Sapphire sifts out security gemstones

Security VAR prunes vendor line-up

Security VAR Sapphire has completed a vendor rationalisation process that will see it move forward with just 12 core vendors.

It is a year since the Darlington-based firm took on seven staff from fall rival Assurix, including its managing director David Lannin.

The move gave Sapphire a foothold in the south but the team it took on was also tasked with pruning its 40-strong line-up of manufacturer partners and defining its product strategy, a process Lannin has now finalised.

Vendors that survived the cull include Check Point, MobileIron and Trustwave, for whom Sapphire hope to be appointed as a Platinum partner.

Sapphire has also broken the technology it carries into seven core areas: Network security; endpoint security, content security; data security; mobility, identity control; and intelligence.

"We have gone from having a huge number of vendors to a tight ship, so we can really focus on what we do in 2014," said Lannin, who is security strategist at Sapphire.

"It's great for the technical teams as it means the support staff and consultants know which ones they're dealing with and are not spread so thinly."

Sapphire comes from a background of data assurance, providing Check testing, digital forensics and ISO 27001 consulting, but Lannin said the product business is now catching up in size.

"We now have three offices in London, Darlington and near Glasgow, and sales and technical people in each one, which is a really strong story for customers looking for a UK-wide VAR," he added.