Sales performance management vendor Varicent Software has appointed former Callidus executive Andy Armstrong as international vice president and tasked him with growing the company's UK channel.

Armstrong will set about establishing Varicent's European headquarters in Reading and recruiting resellers across the UK and mainland Europe. Armstrong revealed his company would not be utilising a distribution channel and had just signed Open Symmetry as its first UK VAR.

"The most important skill sets for potential partners are around strong project management and the ability to install and implement enterprise class solutions," said Armstrong. "Expertise in vertical markets is also important. Financial services is a big opportunity for us, as well as the high tech market. "

Armstrong indicated Varicent would not discriminate on size when recruiting new partners. He said: "It is going to be a mixture of medium to large size resellers but also people who have either vertical or sales complexity experience."

Varicent's vice president of marketing Brian Hartlen welcomed Andy's appointment as good news for the company's expansion plans. "We decided earlier this year that it was time for us to take a more aggressive approach to global expansion," he said. "We wanted to recruit the best of the best, people who had experience in growing channel programmes."