Stratify, Inktomi Bundle Search, Categorization Software

Stratify is hoping an integrated solution and joint-sales alliance with Inktomi will make its document-categorization software more appealing to enterprise customers and expand its sales channels.

The two vendors Monday unveiled an alliance under which they will sell and support each other's enterprise applications as an integrated package. The offering includes Inktomi Enterprise Search and Stratify Discovery System.

"For Stratify, getting their [technology] out through the Inktomi sales channel is good thing," said Rob Perry, an analyst at the Yankee Group. "Inktomi has a bigger enterprise sales channel."

Stratify President and CEO Nimish Mehta said Stratify was also interested in building up its own channel for the technology, which helps companies classify and build taxonomies for documents.

"We want to move to a network of smaller VARs and solution providers that can provide value on top of this solution," he said.

Mehta said the alliance offers customers not only best-of-breed search and classification applications, but also an integrated solution that is supported by a single vendor. He said partners could share in sales revenue, as well as earn additional revenue for integration work and services such as helping companies build taxonomies.

While there are a number of vendors offering categorization and classification software, the market is still developing and vendors are only starting to figure out how to sell it, Perry said. The applications are often sold as part of portal or content management solutions.

Mehta said that although he prefers reseller agreements to OEM agreements, the company is pursuing both because it gives him better visibility into the market. The software also generally requires implementation services.

Stratify has a tiered pricing structure based on servers and number of documents involved. The cost for the software and implementation starts at about $175,000. Solutions bundled with the Inktomi search engine will generally start in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, he said.