Malwarebytes partners unsettled by two-tier change
US security vendor to turn off online ordering portal for partners in September with price rises also expected
Malwarebytes has confirmed it is going to turn off its online ordering portal for partners in September on enterprise products, as part of its new distribution-only strategy which will also see price rises for partners.
Last month Malwarebytes signed up Kite as its second UK distributor, having inked a deal with Blue Solutions earlier in the month. Now the US end-point security player is going to move to a two-tier model, with partners able to buy enterprise stock in the UK from Blue Solutions and Kite only.
The new channel model also coincides with a price increase for UK partners, of an average of 10 per cent across products, according to one source.
Speaking to CRN, Anthony O'Mara, vice president of EMEA sales at Malwarebytes, confirmed that the online portal will close for enterprise products – including its remediation tools and its anti-malware products – on 9 September, but consumer products will still be available online.
When asked if the new structure will lead to any negative effects on partners' margins, O'Mara said this would not be the case for most resellers.
"In the majority of cases there will be no changes to margins. Anyone who joins the partner programme will maintain the margins they have and will get the additional benefits you would expect from a partner programme. If a partner does not join the partner programme, the margins will not be as attractive, but it's going to be a two-step channel programme," he said.
But Steve Hennessy, sales director at Malwarebytes partner Computerworld Business Solutions (CBS), said he was unsure about the new model.
"It was always going to happen sooner rather than later because using a distie that is going to push that product into lots of resellers is potentially going to be better for them than just the resellers getting it from their website. But right now, I don't know whether or not it's going to be good," he said.
"You would think in the long run it will be bad, because the pricing will change, everyone will buy through the distie and it will be purely based through volume."
Hennessy said he thought the process would work better if there was a Malwarebytes UK team monitoring the new structure.
"These things work better if you have UK-based people who are pushing the distie, to push the reseller. Then you have Malwarebytes UK, if I can call it that, talking to us, engaging with us, keeping us interested in the product, and then the distie there to slick up the process of delivery.
"Rather than being Malwarebytes UK, they have decided to use distribution to get their message out, and I'm not sure that's necessarily a successful way of doing it because you are banking simply on the contacts of that distributor to grow the product," he said.
"Let's not forget it's not a physical product, it's a licence, so it's not like you need a distribution model; an online model works perfectly."
David Dodds, a partner at Malwarebytes reseller Connect Systems, said he was largely positive about the vendor's new two-tier strategy.
"We are happy with it. We deal with Blue Solutions quite a lot and they offer us good advice on products to make sure we are selling the right thing, and if it doesn't affect our margins, then we are happy to buy through them," he said.
Dodds added that the in-house support from Blue Solutions will hopefully give it improved support overall. But he did concede that information over price changes has been somewhat unclear from Malwarebytes.
"We are happy with the [price] increases so long as it does not affect our margins," Dodds said. "The one thing I would say is the info is a bit vague on their website about how our margins are going to be affected. We don't mind paying extra as long as it's going to be reflected in the RRP [recommended retail price]."