Ivara behind the iron Curtain

 I am not sure how I missed this press release, I generally don't.

Ivara is one of those fascinating organizations. Like most mid sized reliability firms they are a private company so a lot of information related to their activities, market share and earnings is not disclosed. But you can't help but get the feeling that they are doing okay.

Ivara plays a lot in the Mid sized manufacturer range from what I know of them (which isn't much admittedly) and they seem to be continually busy. One of the things that has always amazed me about Ivara is their focus on their distribution channels.

Some asset technology firms, (think Mincom  in the early 2000's) tried to grow organically by placing regional offices and searching for local clients. Ivara seems to be more innovative when growing their distribution capability.

Their purchase of the Aladon  network was one of the classiest moves that I have seen from a vendor in this space for a while. John Moubray had nurtured a network of blue chip clients, all of which were utterly loyal to him. When it happened I commented  that what Ivara had actually purchased was a global distribution network.

I am not too sure if they have been able to leverage it as well as the concept would appear on paper. They may have I do hear things from time to time, but as I said previously as a private company there is a lot about their activities that is kept private. (And justifiably so of course)

A hint would be here  I suppose, a press release talking about their deal with RMB - a reliability technology firm as I read it. The Press release touts them as new members of the Aladon network, and Ivara EXP implementation partners.

So working or not the strategy is still part of the plan it would seem.

Another channel growth initiative of Ivara is partnering. Ranging from IBM, to The Timken Company, to my friends over at Appollo Associated Services, to the Russian firm KB Energoavtomatika .

My own experience tells me that managing the partnership can be half of the battle when trying to do large scale enterprise system deals such as this. But they continue to push ahead so they must be getting a return for the effort invested.

The value of partnerships of course, is that you get their access, their track record, and their expertise to sell your products and services. If done well this could be the differentiator for Ivara in the looming battles over the mid market space.

The Russians serve the utility market, a phenomenal global marketplace, particularly throughout the European markets if you can get a strong foot hold somewhere. It is going to be fascinating watching them from here on forward.