E-procurement vendor Clarus has yet to convert any trial users of
its software into paying customers, despite recruiting three
resellers in the UK since its launch here last year.
Speaking to MicroScope, the company's channel sales manager,
Stephen Morse, said Clarus had a "good pipeline" but admitted none
of the group's testing sites had yet to move to paying customer
status.
"It's early days yet, and that's why we have now got a channel
on-line. Clarus has 200 customers worldwide using a mix of our
products. Here we are still at project phase and doing pilots," he
said.
The company revealed last November that it would recruit around
five resellers to sell its products into the UK market, but so far,
the group has recruited just three: Whitehouse Consulting, DCS
e-integration and 1E Europe.
Morse said the channel in the UK "had embraced" what Clarus was
doing and said it did not matter that the company had not managed
to recruit its target number of resellers.
"If we've got three or five it makes no difference as long as they
are doing the numbers," he argued.
Morse added Clarus was still a cash-rich company with $150m (£100m)
in the bank and claimed it would be upping its attack on the UK
market over the next six months.
Alan Lawson, research analyst for the Butler Group, said he
believed Clarus' product set was sound, but felt the company's
involvement in public marketplaces could be holding up progress in
the UK.
"The problem is - that isn't a business model that is being used
much in the UK," he said.