The former channel chief of security vendor Postini, which has been taken over by Google, has joined Intacct to help the SAAS provider build a channel.

Jerry Jalaba, the vice president of channel sales for Intacct, left Postini following the Google take over and is now aggressively building and developing a channel for accounting and finance SAAS vendor Intacct, which previously operated a majority direct strategy.

The company March 3 launched its Business Solution Provider program and according to Jalaba, intends to drive 50 percent of its business through the channel by the end of the year.  “One of the key elements for VARs in the SAAS arena is the ability to drive an annuity revenue stream for the duration of the contract—we allow our partners to do that,” he said.

Jelba said in the SMB accounting and finance arena most companies do not migrate very often, therefore VARs were like to get a long-lasting annuity revenue stream.  “Small businesses invest in accounting suits for between five to seven years and VARs will get margin for as long as the company is using Intacct.”

The company intends to target VARs that are delivering on-premise software from its rivals.  “No one has got the right SAAS channel strategy for the channel yet, so we will look to entice VARs from our on-premise rivals over to delivering software as a service, under our new channel program,” Jalaba said.  

The single-tiered partner program allows VARs to offer the entire Intacct accounting and finance packages, service, and support, while Intacct operates behind the scenes, hosting the software.  It also offers VARs deal registration, joint marketing opportunities, training and certification.

Jalaba said although the company currently operates a direct strategy, it has completely connected its direct sales team, both sales and engineers, to working with the channel. “They are all 100 percent incentivized to provide solutions through the channel.  The opportunity to sell direct versus partners is neutral and they are more encouraged to work with partners than without,” he said.