Security solution vendor, Kaspersky, will launch a re-vamped version of its channel program next month and remove inactive resellers from its database, according to country manager, Andrew Mamonitis.
Mamonitis told ARN the revamp was the vendor’s first since launching the reseller program in May 2009. He said the key would be to simplify the program and make it easier for partners to claim benefits.
“Within the next month we’ll actually launch our new version of the partner program,” he said. “Because we’ve got the experience from the last two years up our sleeve we can more clearly stipulate what we expect from our partners.”
Revenue requirements, rewards and benefits will all be changed, but the three tiers of the partner program will not be changed. Mamonitis also said the vendor currently had a database of more than 1000 resellers and was actively seeking to delete partners that aren’t pulling their weight.
“By the end of the year we’d like to have a top 100 resellers that we’ll focus 75 – 80 per cent of our energies and financial support to drive the majority of our revenue,” he said. “We still expect we’ll have in excess of 500 resellers.
“We’re not going to have a reseller on our database for the sake of having a number, but if they’re an active reseller...there’s no limit.”
The country manager said Kaspersky had enjoyed strong successes in the local government and education verticals and that he expected them to be the biggest growth areas in 2011 along with Federal Government customers.
He also said there would be no additions or subtractions from the three distributors currently in place for Australia, which are itX, WhiteGold Solutions and SMS eTechnologies.
