Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has
today unveiled a new partner program designed to rapidly boost the
growth of its channel sales throughout Australia and New Zealand.
The new program supports Sophos's business shift towards a mainly
indirect sales model.
The enhanced program introduces new accreditation, certification
and training levels, supported by one of the industry's most
exciting margin and incentive schemes. A key feature of the new
program is unrestricted access to Sophos technical support
regardless of accreditation level.
Under the new Sophos Partner Program, resellers and solution
providers will be able to achieve one of three new accreditation
levels. These will be based on business levels and on numbers of
trained sales and technical staff. Sophos's existing partners will
be re-accredited under the new program.
The new accreditation levels are:
- Certified Partner (highest accreditation level)
- Partner
- Authorised Reseller
All accredited Partners are entitled to a partner discount
program; participation in lead generation; branding and marketing
support; business development assistance; and access to Not For
Retail product and regular update resource kits. In addition,
Certified Partners are provided with priority access to the
accreditation program and are assigned dedicated technical and
account management support.
The key features of the new program include:
- Clearly defined degrees of differentiation between varying
partner levels that avoid restrictions to Sophos technical
support
- Tightly integrated channel incentives and training
programs
- New Sophos sales and technical training accreditation levels
ranging from Associate through Expert levels
- Strict certification criteria that are achievable and
realistic
- Improved margin structures offering Certified Partners stronger
incentives to 'sell Sophos'
- A revamped rewards system offering channel partners and their
staff significant incentives
"Our new partner program is designed to dramatically grow our
channel presence across the region and complements our rapidly
growing market share," said Mr Stuart Palmer, Sophos's Managing
Director for Australia and New Zealand. "We aim to be recognised
within the channel as the number-one corporate anti-virus
choice.
"Recognising the important role the channel plays in this
market, we have added vast new resources in preparation for the new
channel program, including a new computer virus identification lab
in Sydney, as well as a new business development team, focused
solely on driving channel sales.
"The new program will help us to engage the right partners for
our business and our aim is to ensure that, in effect, Certified
Partners and Partners become an extension of the Sophos sales force
- with similar levels of training and similar levels of commitment
to Sophos," Palmer enthused.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.