XML infrastructure manufacturer Reactivity launched its first channel program Tuesday, partnering with VARs and consultants to broaden the distribution and menu of applications for XML Web services, identity management and service-oriented architecture.

A channel partner program will answer the call of many Reactivity Inc. customers for customized, scalable solutions built around their own SOAs, said David Ashton, vice president of business development.

“The need to distribute indirectly arose from the market itself,” Ashton said.

“We were hearing it from customers that they needed several sets of technology to deploy effectively and they wanted to buy from a single source. Often they were introducing us to the partners or we would meet during as a result of a joint project.”

The Belmont, Calif. appliance vendor expects partners to boost distribution by offering a better solution and providing an inside sales track to new regional and vertical markets, said Joelle Gropper Kaufman, vice president of marketing.

The company has grown by 300 percent in 2005 and expects to see 100 percent growth next year, driven largely by partners, she said.

Partners participating in the Rapid (Reactivity Acceleration Partners) program will receive access to products and solutions for evaluation and testing, technical product training and support, sales training, and joint marketing and sales programs. Each partnership will be unique “based on what the partner needs to be successful,” Kaufman said.

Reactivity has been an early player in bringing XML to enterprise business applications, and Online Business Systems of Boston has been one of the earliest VARs to offer the solution.

Read details here about the potential of enterprise RSS.

“Reactivity’s secure XML infrastructure brings the predictability, security and performance that enterprises expect from production systems to the world of XML Web services and SOA,” said Tim Siemens, Online Business’s chief technology officer. “With Reactivity as our partner, we can substantially reduce our clients’ integration costs while providing a platform they can use to increase their responsiveness and agility to be more competitive.”

If momentum builds, Reactivity plans to add further partners and invest more in the relationships, including market development funds, but will also ask more of partners, such as dedicated sales and technical staff, Kaufman said.

To date, 12 partners, who have worked with Reactivity in the past in an ad hoc manner, have joined the program, Kaufman said. The formalization of the program will allow Reactivity to build a strategy around the channel, she said.

Click here to read more about Reactivity’s updated XML gateways.

“This isn’t just signing [partners] on,” she said. “This isn’t about putting together the longest list of partners and selling the most boxes. We take the long view. Our philosophy is based on making our customers successful … We want 100 percent ‘referenceability’ from every customer. If a partner can’t help us meet that goal, the customer won’t be successful, they won’t be successful and we won’t be successful.”

To that end, Reactivity intends to be discriminating in accepting new partners. Only VARs and consultants with the technical skill set and an understanding of security and ID management need apply, Ashton said.