Security news22 August 2007
CMP Channel’s VARBusiness names Sophos ARC 2007 “Company of the Year” in security software Award validates Sophos’s continued dedication and support to Channel Partners in the IT security space
Sophos, a world leader in IT security and control, has been named CMP Channel’s VARBusiness’s security software industry “Company of the Year” based on its Annual Report Card (ARC) survey.
Now in its 22nd year, the VARBusiness ARC Awards recognize outstanding partner programs and superb vendor service in 15 product and service categories including mobile computers, mainstream business servers, voice networking hardware, data and information management software, and security appliances. The ARC awards were held at an awards ceremony held on August 21, at the CMP Channel's XChange ’07 Conference in Orlando, Florida. Sophos was recognized for its product innovation, support and partnership of its channel program.
Winners were selected by VARBusiness editorial, who based their decision on the survey results of more than 5,000 systems integrators, IT consulting organizations, value-added resellers (VARs), solution providers and software developers. This prestigious honor acknowledges Sophos’s high scores in each category and reflects the outstanding satisfaction level among its channel partners in North America.
Sophos's commitment to security innovation and quality is reflected in its partner program. Designed to reward investment and foster growth of partners' security practices, the Sophos channel program provides a deep level of support and is highly responsive to partners. The program offers distribution of high-quality leads to qualified partners, online deal registration, and industry-leading pre-sales and post-sales support. Extensive marketing support and comprehensive training programs are also available to enable partners to grow their businesses through new customer acquisitions and incremental sales.
"Sophos is committed to providing resources and unique programs that help partners like GalaxyTech grow their business,” said Justin Gallo, president and chief executive officer at GalaxyTech International Incorporated. “Sophos offers bountiful deal and lead registration, protection of margins and has a very strong account management team in place, which allows us to focus on our customers and less on the logistics and backend of the business."
| Sophos | Symantec | McAfee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Innovation | 76 | 68 | 69 |
| Support | 73 | 60 | 63 |
| Partnership | 71 | 63 | 63 |
| Overall | 73 | 64 | 64 |
| Sophos | Symantec | McAfee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality and reliability | 83 | 70 | 69 |
| Ease of doing business | 76 | 62 | 65 |
| Revenue and profit potential | 75 | 66 | 67 |
| Compatibility and ease of integration | 77 | 65 | 66 |
| Richness of features/functionality | 79 | 70 | 67 |
Source: VARBusiness 22nd Annual Report Card
Sophos is the first security company to sweep all three categories for security software.
Solution providers told VARBusiness what's most important to them in evaluating a security software vendor - and Sophos shines!
What's more, Sophos partners are at least 15% more likely to recommend Sophos to a peer.
“Because vendors taking part in the VARBusiness Annual Report Card are selected by their own Solution Provider partners, the Annual Report Card has over the last 22 years become the defining research on vendor/partner relationships,” said Robert C. Demarzo, vice president and editorial director, CMP Channel. "We salute each of the vendors named on this year's ARC."
Sophos completed a record-breaking year for sales in the security market, growing more than 50 percent in North America. Sophos’s channel revenue yielded an 87 percent increase in fiscal year 2006. Sophos’s partners also experienced tremendous growth with its top 30 partners averaging more than 600 percent growth rate year-over-year.
“In April 2007, Sophos set out to revolutionize the industry’s standard channel approach by implementing a 100 percent channel model in North America,” said Michael Rogers, vice president of North America alliance, channel and OEM sales at Sophos. “Our goal is to grow our respective businesses by creating value in the relationship that yields customer acquisitions and superior satisfaction. Our channel partners’ voluntary feedback was instrumental in winning this award, and we thank them for their continued support.”
About VARBusiness
For the past 20 years, VARBusiness' strategic resources have been the gateway to the commercial and public sector (or government) Solution Provider community. The VARBusiness integrated platform of media opportunities provides strategic insight for technology integrators through industry-defining research, in-depth editorial, channel events and innovative Web services, enabling these IT professionals to make educated decisions for their businesses, partnerships and customers. VARBusiness offerings lead vendors and distributors to unprecedented access to the most powerful strategic Solution Providers in the market. VARBusiness has been the recipient of numerous industry awards for both editorial content and design.
About The CMP Channel
The CMP Channel is the one stop shop customers turn to in order to meet their global sales channel objectives from access to execution. Through use of its family of channel solutions which include CRN and VARBusiness, the ChannelWeb network, the Group's XChange worldwide face-to-face conferences and the Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED), vendors are able to accelerate sales through the channel. CMP Channel provides a worldwide answer to advertising, branding and marketing services, lead generation, market intelligence, branded and custom events, education of solution providers and best practices for vendors.
About CMP Technology
CMP Technology is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.
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About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.
