As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:
In one of its biggest channel overhauls in two years, SurfControl has revamped its partner program to help resellers to better support end-users.
The security vendor's vice-president of worldwide channel sales, Dave Harris, said its existing program had been adequate but lacked localised content.
"It didn't have online testing, and for partners, the challenge was keeping it up to date," he said.
SurfControl has introduced an online portal, 24/7 technical support, and new marketing resources for resellers. The vendor has also made available online its compulsory Star sales training and technical certification program.
Harris said the new-look partner portal now featured single sign-on technology and localised content. Partners could also control access permissions for their employees via the website.
The new program was launched at SurfControl's first Asia-Pacific regional partner forum in Sydney. CEO, Pat Sueltz, who was meeting local partners for the first time, said the event was its largest to date, with 50 resellers from Australia, India, Singapore, China and Japan in attendance.
"We started out 10 years ago being 100 per cent direct. Today, we're 100 per cent channel," she said. "We recognise that with more than 15 million users across some 23,000 enterprises, the way forward is to work closely with our partners."
SurfControl had experienced 15 per cent year-on-year revenue growth from Q1, 2006 to the first quarter of the current financial year, Sueltz said. This included double digit grown in Australia and New Zealand. The vendor now has about 100 resellers in the Asia-Pacific region.
"I don't think it's about our numbers, but about the quality. We want to make our certified resellers successful," she said.
