Websense points partners towards $1m-plus deals

UK boss Andy Philpott claims Triton platform is allowing its partners to generate seven-figure deals

Websense claims its Triton platform has transformed its channel play by unlocking $1m-plus opportunities for its partners.

After launching Triton last year, the security vendor recently added email security to the platform, which can be delivered as an on-premise or cloud-based solution.

Andy Philpott, vice president of sales for UK and Ireland at Websense (pictured), said Triton had generated several "big-ticket wins" for its partners, with two deals in December alone worth over $1m.

That was borne out in Websense's Q4 results as global sales rose 8.4 per cent to $86.4m.

"The value of the deals has increased and that's what partners love," said Philpott. "Before, they may have sold $10,000 solutions. Now it is ten times that, while at the same time they are saving the customer money."

Philpott stressed that Triton was open to smaller partners working in the SME space, but said the focus was on helping its top Platinum and Enterprise Alliance Partners (EAP) partners bag large deals in the enterprise segment.

Websense now has six UK-based EAPs: 2e2, Integralis, HP Information Security, GSS, SecureData and Softcat.

"When I came on board a year ago, one of my tasks was to look at how we can penetrate enterprise-class organisations with complex, integrated solutions," Philpott said.

"In the last 12 months, we have been successful doing that through our EAP partners," he added. "If the customer has three different vendors providing three different technologies, Triton is a very simple consolidation play."

Philpott also took a sideswipe at rival Blue Coat, which recently launched its first cloud offering.

"That's an endorsement of what we have been doing for a number of years," he said.

Rob Jacobs, Websense product manager at distributor Computerlinks, said: "The number of £1m-plus deals we have in our pipeline are now substantial. Websense are getting involved in some big multi-national enterprise opportunities which is fantastic for our partners and Triton is a nice consolidation story for them to take out to end customers."