Security vendor, Websense, has enhanced its program offering resellers higher margins across its product portfolio.
A/NZ partner manager, Daniel Crnkovich, said it wanted to work closer with its partners and the changes were about providing a lot more value through improving margins.
“There’s a lot more opportunity to make money under the new program. We’re offering a significant margin for partners to engage with us,” Crnkovich said. “Some partners aren’t capable of meeting certifications or revenue targets, but that shouldn’t stop them from selling Websense. They have ownership of the customer and they will get protection from the margins that we offer.”
The Websense partner program consists of three tiers including Platinum, Silver and Gold. Crnkovich indicated a Silver partner could obtain 25 -30 point margins. The vendor has about 20 partners within its Platinum and Gold ranks including Data#3, IBM and Alphawest.
Websense recently launched its technical certification program across its web security gateway solution and data loss prevention suite.
“To ease the workload for partners, a lot of training is available online,” he said. “The time and cost for partners to invest in training, is an important issue that we needed to consider in the way we’ve constructed this.”
Websense is distributed via Avnet, which also provides partners with technical enablement as a service to partners, he said.
“Some partners that are stretched for resources, can still quote professional services and Avnet is capable of delivering that for them,” he said. “As we move more into a wider solution selling technology, we’re finding the customer needs have expanded and they’re requiring more technical competency from partners to help install the technology and deliver improvements through the course of the year.”
