| Abstract: | The upstart purveyor of software for measuring key performance indicators signs on with Bridge Incubation Group to broaden its EMEA footprint. |
| Keywords: | Key performance indicators, KPIs |
In a bid to expand its fledgling operational intelligence software business, Transpara Corp. has announced plans to increase its worldwide presence through a partnership with Bridge Incubation Group, which acts as a sales and marketing arm for companies branching into new geographic markets.
The alliance will bring Transpara’s flagship Visual KPI software to markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) via Bridge Incubation Group’s localized market strategies and sales channel management.
“It turns out that selling in the U.S. is one thing, and selling in other countries is a completely different animal,” said Michael Saucier, founder and CEO of Transpara, in an interview. “It really takes more of a localized perspective to get into the heads of the buyers, especially at the executive level, in order to understand what their motives are.”
Yet, even as it builds out its geographic footprint, Transpara needs to focus on its core competency as a software company, he said. “For us, it represents the best possible strategy to seek out partners in other regions, especially in EMEA,” Saucier told Managing Automation.
Since its founding in 2005, Transpara has plied its Visual KPI product, a composite key performance indicator (KPI) tool that delivers both business intelligence and manufacturing intelligence from multiple data sources to any desktop or mobile device.
“We are trying to solve the problem of information overload,” Saucier said of the company’s offerings. “We want to make it almost trivial for people to take complex information and put it within their own context and on their own device, be it a Blackberry…or desktop.”
The company has about 100 installations of the Visual KPI product spread across 40 customers in markets such as biotech, chemicals, pulp and paper, oil and gas, and utilities. Currently, 75% of its business is in the United States, with 25% originating in Asia and EMEA. The goal is to have EMEA represent 50% of sales by the end of 2009, according to the company. Once EMEA is built out, Transpara will embark on a similar growth strategy in Asia, Saucier said.
The Visual KPI software has been programmed in Unicode, a programming language that enables software to be encoded across multiple computing platforms and languages without re-engineering. Today, the Visual KPI software is offered in English, but it will be straightforward to translate the application to other languages, Saucier maintained.
With the help of Bridge Incubation Group, Transpara hopes to build out a network of approximately 100 systems integrators, value-added resellers (VARs), and independent software developers in the EMEA region over the next two to three years.
Bridge Incubation is led by Johan Pellicaan, a former director at Microsoft and head of international activities at ProClarity, a BI vendor acquired by Microsoft in 2006. Pellicaan and his team will be responsible for identifying distribution partners for Transpara.
“The Bridge guys will make us stronger and create a partner channel that delivers added value to customers,” Saucier said.
 |
|
|
|