08/28/2006

Matrix42 Signs Two U.S. Partners for Empirum Device Management Suite

The Normandy Group and RSpeed to help turn up volume on Empirum.

By Barbara Darrow, CRN
3:55 PM EDT Mon. Aug. 28, 2006

Matrix42, trying to make a name for itself in networked-device management, has signed its first two resellers in North America and doesn't plan to stop there.

The company's Empirum management suite takes on LANDesk and Altiris in device management. Matrix42 is the Atlanta-based U.S. subsidiary of a Frankfurt, Germany-based parent company of the same name.

The vendor set up shop in the U.S. in January and has brought on board The Normandy Group and RSpeed as reselling allies.

Cincinnati-based Normandy, an integrator that partners with Oracle, Cognos, Metastorm and Veritas, initially wanted a tool to help manage its hardware customers but decided it could build a business around Empirum.

The Normandy Group, LLC, is a privately held firm focused on providing innovative business solutions that create business value for our Fortune 1000 and premier middle market clients. The Normandy Group’s mission is to exceed our client’s expectations and give them a competitive edge in today’s demanding business climate. We provide our clients with top professionals in business and technology. The company’s proprietary framework, Ascend(i)™, is known as a standard for delivering scalable and secure business solutions. The Normandy Group’s unique approach to performance management, process improvement, and the application of industry best practices enables our clients to be first to market with leading-edge solutions that result in remarkable competitive advantages. The new pace of business requires a more forward thinking vision, greater agility in the marketplace, and a faster response to changing demands. The firm delivers rapid business value by aligning specific ROI objectives with well-defined solutions that encompass people, process, and technology.

"Many clients need to manage large, diverse networks -- especially now with so many home offices and people in the field. You need to manage it from a central point," said Chuck Burke, president and CEO.

"We liked Matrix42's role-based vs. image based capabilities and the fact that it includes auditing which is important for SOX and other compliance," Burke said. He also said Empirum has proven scalable even in very large organizations citing one implementation where it manages 180,000 devices.

Pete Perez, vice president of sales and marketing for Pleasanton, Calif.-based RSpeed said he likes dealing with the small, up-and-coming company. "They're hungry and easy to work with at a high level. As they're growing hopefully we'll be first on their list."

RSpeed is currently a gold LANDesk partner as well. LANDesk has stronger support for heterogeneous environments because it's been around longer, he noted. "It supports the Mac desktop and all the Linuxes," he noted.

Ron Harrison, COO of Matrix42, said Empirum supports Windows devices fully as well as Novell SUSE and Red Hat Linux -- except on patch management, as well as Palm and Symbian devices. Blackberry support will come in the next release in January, he said.

Empirum's most direct rivals are LANDesk, now part of Avocent and Altiris. Ironically the German parent company got its start as a LANDesk VAR.

"We were the largest LANDesk reseller in Europe and a customer came to us to ask for other pieces of the puzzle. We had to decide whether to build our own or bolt something onto LANDesk and we decided to build from the ground up," Harrison said.

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