SonicWall set to branch out

Security vendor SonicWall is planning to derive half of its income from outside the US by the end of the year, according to chief executive Matt Medeiros.

The vendor, which last week announced a new direction for its European Medallion Partner Programme, indicated there were more changes to come.

"Eighteen months ago only 16 per cent of revenues were coming from overseas," said Medeiros. "When we compared this to the competition, 50 or 60 per cent of their revenues were coming from outside the US.

"We've now gone from 16 per cent to 34 per cent and want to close 2005 with between 40 and 50 per cent of revenues coming from international sources."

He added that the company will also address the problem of its products being sold as commodities.

"Most of our products were 18 to 24 months old," said Medeiros. "Now 90 per cent of our revenues come from products that are less than six months old. We are not the first to the market with technology. We will be three, four or five months behind, but we will hit the late majority with proven solutions."

Reaction from the channel was cautious. Francis West, managing director of reseller FWCS, said: "The product has been cheapened by any Tom, Dick or Harry being able to sell it. My hope is that the new programme will change that."

"A channel shake-up is a good thing," said Mukesh Gupta, managing director of distributor e92plus. "The resellers we talked to that [SonicWall] wanted to work with were being undercut at the final hour."

ben_tudor@vnu.co.uk