Software AG Sees Future In XML And Solution Providers

CEO Gary Voight is quietly shrinking the size of Software AG's professional services arm to draw more channel partners to work with the vendor.

In the past few years, 32-year-old Software AG shifted its product development focus to XML, a similar transformation occurred in the business side of the house, Voight said. In 1999, the Reston-based company employed 350 service staff members. It has reduced that to 150 employees today.

"We create a solution for a [vertical] industry, but we don't staff it," Voight said.

Voight said Software AG has pared its services staff by more than half.

To deliver the solution, Software AG's sales and professional services teams turn to partners with areas of vertical or technological expertise. "We are getting [partners] in the federal government and in financial services and insurance, and we have one partner that is big in media. We don't have enough time in life to build all the expertise necessary to go to market in all the verticals," he said.

Anand Mallipudi, vice president of sales and business development at Unique Computing Solutions, a Framingham, Mass.-based solution provider, said Software AG's Tamino XML database and other products "fit right in" with Unique's core pharmaceuticals and financial services markets. Unique recently upgraded its suite for pharmaceutical and financial clients following the release of Tamino 3.1, Mallipudi said.

"We needed a lot of the [features] in 3.1," he added.

Calnet, a McLean, Va.-based solution provider with a focus on telecommunications, manufacturing and health care, has also formed a partnership with Software AG. Calnet has used the vendor's Mediator XML integration tool, as well as Tamino, said Rolin Hua, a senior vice president at Calnet.

Software AG's "commitment to XML is a critical issue among systems integrators," Hua said, referring to Software AG's move away from proprietary products. "Even the federal government is basing [a number of] initiatives on what they are going to do with XML."