Matillion Launches First Channel Program, Looks To Onboard First 100 Partners By Year’s End

Fast-growing data transformation software vendor is playing a key role in the growing adoption of cloud data warehouses.

Matillion, a developer of data transformation software for cloud data warehouses, is launching its first partner program with plans to have 100 partners fully enrolled by the end of the year.

The debut comes as Matillion, which has grown at a triple-digit rate each year for the last three years, looks to increase the percentage of its revenue that involves channel partners, said Andreas Schurch, Matillion vice president of alliances, in an interview with CRN.

“We need partners with a strong footprint in the enterprise,” Schurch said, noting that Matillion sales to large businesses and organizations already accounts for about half of sales.

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Matillion is one of a new generation of data transformation software, also called data extract, transform and load (ETL) tools, used to collect data from operational IT systems and other data sources, clean and format the data, and load it into a data warehouse for business analysis.

The company develops its cloud-based software for transforming and loading data into cloud data warehouse systems including Amazon Web Services’ Redshift, Snowflake Computing and Google BigQuery.

As more businesses move their data warehouse operations from on-premises to the cloud, demand for Matillion’s technology has accelerated: The company has more than 650 customers in 40 countries, Schurch said.

Matillion works with solution providers such as Slalom, systems integrators like Accenture and Capgemini, consulting firms such as InterWorks, and MSPs. Altogether the company has worked with more than 200 channel partners in recent years.

“Matillion has been a key partner in helping bring our customers’ data engineering workloads into the cloud,” said Brian Bickell, Interworks CTO, in a statement. The company’s ETL software is capable of handling complicated data integration tasks, he said, making the most use of scalable cloud data warehouse systems.

But without a formal, structured partner program, Matillion’s partner relationships have operated on an ad hoc, deal-by-deal basis. The new Matillion Partner Network is intended to remedy that, Schurch said, and “streamline the partner experience.”

Partners work with Matillion on reference sales and earn 10 percent referral fees. (Most of Matillion’s sales are through the cloud platform vendors’ online marketplaces and the vendor’s own sales and marketing efforts are designed around that.) Schurch said partners work with Matillion for the service opportunities – and the components of the new partner program reflect that.

The Matillion Partner Network will include a structured way to recruit and onboard channel partners, standard co-sell and reference-sell processes, dedicated partner management and sales support, technical and business training on Matillion products, access to solution architects with expertise in cloud data warehouse implementations, links to the Matillion community to help support customers, and sales enablement and marketing resources available through the partner portal.

The company is now bringing about 100 of its current partners into the program, an effort it plans to complete by the end of the year. After that it will accelerate recruitment of new partners in 2020, according to Schurch.

Currently about 20 to 25 percent of Matillion’s sales involve a partner, a number Schurch would like to see increase to between 30 and 35 percent over the next one to two years.

“The value of the training, tools and support inside Matillion’s Partner Network is the latest indication of the company’s commitment to equipping partners for success,” said Aron Clymer, founder and CEO of Data Clymer, a boutique data consulting firm that partners with Matillion. Clymer, in a statement, said the new program makes it easy for his company to manage deals and better support customers, as well as stay apprised on the Matillion product’s latest features.

Schurch takes pains to note that while Matillion provides some support services for customers, the company has no plans to develop its own professional services operations, leaving those to partners.

“In most cases we rely on our excellent system integrator and consulting partners to deliver those services,” he said.

Matillion also will be establishing a partner advisory board over the next few months “to build a feedback loop from our partners,” Schurch said.

Matillion raised $35 million in series C funding in June to help fuel its growth.