LiveVault Zeros In On Midmarket

The company is teaming with Agency Management Services (AMS), an application developer and service provider working with independent insurance agencies, to offer LiveVault's off-site data protection service.

The online service, available to AMS customers this week, is designed to replace manual tape backup procedures by sending data transactions in realtime to Iron Mountain, a Boston-based secure data center.

AMS is bundling LiveVault's online backup service with its Agency Management System, a software package akin to a CRM application that handles insurance policy, contact and marketing management, among other functions.

"We're always looking for a variety of ways to help our customers be more profitable, and services such as LiveVault's backup solution,which takes the workload off the customer,are key to this strategy," said Ken Schultz, vice president of AMS, Windsor, Conn.

LiveVault is offering partners a base margin of 25 percent of the monthly recurring fee that LiveVault charges customers. LiveVault's average deal size is $20,000 per year, said Daniel Stevenson, vice president of channel marketing at the Marlborough-based company.

The company emphasizes an indirect sales strategy, with all leads going through its channel, Stevenson said. "We spend a lot of time helping partners develop business plans and marketing plans, as well as supporting them through the sales process," he said. "Our sales team works side by side with the partner for the first few sales."

LiveVault does not intend to saturate the market with partners. Rather, the company plans to protect its partners' geographic sales regions, Stevenson said.

"We want them to be profitable with our product and not have them compete with five or six other companies in their area," he said.