Check Point hails SKU opportunity

Security vendor highlights partner upsell possibilities following integration of Nokia platform

Lowe: We have increased discounts for partners

Check Point has claimed its partners can drive extra sales and net higher margins after it combined its software and the appliance range it acquired from Nokia into a single SKU.

Nick Lowe, managing director northern Europe of Check Point, claimed that the new appliances work out about a fifth cheaper than the two products bought separately taken over a five-year period.

“We have also increased the discount for partners,” he said. “There is a large Nokia install base and a significant opportunity for partners to upsell them to the new appliance.”

Lowe said the integration of Nokia had gone “incredibly smoothly” for the channel as there was an almost perfect overlap between partners.

“It has felt more like a product reorganisation than an integration,” he said.

Jonathan Lassman, managing director of Check Point partner NTS, said: “Check Point stood a chance of losing share to appliance vendors such as Juniper and Fortinet, but there is no need for anyone to move now.”