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04 Sep 2006
Security giant Check Point is bullish despite losing two high-profile channel figures in the past month.
As exclusively revealed by CRN, EMEA channel manager Viv Francis officially left the company last week (CRN, 31 July) to take up a position at Symbol Technologies. Also, Niall Moynihan, country manager for Ireland and Africa recently left the vendor for a job in South Africa (CRN, 14 August).
Speaking to CRN, Nick Lowe, managing director northern Europe at Check Point, said: “We will miss Niall and Viv, but we are still growing as a company and are currently going through a great deal of change.”
Lowe added that the vendor intends to change its channel model “sooner rather than later”. It also hopes to announce a replacement for Francis in the next three to four weeks.
Earlier this year, Check Point revealed intentions to re-evaluate its higher-level partners (CRN, 2 May).
“I want to positively discriminate partners that are adding value to Check Point,” Lowe said. “I want to begin next year with the new model honed and ready.”
Lowe added that the two-tier distribution model is vital to Check Point. He also warned that vendors need to be careful about closing the door to certain resellers.
“We want to be as open as possible with the channel,” he said. “But maybe we need to be a bit quicker to weed out partners that are not adding anything to our brand. We need to put in place new accreditation schemes and a whole new structure.”
Ian Kilpatrick, managing director of distributor Wick Hill Group, said: “We have found Check Point to be very focused. We are quite new to the fold and operate in the SME sector, which is an emerging area for Check Point. Typically there are more VARs that add value in that space.”
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