Corel enlists channel to raise profile

Corel, as part of renewed efforts to grow its presence in the UK, has today revealed it has signed a new distribution contract with Ingram Micro.

Earlier this week, new UK and Ireland sales director Niels van der Valk spoke of “significant changes in the UK operation”. With the firm celebrating its 25th anniversary last year, van der Valk’s goal is to raise the profile of the brand in the UK – among both end users and channel partners.

As such, the sales director is talking up a number of channel activities to promote the firm’s portfolio. “There is a big focus on growing reseller base,” he says. “The more we sell our products, the more visibility we have.”

Ingram Micro joins existing Corel distributors Computers Unlimited and Gem. “It’s important to have a broad span of partners, and Ingram Micro being a broadliner means it has a huge base to capitalise on,” explains van der Valk.

He list retailers, e-tailers, software licensing houses, academic specialists as its main routes to market, revealing the firm has developed a portal as part of the Corel Partner Programme to support them.

Van der Valk also says he wants to turn attention to Corel’s “mom and pop” dealer base: “The programme is surfacing these partners and providing them with more information to help them do a better job of selling Corel,” he asserts.

“We have a huge variety of products – we’re not that company from so many years back.”

As well as playing on consumer recognition of its flagship products Corel Draw and WinZip, the firm is also positioning itself as a less expensive alternative to its competitors. In recent months it has launched new products like PDF creator PDF Fusion, and CorelCAD: “It allows 3D modelling, and is half the price of similar CAD products,” says Van der Valk.

“We try to be the number one alternative to different product ranges,” adds EMEA PR manager Chris Boba. “We are trying to achieve as much branding recognition as we can, as the portfolio continues to grow.”