of some of its products under the Open Studio name.

Datalytyx, a London-based solution provider that focuses on big data, digital transformation, governance, and analytical systems and services, was the first company to join the European program last year. It has since created one of the largest Talend consulting practices in the EMEA region and was Talend's largest global VAR in 2015.

"We've benefited significantly as a result of being part of the Talend European VAR program," said Justin Mullen, director at Datalytyx, in a statement. "The technical training and support they provided, and the collaborative working relationship has helped ensure the smooth execution of our customer engagements. Like all relationships, it must be two-way to make it work and that's what we have with Talend."

Datalytyx is using Talend Big Data software to construct a data lake system for a major pharmaceutical company and Talend Data Quality to assemble a new compliance system for the customer. The solution provider is also using Talend software for data warehouse and data lake projects for Calor Gas in the U.K. and a master data management project for Jaeger, a London-based clothing retailer.

Talend has more than 200 partners worldwide, including VARs and distributors, systems integrators, ISVs, consulting companies and OEMs, said Michael Pickett, Talend's channel chief, in a recent interview with CRN. Pickett, officially vice president of business development and partner ecosystems, joined Talend on Oct. 1 and is charged with growing the company's worldwide partner network.

"We have a great set of partners today," Pickett said, noting that about 50 percent of Talend's sales generally involve a partner at some level. "I look at them as an extension of our sales team."

While Talend is continuing to recruit additional partners, the company is focused on growing its presence within large enterprise customers, and Pickett said the emphasis now is on helping partners win such customers.

"It's really about taking it to the next level" and deepening relationships with such partners as Capgemini, Accenture, Tata Consultancy Services and Atos that provide strategic services for overcoming big data problems, Pickett said.

"Talend is one of our three biggest [vendor] partners worldwide," said Herve Uzan, managing director of France and Southern Europe at Keyrus, a Levallois-Perret, France-based solution provider, in an interview. The company joined the Talend partner program last year, although it has worked with Talend's software since 2009. Keyrus' customers include midsize businesses, to which it frequently resells Talend software, and large enterprises, for which it focuses on services and often leaves the software license sales to Talend.

Keyrus uses Talend's data integration, data quality and MDM software to create enterprise-wide business intelligence systems for clients, migrate older BI systems to new technologies, and implement data governance systems and practices. The company contracted with 20 new customers last year using Talend's products, Uzan said.

Talend, meanwhile, has been expanding its partner program offerings, both in the European VAR program and globally. Those include sales incentives for selling solutions in specific areas such as master data management and analytics, more partner enablement content including sales and marketing material, and more use-case-based technical training, Pickett said.

Depending on the level of participation, partners can also qualify for access to dedicated technical support lines, presales product support, and sales leads from Talend marketing activities.

Talend recently held its annual sales kickoff event and Pickett said his message to the vendor's sales force was to align themselves with VARs -- especially for sales in specific verticals -- and to generate joint opportunities. And he encouraged them to learn from the customer experiences of systems integrator partners.