NG begins growth crusade
Network monitoring vendor says channel partners could sell £1m-worth of stock in first year
Network General (NG) has claimed its channel partners could generate at least £1m-worth of sales in the first year alone, despite the company becoming officially independent only three months ago.
The network monitoring vendor was formed following the £275m sale of Sniffer Technologies from anti-virus firm McAfee (formerly Network Associates) to Silver Lake Partner and the Texas Pacific Group It became officially independent on 16 July.
As part of its strategy to dominate the network performance management market, NG told CRN it will keep the Sniffer branding, and will work with six core partners and several smaller resellers to grow the business.
"Recruitment will be based on partners' expertise in networking and its passion for the market," said Bruce Fram, president of the firm.
"We focus on long-term relationships, which isn't most vendor models. Training will be done in a classroom environment alongside our own in-house sales teams, but will vary according to each partner's existing level of ability."
Fram added that NG is looking for a limited number of partners only to enable it to offer higher margins and maintain reduced competition in the channel.
"This is the best opportunity in IT for years, in terms of reseller opportunity," Fram claimed.
Stuart Beattie, senior manager EMEA marketing at NG, said Europe is key to its strategy. "The channel in Europe is unique, and there is still a huge opportunity for us in the channel," he said.
Paul Spencer, managing director of Axial Systems, described by Beattie as NG's main partner, said resellers could benefit from the partnership.
"For a suitably skilled reseller starting from scratch it will be possible to generate £1m within a year, the market still has plenty of growth opportunities," he said.