An email Q&A with Raphael Laguna, CEO of open source groupware company Open-Xchange, in which he discusses the plans for the conference and some new projects the company plans to unveil at the event.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In the past few years, we’ve seen the popularity of the “partner event” trickle down from the truly huge companies like Microsoft and VMware to a list of more niche organizations that includes Parallels, Layered Tech and cPanel, among others.
The most recent addition to that list, open source groupware company Open-Xchange (www.open-xchange.com), announced recently that it will be hosting its first partner conference October 8 at the RheinEnergie Stadion in Cologne, Germany.
Lasting one day, the partner event will include a series of marketing and sales sessions. A hands-on tech workshop will take place October 7. Full details on the speakers, sessions and other schedule notes are available on the website for the event.
In advance of the partner summit, Open-Xchange CEO Raphael Laguna answered some questions for the WHIR in an email interview, discussing the company’s objectives for the conference, as well as some of the new projects Open-Xchange plans to unveil at the event.
WHIR: If I’m not mistaken, this is the first partner event of this kind by Open-Xchange, is there a sort of critical mass of customers, partners and interest in the company and the product set you have to reach before something like this becomes a real possibility?
Raphael Laguna: Yes, this is our first partner event which we feel comes at the right time in our company’s history. Our partners are so strategic to us as sales partners and we’ve grown to the point where it’s best to bring everyone together like this.
Following up on our Partner Summit, later in October we’ll be rolling out with partners a roadshow aimed at end users. And, in early November, we’re doing a two-day sales and technical workshop for our partners in North America.
How many people are you expecting for the partner conference, and likewise, how many are you expecting for the tech workshop?
RL: 100-plus partners for the sales and marketing sessions on October 8 and 40 partners for the tech sessions on October 7. We’re limited to 40 because it is a hands-on-workshop.
The event is free to attend, and there’s presumably quite an expense associated with putting on something of this magnitude. Is that something you’re offsetting entirely with sponsorship (I know there is a list of about five sponsors on the event’s website)?
RL: In total, we have nine sponsors for the Partner Summit, which helps cover a significant percentage of our investment in this event. Among those sponsors are Parallels and MESH. MESH is headquartered in Germany, but runs colocation in 80 datacenters around the world. Soon you’ll see an announcement that MESH will be offering Open-Xchange through Parallels Automation to resellers.
In the hosting business, we’ve seen the instance of these kinds of events focused around the partners of a specific software company increase in the last year or two. What do you see as being the specific benefits to Open-Xchange from the event?
RL: We have three objectives:
1. Recruiting new partners;
2. Building deeper relationships with our existing partner base and understanding what we need to do together to be even more successful;
3. Building synergies between our hosting providers and system integrators, which we feel is untapped potential at this point.
One of the items on the agenda promises a live demo of “The Latest and Greatest Cool Stuff.” Is this all top secret, or can you give us an idea of what some of this cool new stuff might include?
RL: We’re building more and more integration between our Open- Xchange groupware with social networks so that LinkedIn and Facebook contact information can be pulled into the Open-Xchange address book, for example. Another example is viewing Gmail with the Open- Xchange inbox. Users can’t afford these standalone islands of disparate applications and data. So, we have lots to show in this area – even integrating Google calendar with the Open-Xchange calendar. And, we’ll be talking about an open data format made freely available to help do all of this.
The event will be held in Cologne, Germany. Are the bulk of Open-Xchange’s partners located in Europe? Do you expect many North American organizations to be making the journey?
RL: Yes, most of our partners are in Europe and yes, we have partners registered from the U.S., as well as Mexico. But, most attendees will come from Europe. We’re planning a two-day sales and technical workshop for our partners in North America in early November, as well.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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