Websense drops DNS Arrow

Security vendor will move forward with Computerlinks, e92plus and Bell following distribution review

Pat Dunne: History played no part in the decision

Websense has axed DNS Arrow following a two-month distribution review.

The security vendor hinted it would drop one of its four distributors immediately after it acquired SurfControl last year (Channelweb, 8 October, 2007). DNS Arrow came from the SurfControl side, while Websense worked with Computerlinks, e92plus and Bell.

A year later, DNS Arrow has been given its marching orders and will serve out its contract until the end of the year.

Ironically, Websense had already jettisoned DNS Arrow – or more precisely the InTechnology distribution business DNS Arrow went on to buy – in 2006, precisely because it had struck up a partnership with SurfControl.

Pat Dunne, senior director of the UK and Ireland at Websense, said history had played no part in the vendor’s decision.

“Our pay per performance programme has been quite successful in getting distributors to focus on SME resellers and partners outside our programme. With four it was quite difficult to ask them to put the resources in so it felt right to reduce the number by one,” he explained.

Dunne said the decision was based on the strength of each distributor’s business plan and the differentiation and coverage they offered.

James Pattinson, security director at DNS Arrow, described the split as “amicable”.

“Websense went through a review process and decided it was over-distributed and needed to do more business with fewer distributors. Despite us being its second largest distributor it decided to go ahead with the other three,” he said.

“Our portfolio of existing vendor partners covers all areas of the content filtering space.”