Apptix 'Demerger' Good News For VARs

Earlier this month, the Norway-based company spun off its existing service-provider enablement business in a "demerger," creating Apptix ASA as a standalone entity whose core mission is to help other companies deliver hosted applications and Web services. But where its parent company focused primarily on network service pro-viders, the new entity is looking for VARs and solution providers who can deliver hosted messaging and collaboration solutions.

The company entered the U.S. market as TeleComputing in 1999 with the intent to become a standalone ASP, investing $40 million to build Tecos, a hosting support platform based on Microsoft .NET. But instead of using Tecos internally, the company quickly found other service providers interested in leveraging its capabilities. So it began targeting network service providers that wanted to offer clients hosted applications and services under their own private brands. Since then, the company has grown to host more than 14,000 users.

"Today we are primarily focused on messaging, collaboration and communications solutions, and the primary application we are enabling is Microsoft Exchange," says Apptix president and CEO Jason Donahue, formerly head of TeleComputing's North American operations.

With the creation of Apptix, the company expanded its strategic relationship with Microsoft. Now the software giant considers the company its lead enabler for hosted applications globally.

Apptix is planning to implement a new channel program, targeting Microsoft-certified VARs with annual revenue of $50 million or more. "Those companies are often already supporting Microsoft Exchange migrations or upgrades and, in many cases, are interested in gaining annuity revenue or recurring revenue," Donahue says. "So we're designing a program that allows us to take the Tecos platform and very quickly customize it on a shared infrastructure for VARs."

The company's long-term strategy is to position Tecos as a comprehensive, turnkey offering that VARs can use to deliver hosted applications and Web services. "If a VAR is delivering existing IT solutions to a customer, we can build a branded management portal for that VAR that allows it to deliver and provision Exchange, unified communications or shared-point services," Donahue says. "So the VAR can provide migration services to an Exchange platform, as well as support, while Apptix hosts the servers."