Redtail Taps SuperVARs For Its EDI Service

Read this article at CRN.com

By Rochelle Garner CRN

New York (April 11, 2005) – CRN – RedTail Solutions, which sells its hosted EDI communications service through ISV partners’ solution providers, has created a new program to build and support direct links to leading accounting packages for small businesses.

With its new SuperVAR program, RedTail has lined up five top VARs to build interfaces to accounting applications from Best Software (now reverting to the “Sage Group” moniker), Microsoft and AccountMate Software. These SuperVARs, as RedTail calls them, also will provide interface-related technical support to the 150 value-added resellers that sell RedTail’s service.

“We’ve chosen the leaders in the VAR community for each product,” said Del Ross, director of VAR Channel Development North America at the Westboro, Mass.-based company. “They will be the influencers to the rest of the channel, perform development work and do the integration between RedTail and backoffice accounting packages.”

The five SuperVARs are WAC Consulting, for Accpac Pro; Net at Work, for Accpac Advantage; Blytheco, for the MAS 90/MAS 200 interface; Figtree Consulting, for AccountMate; and E-Com Accounting Solutions, for BusinessVision. RedTail soon plans to announce a SuperVAR for Microsoft Great Plains and is in talks with other vendors of SMB ERP software, as well, Ross said.

“We’ve written multiple EDI interfaces for a while now,” said Steve Blythe, CEO of Blytheco, Irvine, Calif. “RedTail’s service offers a nice, easy-to-use solution for companies doing small- to moderate EDI transactions that don’t want to invest in a large EDI infrastructure.”

RedTail’s service comprises EDI mapping, translation, communications and trading-partner management. “Because it’s hosted, our EDI service makes it easy for the channel to meet the needs of small businesses that require EDI to communicate with their customers and suppliers,” Ross said.

RedTail’s resellers receive “a percentage of recurring revenue, which we collect monthly and pay quarterly,” said Ross, who previously was director of channel development at Accpac.