Panda bares all for the channel

Security firm goes channel-only as it looks to expand reseller base

Anti-virus software and general security vendor Panda Software has completed its move to channel-only sales.

The company has spent the past year restructuring the Panda Business Partner Programme, which was launched in the UK last year.

As a result, the company will now only sell via the channel but will continue to support existing home users.

David Matthews, Panda's UK reseller partner manager, said his main aim was to expand the firm's reseller base.

Panda is looking to move into the higher end of the corporate market, Matthews said. "This is a dedicated move, and we will be dealing with this section full time. That's one of the reasons I took the job," he said.

"We want to put everything in place so our resellers and distributors can be as profitable as possible."

The move reflects the maturity of the market for IT security. Most major anti-virus vendors began selling software direct, but increasingly firms prefer to sell via the channel because it allows them to focus on their core area of technology.

"Security is an integrated sale now," said Neil Barrett, technical director at security specialist Information Risk Management.

"An anti-virus product is fine but it's of little use if it doesn't have a firewall and possibly a spam filter.

"It's evidence that we've crossed the high point of the adopter bell curve and people aren't buying on technology any more - they're buying an effect."

Separately, according to a report released last week by analyst Datamonitor, security spending looks set to rise for at least the next three years and will consistently outperform other areas of the IT industry.

The report found that enterprise security products generated turnover of $7.1bn in 2002, while global enterprise investment in security products is predicted to rise to $13.5bn in 2006.