Symantec goes for throat of small business channel

Symantec launched a small business arm earlier this year

Symantec is launching a Small Business Specialist programme offering resellers rebates of up to three per cent for generating small business sales.

The programme is available to all Symantec partners holding Silver level and above and who have expertise in the small business space.

Qualifying partners can earn volume incentive rebates of up to three per cent and will gain access to additional marketing funds focused on small business products. Extra training will also be made available.

Symantec products eligible for the programme are: Symantec Endpoint Protection; Symantec Antivirus; Symantec Protection Suite; Symantec Multi-tier Protection; and Backup Exec & Backup Exec System Recovery.

The programme will be launched in the autumn and follows Symantec’s move to create a dedicated small business arm earlier this year – as exclusively revealed by CRN (ChannelWeb, 23 March).

Andrew Douglas, vice president of Small Business for Symantec EMEA, said there was huge scope for the channel to grow small business revenues as its research showed that four out of 10 small firms buy their threat protection from retail outlets

“It’s vital that we are able to work with our partners to meet this need,” he said. “The Small Business Specialisation is an important part of our drive to enable partners to better serve their customers.”