Shavlik steps up European assault

Patch management vendor keen to reposition itself

New move: Neil Butchart (left) outside Shavlik's new office in Amsterdam.

Shavlik is keen to shake off its image as a pure patch management vendor after opening an EMEA headquarters in Amsterdam.

The vendor has parachuted Neil Butchart in from its US head office to take on the new role of EMEA managing director. Working from the Dutch capital, Butchart will be recruiting new partners and developing established ones.

Ed Peek, vice president of worldwide sales at Shavlik, said too few European clients were aware of Shavlik’s full suite of products.

“Brand awareness is a problem. Those who hear of us think of patch management, but would not necessarily think of us tackling more difficult problems. We are spending more time letting people know who we are,” he said.

“Configuration management and application control are still being done manually, so there is a chance for partners to walk into a company and give them new automated capabilities they did not know existed.”
John McGinley, sales director at Shavlick’s sole UK Premier partner, Satisnet, urged Shavlik to work
harder to educate end users on the difference between free and third-party patch management solutions.

“There is no shortage of free tools. Shavlik talks about the difference, but on a case-by-case basis and this needs to be done on a larger scale.”
Figures from analyst IDC show Shavlik tied with Microsoft for second place behind Lumension (formerly PatchLink) in the patching and remediation software market in 2006, garnering 11 per cent market share.