WatchGuard aims to woo UK partners by upping its lead-generation activities and boosting its support response times in 2008.

The firewall vendor, which hit 17 per cent worldwide growth last year, has claimed it made several improvements to its channel programme, despite freezing reseller targets.

WatchGuard is now offering its Expert and Professional partners a guaranteed one-hour and two-hour response time for second-level support, respectively, compared with its previous four-hour commitment.

Mark Romano, director of channel marketing at WatchGuard, said a new lead-generation system will go live later in the first half. “Very often, lead-generation campaigns fail as the partner feels they are not receiving leads that are ready for sale. The new system will continue communications until the customer is ready for someone to call them,” he said.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of WatchGuard distributor Wick Hill, said: “We are getting calls from people who have drifted and are keen to re-engage with WatchGuard.”