Revamped Borderware fights for reseller share

Email security vendor's new European vice president sets out gameplan for success in UK channel

Tony Caine: Aims to more than double the number of Borderware's Gold partners

Borderware is presenting itself as a high-margin alternative for disgruntled IronPort and Secure Computing partners after overhauling its UK channel strategy.

Borderware’s new vice president of Europe, Tony Caine, admits the email security vendor’s UK channel was left to languish before he took the reins in July.

Since then, the vendor has refreshed its product portfolio, appointed distributor Sphinx and taken on new UK staff. These include Dan Peters and Paul Catchpole, who worked at the firm’s previous UK distributor Peters and Peters before the

Denmark-based company ceased trading in November.

Borderware has also recruited Jamie Pearce as UK channel manager. He previously held the same position at Secure Computing – ­ which Caine admitted would be a key target in its battle for UK resellers.

“Our main competitors are Cisco with Ironport and Secure with CipherTrust, which has now been bought by McAfee. There is a lot of uncertainty in both channels,” he said.

“The question their partners are asking is how wide the channel for these products will become and can I still maintain margins?”

Borderware has six UK Gold partners, including GSS and BMS, but Caine said he aimed to increase that to at least 15.

He added that Borderware has launched a new platform combining email security, web security and data loss prevention functions, which he said would offer resellers a genuine differentiator.

Dan Marano, sales team leader at BMS, said the healthcare specialist was working with all levels of the NHS to promote the Borderware product.

“Working with a bigger distributor [Sphinx] will give Borderware more presence in other markets, which will also help us,” he said.