KnowNow Builds Channel Network

"We have decided to work exclusively with partners," said Richard Treadway, KnowNow's vice president of marketing. "We are telling our salespeople to direct their business through partners. That means we will do the initial lead generating and then send it to potential customers' preferred buying partners."

KnowNow's software uses http as the messaging layer to publish-and-subscribe constantly refreshed data to any application. With the software, customers can, for example, continually update cells in an Excel spreadsheet, create reports that glean data from many databases and alert users to changing inventory levels or auction prices.

Founded in 2000, the Sunnyvale, Calif., began to pick up sales momentum last year with 45 new customers, giving KnowNow 53 customers in total, said Treadway. The company hopes a growing network of "solution partners" will add to that customer base. "We believe our best reach to customers is through partners who can build solutions around our technology, which is very horizontal," said Treadway. "We think the typical deployment will be 50/50 products and services."

KnowNow has signed 59 partners so far, including eLoyalty, PowerTest, SRS2 and WorldChain. Another is Accius Systems, a Winchester, Mass., systems integrator that focuses on the energy and financial services sectors. "The technology initially attracted us to KnowNow; it's versatile, easy to use, easy to install and easy to integrate," said Doug Moore, president of Accius. "They're extremely easy to work with. Their inside salespeople are well-motivated to work with me as a partner. Wherever I turn I get support."

Under its new program, KnowNow partners will keep 100 percent of the revenue they generate through maintenance and support. KnowNow will issue joint press releases with partners, cross-listed on the company's and partners' Web sites, as well as publish joint "success stories." "And those success stories will have a dedicated account manager for that partner and all of his activities," said Treadway.

Partners will receive 12 hours of technical training, four hours of sales training and certified testing, all delivered over the Web. In addition, all partners will receive:

* 10 free instances of escalated support from KnowNow

* Not-for-resale versions of the software

* A demo package containing all of KnowNow's demonstrations

* 30 percent discount off MSRP.

The program costs $5,000 to join and $2,500 to renew annually. Partners must agree to send one person for technical training and certification and to train one salesperson.