Secon pares down vendor partners

Security VAR to move forward with just four key manufacturing allies

Security reseller Secon has thrown its weight behind four key vendors after concluding it cannot be all things to all men.

Managing director Rob Gupta confirmed the Surrey-based firm is pooling all its resources behind Trend Micro, Websense, Juniper and Vasco.

"We have seen acquisitions and organisations around us failing and it has made us very cautious about who we do business with," he said. "But the biggest change is that we have culled down our manufacturing partners."

Gupta said the move had had a positive impact on its top and bottom line.

"We want to be a specialist with certain manufacturers. Our key performance indicator is now whether we are the UK's go-to partner for those four vendors," he added.

Secon was one of the founding members of the Association of Data Security Integrators (ADSI), a not-for-profit body designed to stamp out the security channel's notorious "cost-plus" culture.

Gupta admitted that ADSI was now running only loosely after the resellers involved decided to dedicate more time to their own businesses.

"We all have businesses to run and we need someone else to run it," he said. "I have noticed the channel has cleaned up a lot and we do not come up against the cost-plus model so much. ADSI has opened up a lot of communication channels between me and the other VARs."