Yosemite Sweetens The Pot For Partners

The company's TapeWare software application comes in myriad versions for backing up and recovering data for desktops and single- and multiple-server applications. TapeWare competes with Computer Associates International's ARCserve and Veritas Software's Backup Exec, said Robert Checketts, vice president of marketing at Yosemite.

Yosemite focused mainly on OEMs until December 2001, when it signed Ingram Micro as its exclusive distributor. The company now prefers to work almost exclusively with the channel, except for its OEM business, which has been decreasing steadily relative to revenue, Checketts said.

Yosemite now divides its solution providers into three tiers. At the Authorized level, partners that commit to purchasing a $99 marketing tool receive demo products worth about $3,000, Web and print advertising templates, specification sheets and Web-based training, he said.

Business-level partners commit to selling $25,000 worth of TapeWare software annually, and in return receive sales leads and market-development funds equaling about 2 percent of sales, Checketts said. The company also offers on-site training for partners.

Solution providers that commit to $100,000 per year or more in sales qualify as Premier partners, making them eligible for joint sales calls with Yosemite salespeople as well as up to 5 percent in market-development funds, he said.

Michelle Levenson, vice president at GHA Technologies, a $30 million solution provider based in Scottsdale, Ariz., said TapeWare has become a good seller because of the price customers pay compared with what they pay for competing products.

TapeWare is also unique in that unlike competing products, it's Linux-ready out of the box, Levenson said. "Feedback from our customers is that [Yosemite's] Linux application is excellent," she said.

Fresno-based Yosemite has been very good at passing leads to GHA, Levenson said. "They seem to be making a concerted effort to get name recognition," she said. "They know folks like us have more feet on the street than they do."

Yosemite works with about 4,000 solution providers in North America, thanks in large part to its recruitment drive last year, Checketts said.