NAI dismisses Sophos move to snatch resellers

Network Associates (NAI) has shrugged off moves by anti-virus vendor Sophos to make in-roads into its reseller and customer base.

Network Associates (NAI) has shrugged off moves by anti-virus vendor Sophos to make in-roads into its reseller and customer base.

Sophos is encouraging NAI's channel to move to its own products in a series of advertisements compelling them to "make the switch". Sophos claims NAI's effort to transfer customers using the Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit to its augmented Active Virus Defence (AVD) suite by 1 April is an ideal opportunity for unhappy users and resellers to change vendor.

Mark Forrest, sales and marketing director at Sophos, claimed the vendor had strengthened its channel by recruiting about 250 VARs in recent months, a "significant proportion" of whom had moved from NAI or had added Sophos to sell alongside NAI's products.

"When NAI bought Dr Solomon's it acquired a large slice of the market that had already rejected NAI. Many were unhappy that they were told to adopt a product they already had decided not to accept," said Forrest.

Forrest claimed Sophos would not directly target individual NAI resellers, but through advertising would ask those resellers that are unhappy with their current vendor to "give us a call".

However, Mike Dalton, European channel director at NAI, claimed the company was not seeing an erosion of its reseller base. He denied that NAI was forcing customers to change from Dr Solomon's to AVD, maintaining that the Dr Solomon's brand would "remain in markets where it is strong". He said the response to the changeover had been positive from partners and customers.

"When you're number one in the market you're there to be shot at. Symantec had a go last September when we first said we would make the change in April. I'm surprised that Sophos has waited until now to have a pop," he added.