Server Appliance Vendor Looking To Beef Up Channel Sales

That product was a server appliance from Adomo, a vendor that hoped a trial run of its offering would convince the reseller to become a partner.

The sales pitch worked, and Adomo is now on its way to building a network of channel partners. If everything goes as planned, the company will rely on nearly 30 solution providers for about 50 percent of its business by the end of 2003, said Jeff Snider, CEO of the company, based here.

Adomo's appliance, called the AdomoMCS (mobile communications server) plugs into an existing Microsoft Exchange environment and gives mobile users wireless access to e-mail, calendars and contact information using voice-recognition technology. The user picks up a phone,any phone,dials an access number and identifies himself or herself to Adomo, which then reads the user's e-mail messages. The user can also review and create calendar appointments and send out meeting requests.

"We've taken all the pieces needed for this type of solution,hardware, software and some wireless services,and rolled them into a single pizza-box-size appliance that sits 100 percent behind the firewall," Snider said. "Other companies offer individual components, but we're offering an all-in-one application."

Last month, Adomo released an enhanced version of the server, which now can place calls for users and initiate contact with them when important messages are received.

Adomo's end-user customers span multiple industries, including government, education, legal, architecture, financial services and utilities, Snider said.

Full Service Networking, a Cincinnati-based solution provider and Adomo partner, said it has been successful selling the server appliance to customers in the education market, which accounts for about 40 percent of the company's business.

"One district we've worked with has a lot of visiting and special education teachers who don't have their own rooms or computers," said Don Sivits, CEO of Full Service. "What happens is their e-mail goes directly onto the Exchange server, where it's retrieved by Adomo when a teacher calls in."

For Full Service, the Adomo offering opens the door to opportunity, Sivits said.

"In and of itself, the Adomo appliance doesn't give me a chance to do much value-add. It's easy to install and run," he said. "But what it does is put us in touch with the core of a customer's network. After installing Adomo, we know how the customer's Exchange server is set up. Adomo is a great thing to bring back to a customer we're already working with. And it's a high-margin product in a low-margin market."

In building its reseller base, Adomo is looking for solution providers who sell Exchange and work in voice solutions, Snider said.

The company's success will be based in part on how well it follows through on this channel strategy, said Scott Heinlein, senior consultant at TeleChoice, an analyst and consulting firm.

"Adomo has come up with a very practical solution here, but the key will be how they reach their target market," Heinlein said. "If they sell the appliance through customers' IT departments, they'll have a hard time being successful. To an IT manager, the appliance is just another piece of hardware they have to support. But if they can use the channel to generate excitement about Adomo among the business users themselves, they could do very well."