French enterprise search and navigation vendor Sinequa has issued a challenge to its rivals as it unleashes its channel plans for the UK market.

Sinequa, which has 200 customers in its native France, including the french police and french ministry of defence, counts Autonomy and FAST as its key competitors in the space.

Colin Haddon, recently appointed UK country manager at the vendor, said the search and navigation arena is growing.

“Companies are seeing more demand from business users and they need access to business information in seconds. Also, the technology is becoming more main- stream because it has matured. As a result, there is a real revenue opportunity for the channel.”

The firm is keen to hook up with resellers operating in vertical spaces, such as legal and pharmaceutical sectors, Haddon said.

Partners will be required to complete both sales and technical training to become qualified, he added.

“Historically, this type of technology has been tricky to implement. Our technology is a quantum leap compared with what is currently available on the market.”

Marc de Forsan, director at Sinequa partner Eurocis, said: “We select best-of-breed products for the french army. We chose Sinequa for its unrivalled relevancy in search results, ease of deployment and no-defect access control management.”