Ricoh is on the move, pushing aggressively to get its product through the channel, and is looking to Computer Market Research to provide the initiative.

To that end, the two are partnering, with CMR slated to provide Ricoh with point-of-sale and inventory reporting solutions.

Ricoh, a major vendor of digital office equipment based in West Caldwell, N.J., announced July 19 its new partnership with CMR.

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Based in San Diego, CMR offers large manufactures and vendors its PartnerAvenue and ChannelPOS software solution as a way to manage channel information it collects from nearly 2,000 distributors and large resellers around the world.

The software collects information from the channel, such as inventory, sales compensation, special pricing and forecasting, and provides it to vendors in a comprehensive and standardized form, Del Heles, president of CMR, told Channel Insider.

The software then can provide POS reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, and it allows vendors to see how much inventory has moved through the channel.

The software solution also provides a standard format, such as converting dates, time and language into one format. The software works with about 40 different languages.

The software is able to provide vendors with audit reports to help in complying with the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Heles said. Another feature allows a vendor to calculate commissions and match sales representatives to territories, accounts or products.

Heles said that Ricoh has decided to make a more aggressive push to get its product through the channel, and his company's POS solutions allow a large vendor to better maneuver its way through the channel.

"It's a good way to keep the sales force motivated," Heles said. "It gives them an idea of what they sold and to whom did they sell it to."

The base cost of PartnerAvenue and ChannelPOS runs between $3,500 and $12,000. That number is based on how many reporting partners a vendor chooses and the frequency of the reports CMR has to generate for the client.

A spokesman for Ricoh said the company was not commenting on the new partnership at this time.