Sophos hones channel recruitment

Vendor guns for selected partners as VARs from rival vendors are tempted in

Sophos is hoping to enjoy more success with its rivals’ partners as it looks to expand its UK channel with volume at the bottom and value at the top.

The Oxfordshire-based vendor has close to 200 UK partners. It is now undertaking a recruitment drive to add some scale in the SMB space while hunting down “no more than 10” VARs to provide volume licensing and wraparound services in both the wider enterprise and public sector markets.

James Vyvyan, UK and Ireland channel director at Sophos, explained that the security firm is at the right point in its history to address more targeted channel recruitment needs.

“Sophos, along with a lot of other vendors, is at a certain point in its evolution,” he said. “Every vendor, when they first go through the cycle, must start off direct - because you have to prove there is a market out there - then, slowly or quickly, go indirect. That is generally characterised by signing up any partner that will talk to you.

“Over the past three years, we have looked to expand our channel with our existing partners. We have looked to get the relationships right and get the business flowing with our existing partners.

“We have hundreds of partners already, we do not necessarily need many more. We are looking to target the kind of partner we want to deal with and go after them in a much more focused way. The important thing is that it is not just random expansion of the channel.”

At the SMB end of the channel, Sophos is looking to bulk up its partner numbers and is seeking technically adept resellers to service a market that, Vyvyan claimed, is too costly and time-consuming for vendors to address.

Key to attracting SMB-focused partners will be making Sophos itself as easy as possible to do business with, he added, because resellers are liable to be jumping ship from a relationship with a different manufacturer.

“Typically, the guy who services the small business is quite loyal,” said Vyvyan. “They will normally have only one vendor in each space because it makes sense to be an expert. Rather than a package, they are offering a service, and the customers do not necessarily care whether they are using Sophos or McAfee or Symantec.”

One SMB-focused VAR to switch allegiance to Sophos recently was Somerbys IT, which walked away from a long-standing relationship with McAfee after expressing its displeasure with the level of support it was receiving.

Jonathan Appleton, managing director of Somerbys IT, said: “Sophos is now almost the only security vendor that we sell and this is because of the exceptional partner programme it offers.

“Sophos’ key differentiator is that it does not compete with us directly and therefore does not impinge on our margin or our relationship with customers. This is certainly not true of other security vendors.”

Marginally better
Sophos operates a one-tier channel model and channel boss Vyvyan claimed increased margin is one of the key differentiators the vendor can offer resellers. Platinum partners can make 35 points on product if a deal is registered, he revealed.

“We offer a slightly different partner programme to our competitors which allows the partner to retain higher margins, we hope, and provide more value-add,” said Vyvyan.

“We have a large amount of resource and we offer good value during the sale cycle with our high-touch engagement, which helps to generate demand and enable partners actively from a sales point of view.

“We are very prescriptive with our high-touch guys in how they should engage and we hope it is a very channel-friendly engagement. What happens with a lot of vendors is there is the potential for a bit of conflict about whose deal it is. We try to make sure we are working together. No one side owns the customer.

“The whole idea of the programme is to reward certain types of behaviour. There are aggressive margin enhancements for deal registration.”

BMS is another partner to recently sign up with Sophos and the Nottingham-based reseller is typical of the 10 more higher-end, higher-volume VARs Sophos wants to add, said Vyvyan. In its first four months on the Sophos books, NHS specialist BMS has transacted £250,000.

Tina Tsoukatos, managing director of the VAR, told ChannelWeb that her company has applied for Platinum partner status. The firm is another with a long-standing McAfee relationship, and Tsoukatos explained that the time had been right to diversify BMS’ portfolio.

“Both BMS and Sophos are well established in the NHS market,” she said. “There had been a central procurement of McAfee which was coming to an end; we saw adding Sophos as a natural choice. Some NHS trusts have welcomed the choice and others have decided to stick with McAfee.

“In terms of initial engagement and on a daily operational level, Sophos has been really easy to work with.”