BackWeb Technologies Ltd, the San Jose-based internet communications software developer, has increased its European presence by signing a resale and distribution deal with Deloitte Consulting, which Jean-Francois Guyomar, BackWeb’s managing director for Europe, expects to provide 15% of the revenue of BackWeb BV, the firm’s European unit, inside two years.
BackWeb’s Polite Technology framework prioritizes certain email messages. It’s like the difference between Federal Express and normal mail, says Guyomar. You are receiving a flash, which alerts users to critical business information, regardless of the application they are on.
Built around the Polite Technology is Sales Accelerator, BackWeb’s application tailored for the sales business process which distributes key data around company intranets. The technology is marketed for intranets, extranets and the internet, and costs vary according to the different volumes required for each of those. Intranet versions are available for $190 per user, extranet editions for $60 a seat and the general web version for only $1.
BackWeb has forged similar reselling deals with enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors SAP AG and Baan Co NV in the last few months, and it was the second of these that led to the Deloitte partnership. Deloitte is a worldwide systems integrator for Baan, and liked what they saw in BackWeb’s dealings with the Dutch ERP firm. BackWeb has signed up a network of systems integrators worldwide, including the likes of KPMG and Cap Gemini. In the UK, its partners include Extranet and Cambridge Technology.
