VCW aims parting shot at Fortinet

Distributor hits out at UTM vendor after confirming the duo are parting ways

VCW says it may have to enforce non-circumvention clauses written into its Fortinet deal pipeline

Voice Comms Warehouse (VCW) has warned that it will vigorously protect its Fortinet deal pipeline after confirming that its distribution contract with the vendor is coming to an end.

VCW helped build the unified threat management (UTM) vendor’s brand in the UK in the naughties alongside rival distributor Fresh Egg, which it acquired in 2007.

Chairman Mike Harris confirmed VCW’s contract would end “soon” but said the firm has been reducing its dependency on Fortinet over the last six to nine months after cracks began to appear in the relationship.

He claimed VCW’s Fortinet resellers were commonly being undercut by less certified rivals at the eleventh hour and argued Fortinet had lost its status as a visionary.

“We realised the market had moved and end users were getting increasingly fed up with the annual licensing fees increasing,” he said.

Harris claimed VCW has a potential $12m pipeline of Fortinet deals through its partners over the next 6-12 months, $2m of which is at the final stage of the tendering process. He warned the distributor would act to “protect its commercials”.

“We put a lot of commercial hard work into these deals,” Harris said. “We will now have to switch sell the customers or enforce our [non-circumvention] clauses.”

Fortinet was the lion’s share of VCW’s business but Harris argued the distributor is financially secure. He stressed it has retained all of its 20 staff and predicted that turnover for its current year to next August would rise from £5.4m to between £6m and £10m.

VCW recently signed rival UTM vendor Cyberoam and Harris claimed the relationship is already bearing fruit.

“We are very busy at the moment replacing a lot of our clients’ estates,” he explained.

“Gartner is positioning Cyberoam as a leader. One of its weaknesses is its European presence but it is now on a big drive to address that. It has a strong commercial story, especially with the cuts in public funding. A one-year Fortinet renewal will fund Cyberoam for two years including hardware replacement.”

Fortinet was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press while its other distributors - Exclusive Networks, VADition and Avnet - were still under NDA.