Google readies enterprise allies

Google UK is planning to boost its Google Enterprise sales operation this week by launching a reseller initiative, modeled on the Google Enterprise Professional Programme which launched in the US last month.

In an exclusive pre-launch interview with IWR, Google’s European enterprise director, Roberto Solimene, said the company was preparing to take its high-end products – the Google Search Appliance (GSA) and Google Desktop Search for Enterprise – into the mainstream corporate arena.

“The enterprise search market is far from saturated, there is a lot of potential to pursue,” Solimene said, “and the companies already selling in this space, like Autonomy, are now going into specialist markets.

“We want to build up a partner programme, to work with companies that are already selling services and solutions into enterprise markets – such as Logica and Cap Gemini – to take our search message out to the enterprise community.”

The new programme will allow service providers and software developers to be trained in Google’s professional products , for which the company currently offers only basic support and doesn’t offer customisation services.

Solimene was not saying who would be named in the partner programme in advance of the UK launch on 12 October, but one company already claiming participation is Uxbridge-based iWay Software. It said its US parent had introduced the iWay Enterprise Index, which it would be integrating with GSAs.

In the US, Google has already announced a swathe of partners. Massachusetts-based Attunity said it will specialise in extending enterprise search to the mainframe; Texas-based StoredIQ said it would “augment the ability to do enterprise search with a complete information classification and management platform”; and Ohio-based Onix Networking said it would extend integration on corporate intranets and websites.

“The goal is to create an ecosystem of technology and service providers who bring to bear added value to our business customers,” said Google product manager Matt Glotzbach.

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