Vendors and distributors were all singing the line “you got a friend in me” this week as more partnerships and channel programs hit the news desk.
Late last week, Internet security distributor, SecureServ, became the first distribution partner for Panda Security.
The deal came about when the security services distributor approached Panda Security and proposed a possible unified threat management (UTS) joint venture.
“We wanted to take advantage of the growing UTS market,” SecureServe general manager, Vic Whiteley, said. “We’ve known of Panda Security for quite some time now so we contacted them for a discussion and they agreed to go ahead with the partnership.”
The specialist distributor’s sales director, Sean Mattheisz, said the products which are available on Apple’s US and UK websites, marry well in niche areas. He was confident it could gain good market penetration despite the economic conditions.
To help out channel partners, VMware took the wrappers off its new Partner Network program which aims to help with delivering virtualisation solutions.
The new program offers access to the revamped information portal, extensive sales and services tools, margin opportunities and competency-based training.
The Partner Network includes advantage+, which is a registration program that offers margin enhancements. Depending on the program level, partners will be rewarded for their investment through obtaining an upfront discount to distribution and a back-end rebate program.
Datacom also improved an existing channel partnership as it was promoted to NetApp gold partner. The New Zealand IT solutions provider is the sole gold partner in the country and has gained access to the vendor’s full range of products.
“We have been working with NetApp for about two years now,” Datacom New Zealand products general manager, Rob Braun said. “This new development in our partnership will broaden the range of products and solutions that we can sell and give us a bigger market reach.”
In other good news, Samsung has decided to re-enter the Australian notebook market after a two-year hiatus.
The vendor will look at releasing a range of notebooks, including netbooks, with a soft launch to take place in May. Price points will range from $899 to $2999.
Despite failing during its last attempt, Samsung IT division business manager, Emmanuele Silanesu, said the vendor had since experienced high levels of market share in Europe with its notebooks and wanted to extend its reach into the US and South-East Asia.
To round up all the positive news for the channel, ICT spending in Australia’s utilities industry is expected to defy the economic downturn, according to IDC.
Results from a new report titled, Australian Utilities Information and Communications Technology Market 2008-2012 Forecast and Analysis, show that there is a push for ICT solutions uptake due to shifts in the sector.
IDC predicted the sector will swell from $1.12 billion in 2008 to $1.30 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4 per cent, which is above the industry average of 3.6 per cent.
So it is not all doom and gloom in the channel. Keep following [[xref: http://www.arnnet.com.au/section/continuing_coverage/market_watch|Fightback ‘09] as we give you a dose of good news on a weekly basis.
