SaaS-based sales tax automation service provider Avalara will be increasing its channel-building efforts in the New Year, with plans to add to its partner segments, including traditional enterprise resource planning VARs, e-commerce companies and accountants.

Pascal Van Dooren

Avalara currently has several hundred partners, according to executive vice president of sales and marketing Pascal Van Dooren. He believes the time is “ripe for major growth” in the company’s channel and business overall.

“We have always worked through the channels of some of the best known publishers, and we are now starting to see that we are getting accelerated growth in the e-commerce world; our channel is extending,” said Van Dooren. “We have a big growth period on the horizon, and we are making sure we do the right things beefing up product marketing. We realize there is intrinsic value in our product marketing that immediately benefits the channel. It is a work in progress, but a lot we are doing is going to help the go-to-market strategy of our channel.”

One of the more recent partners in Avalara’s channel is top Sage North America reseller Net@Work, along with e-commerce companies Magento Inc. and 3dcart.

Van Doren declined to reveal specific plans on channel growth, but predicted more development partners, e-commerce companies and accountants would be signing up.

“Accountants are and will be a very important part of our channel,” he said. “There’s a very nice fit between their capacity as an advisor and the service we bring to the customer. Expect to see new things into the fold in 2012 on [the accountant] front. We’ll also be working closely with accounting vendors such as Sage, Intuit, etc., with tools and resources to help their channel members gather information around sales and use tax or helping clients do so.”

Van Dooren came to the company in early October after departing Sage as its vice president of channel sales. He served in a similar role at Epicor prior to Sage.