Security news20 April 2009
Sophos models Global Partner Program on successful North American channel strategy Re-affirms partner commitment through strategic co-selling, aggressive margins and deal protection
Chris Doggett, Director of Global Channel Programs at Sophos
Celebrating the second anniversary of its 100 percent North American channel strategy, IT security and control firm Sophos continues to experience tremendous Partner Program momentum and growth. For fiscal year 2008, revenue growth for Sophos channel partners* increased 43 percent.
Sophos has been recognized by both the channel community and the media for its Partner Program commitment and for its feature-rich, simple to manage security and data protection solutions. Notably, the company has modeled its Global Partner Program on its successful North American channel initiative to further bolster sales and brand awareness worldwide.
Working intimately with partners, Sophos has created a truly successful co-selling program by effectively collaborating on initial customer engagements and evaluations on through to post-sales support and service. Sophos is fostering channel success through:
- offering competitive margins with an emphasis on ensuring bottom-line margin preservation
- deal protection programs
- customized marketing campaigns
- personalized online training and certification programs
- streamlining sales processes via an automated online pricing, quoting, and ordering system from a single portal
- providing more technical support assistance
Sophos has made doing business easier and more profitable for partners. As a result, partner revenues well exceeded industry averages. And for many, its relationship with Sophos represents their highest growth security vendor partnership.
Channel partner perspective on how Sophos is redefining vendor benefits
Seeing double digit annual revenue growth selling Sophos solutions and services
"Softchoice has experienced double digit growth annually selling Sophos solutions and the Sophos channel continues to be extremely instrumental in helping our sales team close business. Our team recognized Sophos for Best Field Engagement 2009 for outstanding growth and supporting Softchoice's focus on improving efficiency and driving long-term cost savings on behalf of customers across North America. The latest program enhancements will enable us to expedite processes, continue to drive sales and marketing initiatives and increase profitability."
Luke Black, Vendor Marketing Manager of Security, Softchoice
Protecting partner investments from first sale to renewal Sophos helps close business
"For many solution providers in today's climate, a significant portion of their revenues are generated by selling software subscription renewals. Unfortunately nowadays it is also becoming a more common practice for vendors to encourage customers to renew directly via the vendor website or through their direct sales team, which takes money out of solution providers' pockets. What makes Sophos attractive is that their approach is the opposite: a partner sells every deal, the renewals go to the partner who sold the license, and they protect their partner's investments from the first sale to the renewal of the licenses thereafter. In addition, Sophos goes the extra mile by proactively advising partners when a customer is up for renewal and has a team dedicated to helping partners close those renewals that's a true commitment to a partnership."
Sean Stenovitch, Partner, M&S Technologies Inc.
Streamlining the sales process allowing partners more time to focus on new business
"Sophos truly understands how to set channel partners up for success. Sophos delivers easy-to-manage and deploy security solutions, consistent and clear communications, and our sales and technical support inquiries are answered quickly and thoroughly every time. My team is thrilled with Sophos's latest improvements to the program, especially Solo, an online quoting, pricing and ordering tool, as it helps us streamline the sales process and allows us more time to focus on new business opportunities."
Karen Greer, CEO, Secure Content Technologies
Simplifying security and the business to facilitate more sales
Partnering with Sophos has been a very rewarding experience. The Sophos philosophy, as I see it, has long been to develop solutions that protect the enterprise from both external and internal threats without over complicating the day to day management or slowing the security process with cumbersome and infrequent updates. I believe that the Sophos partner program mirrors this philosophy. The channel team is highly responsive and reliable, and provides partners with the personalized tools and training necessary to succeed. Sophos simplifies the business process, which allows us to sell more."
David Tomkins, President, Galaxy Tech
Channel program achievements and industry recognition
- Acknowledged by Softchoice for 'Best Field Engagement 2009': For the second consecutive year, Softchoice recognized Sophos for outstanding growth and supporting its focus on improving efficiency and driving long-term cost savings for North American customers.
- Honored for 'Top Sales Growth and Profitability at Insight 2008': Insight awarded Sophos for the best combination of growth and profitability.
- Named as a '2009 Channel Chief by CRN': Chris Doggett, Director of Global Channel Programs was recognized as an influential executive who consistently defends, promotes and executes effective channel partner programs and strategies.
- Certified as a '2009 Five-Star Partner by Everything Channel: For the second consecutive year, Sophos was honored for driving greater revenue in the channel. Sophos earned the highest overall ratings in sales support, marketing support, partner profitability, channel operations, communications and partner recruitment.
- Garnered Top Honors in 'Endpoint Security Shootout by InfoWorld': The review praised Sophos Endpoint Security and Control for providing "excellent client platform support and including the core services to keep endpoints secure as well as for offering a "well-rounded reporting engine" and "top notch level of protection."
- Lauded as 'a proven leader in the security business by CRN Test Center', Sophos Endpoint Security and Control, February 2009: Review noted "Sophos has an incredible ability to develop great security products while keeping a level of simplicity about the administration."
- Selected as one of CRN's "12 Security Products We Love": Sophos's WS1000 Web Security Appliance was also named CRN Test Center's "Product of the Year" in the security appliance category.
"Sophos's thriving North American channel program was established on cultivating strategic, lucrative co-selling relationships," said Chris Doggett, director of global channel programs at Sophos. 'By continuing to deliver the tools, training, resources and support necessary to guarantee channel success, we look forward to furthering our worldwide reach with the implementation of our Global Partner Program this month.'
For more information on the Sophos Partner Program, visit: www.sophos.com/partners/channel
*active Sophos Partners
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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.
