Jeff Ralyea, ECI’s VP of manufacturing, said the company is keeping the international VARs, which had been an area of expansion for Macola. Some resellers on this continent appear likely to remain. “We have begun a dialog with a subset” of those VARs, he said. But it is is not clear what the relationship will be. Ralyea noted his company has multiple go-to-market channels, including direct, indirect and OEM. Whatever remains, VARs are not happy with the way contact was handled with the channel and clients. "They sent letters to customers, offering not only direct sale of licensing, but services and support," one VAR said. ECI is the Texas-based company which took over JobBoss, Macola and Max after it was purchased by Apax Partners, the investment group that owned the manufacturing packages’ former parent, Exact.