Asset and maintenance management vendor, Smartpath, has partnered with Queensland-based Tolerro. This is the vendor's second local partnership following the signing of a deal with NSW-based services provider, ARA Group.

Smartpath general manager of partnering and channels, Philip Hare, said due to the specialised nature of asset management, Smartpath found that it could not sell its solutions through traditional IT resellers.

"They're just not skilled enough in asset management and it tends to be a subject that's very expert driven," he said.

Hare said Tolerro had the necessary expertise and went through the technical evaluation process to sell its Loc8 asset, maintenance and helpdesk solution to the SMB market.

Tolerro will have access to Smartpath's accreditation program, which supplies sales, training and marketing resources.

"Resellers have to be very specialised in asset management and, as a consequence, there will be very few partner opportunities for us," he said.

Hare said potential partners needed to have specialisation in asset management, experience in selling management consulting, and the ability to provide implementation services.

"That combination is quite difficult to find and that's why we believe the partnership with Tolerro is a strong one," he said.