Trend Micro has today unveiled an aggressive new partner programme that promises to reward proactive resellers, while ditching those that are underperforming.
The firm is pledging a “leaner, more agile, more lucrative” programme that includes a “much-boosted set of rewards around profitability”.
The vendor cites analyst research that shows the internet security sector continues to post year-on-year growth. The vendor’s own channel-based research also indicates it’s a significant revenue opportunity for partners selling both traditional and cloud computing security.
Yet it says many partners rely too heavily on easy repeat business, rather than working proactively to ‘hunt and farm’ opportunities within existing and new customers.
“Most vendor partner programmes are seen as nothing more than a restrictive table of discounts and this means that much of the channel has tended to adopt coping strategies, rather than engagement strategies,” explains Anthony O’Mara, SVP EMEA Trend Micro (pictured). “Our programme raises the stakes and will challenge and reward both our commitment to the channel and the channel’s commitment to Trend Micro as a vendor.”
Trend has split the new programme into a traditional three tiered structure of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum partners, which is claims offers improved flexibility and vastly reduced administration, plus a clearer line of accountability to partners.
Other features include deal registration where partners will be rewarded financially for working more closely with Trend on developing business, plus upfront discounts and rebate schemes for the outperformers.
Partners will also be eligible for further training and certification to enable them to develop market specialisations, addressing areas such as cloud & datacentre security, endpoint & mobility, data protection and SMB.
O’Mara maintains the programme will plug partners in to the expanding cloud security and virtualisation markets: “If our partners work with us to develop profitable, sustainable business, we will reward it with training, certification, specialisation, business planning, and marketing tools, as well as very competitive margins...Underperformance is no longer an option.”
Nick Bannister, divisional director security solutions at Trend – and VMware – distie Arrow ECS, calls the new programme a “very welcome move.” He comments: “Partners are asking for help in capturing a share of the growing virtualisation and cloud security market and this strategy will enable them to gain expertise, increase profitability and drive new business. As the leading distributor of VMware, we are very excited about the new programme and look forward to jointly realising our growth goals.”
David Caughtry, director of core technology at Computerlinks says the firm has anticipated the arrival of the new programme for a while: “It is clear from the version that we have been presented that Trend has gone to great measures to address the needs of its partners. We were particularly impressed by the initiative and reward scheme, through which the partners will receive the recognition they deserve.”
Adds Mark Charleton, director at another Trend distie Blue Solutions: “Feedback from our resellers has shown that vendor marketing support, training and certification are essential to help them win more business, provide a better service to their customers, and boost margins. We are confident that the new programme will achieve just that.”
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