Symantec shift to focus on VARs was ‘overdue’

Security giant Symantec has pledged to engage more with its channel in 2007 after admitting that it had slackened its focus on partners over recent years.

The firm, which merged with storage giant Veritas in 2004 (CRN, 20 December 2004), split its security business into two divisions late last year. One is focused on the consumer side with its flagship Norton Antivirus suite, while the other concentrates on the corporate arena.

Lee Sharrocks, UK sales director and head of the UK consumer programme at Symantec, told CRN: “We have just made our first major pro-duct launch for a number of years with Norton 360. We want to get closer to our channel, be that large retailers, independent retailers and e-tailers, or resellers and distributors.

“What we are doing right now is going out to our channel partners and asking them what we can do to help. We have to listen to what our channel partners want and we intend to communicate with them on a regular basis. To be honest, this is a job that is long overdue.”

Sharrocks added that the vendor intends to implement changes to its channel strategy in the next financial year, which starts in April.

“Our partners’ requirements change because their customers’ buying patterns change,” he said. “This is just the first step in making sure we are supporting them.”

Alex Tatham, director of commercial products at distributor Bell Micro, welcomed the news.

“Symantec has quite rightly been caught up in the job of combining two firms together following its merger with Veritas, but the channel has been caught in the middle trying to fend off customers, so it has all been quite difficult,” he said.

“Symantec has probably not been as customer-facing as it has in the past and we would like to see more of that. We will be delighted to speak to it more this year.”

Symantec simplifies its partner programme