Leading Industry Programme Benefits Partners with Greater Margins and Lower Costs

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC/Ingres Partner Summit — 8th April, 2008 — Ingres Corporation, a leading provider of open source database management software and support services, today announced the launch of the Ingres Partner Programme to empower and showcase partners achieving success using the open source business model.  The Ingres Partner Programme is designed to help partners from the very beginning by increasing margins, reducing costs and eliminating up-front licenses to make projects more affordable and give systems integrators a bigger share of the total solution.

Partners that join the Ingres Partner Programme will be able to market and deliver solutions in one of the industry’s high-growth areas. Within the total database market, Gartner, Inc. expects revenue from open source databases to grow at a 40 percent compound annual growth rate from $274 million in 2008 to $753 million in 2011. The open source business model helps partners enjoy a predictable revenue stream of support subscriptions. In addition, Ingres is working with several partners in delivering software appliances, such as the Ingres Icebreaker BI appliance with JasperSoft. The appliance business model is designed to accelerate the delivery of value to customers and therefore, faster realisation of increased revenue.

“Partners are essential to Ingres and we are committed to their success,” said Rukash Kumar, vice president of the global Partner Programme at Ingres. “Organisations that can deploy open source solutions from Ingres, or leverage Ingres with complementary products or services, can access significant new revenue streams. Ingres has thousands of enterprise customers and 25-plus years of experience delivering enterprise databases. The company is well positioned to supply technology, service, support and education to partners looking to build enterprise-class solutions that drive maximum value for their customers.”

The Ingres Partner Programme is an integral component of the business strategy at Ingres. Ingres focuses on core product development to create significant related opportunities for Ingres partners in business consulting, project delivery, integrationand complementary products. The Ingres Partner Programme provides a structured way for Ingres partners to access these opportunities. In addition, the Ingres Partner Programme builds directly on the substantial experience Ingres has of working with and supporting all partners. The partner programme is designed to cater to independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers and software integration firms at the following levels:

• Bronze – the Bronze partnership provides the framework for Ingres and the partner to establish and promote a joint value proposition and is supported via the Ingres website, partner extranet and an Ingres test and development facility.

• Silver –partners at the Silver level benefit from a high degree of collaborative sales, marketing, R&Dand project support. Silver partners delivering Ingres projects receive full project delivery support from Ingres.

• Gold – as a Gold level partner, participants achieve the maximum opportunity and support for building strategic global revenue streams and additional margin opportunity, in return for a significant strategic commitment to Ingres and joint business development goals. As the programme evolves, Gold partners will have the opportunity to gain accreditation. This will provide an additional programme of structured training and certification to enable partners to be promoted on the basis of their exceptionally strong Ingres expertise.

Partner Achieving Success With Ingres

Atos Origin
“We are a longtime partner of Ingres and really recognise the benefits the Ingres Partner Programme brings,” said Heiko Schwidrogitz, sales director industry, Atos Origin Germany and Central Europe. “The programme builds directly on the substantial experience Ingres has of working with and supporting all partners. Ingres speaks directly to our business needs by creating significant business opportunities as well leveraging the open source model for reduced total cost of ownership and greater margins.”

Capita Software Services
“At the centre of many Capita Software Services solutions is the Ingres database and a 10-plus year business relationship that was given yet more impetus in late 2005 by the emergence of Ingres as an independent company.  This latest partner initiative from Ingres gives us further confidence in our ability to deliver on our promises to our customers,” said Nick Breeds, chief architect, public sector software, at Capita Software Services.  “Ingres is a strategic element of our offering and we see the latest iteration of the partner programme as yet more evidence of their desire to help partners like us provide customers with market-leading solutions and service.  The Partner Summit is ideal to launch the new programme.”

ecl ip’s
“With its strong competency in data management, ecl ip’s has formed a dynamic partnership with Ingres, both in France and globally,” said Hervé Leclerc, head of ecl ip’s software and services for the Alter Way Group. “Our participation at the Ingres Partner Summit gives us a platform not only to share and exchange knowledge and experience, but to showcase the various community projects we have carried out with different partners of Ingres.”

JasperSoft
“JasperSoft is pleased to be an Ingres Gold partner,” said Jose Morales, vice president of business development at JasperSoft. “Ingres offers a world-class support organisation, open source leadership, corporate financial strength and global sales and marketing, which all attracted JasperSoft to commit as a strategic partner.  Ingres has been a great partner for JasperSoft – our successful collaboration with Ingres on the IceBreaker BI Appliance has already set the foundation for new product innovation and continued momentum in the market.”

Rational Commerce
“We have been a long-time Ingres partner and to see the Ingres partner programme develop further is excellent news for our customers, as well as for us,” said Roy Hann, technical director at Rational Commerce.  “Ingres has been opening up new opportunities for our business since we joined the programme, through brand promotion, increased brand awareness and improved success in getting onto procurement short-lists. Increasing the scope and capability of the programme makes sense now that Ingres has a broader product portfolio.”

 Steria
“Steria’s credo is to follow a pragmatic, innovative and durable approach of technology with open source. Our goal is to provide our customers with an optimal solution for their process that meets all constraints, technically and economically and Ingres is the perfect fit,” said Francois Bessaguet, head of open source offerings at Steria. “Ingres is concerned and proactive with their partners, which helps us in our approach to create new possibilities and to be innovative in that scope for our customers.”

To apply to join the Ingres Partner Programme, please complete the online application form at www.ingres.com/partners.