Kaspersky bets on smaller partners with new Bronze tier

Security vendor aims to help smaller partners boost sales

Kaspersky hopes to help its smaller partners be more profitable with the addition of a Bronze tier to its new partner programme.

The programme launched on 1 April and aims to give all partners the ability to be more profitable and successful, said Russ Madley, head of B2B for Kaspersky in UK and Ireland.

He said: "We've decided to look into our partner programme and how smaller organisations can actually join and benefit from the programme and the wonderful support that we can give them from our channel and enterprise teams."

The Bronze tier will provide smaller resellers with new discount levels, additional offers and resources that were previously unavailable.

Madley explained the decision to create the Bronze tier: "It is an area where we felt we could do better. We saw a couple of our competitors actively go after those and we thought it was a good area for us to do so as well.

"We recently launched our managed service provider programme and we found that quite a few organisations that work in that space are the smaller resellers so it is helping to bring people aboard."

The new partner programme also includes higher discount rates for partners, with 15 to 35 per cent discounts for lower-tier partners, up from a 20 per cent maximum discount in the previous programme.

"The key thing for us as an organisation is how much margin those partners can retain. A lot of our top partners are retaining 30 per cent margins from selling our products and solutions," Madley said.

Founded in 1997, the cybersecurity vendor has 270,000 corporate customers, with 30,000 reseller partners worldwide, 800 of those in the UK.

Madley said that Kaspersky is looking to grow its partner base by 20 per cent, adding: "We are 100 per cent channel focused. The easiest way for us to grow as a business is for us to invest in the channel."

Kaspersky has relaunched its partner portal, with more training and support available.

It has also relaunched its High Performance Club as part of its sponsorship of Ferrari, which consists of rewards that include travelling to the Ferrari factory in Italy, track days at Ferrari, and the chance to watch the Formula 1 weekend in Monza, Italy.

Madley said: "These are great incentives for partners to go out and sell Kaspersky. They are experiences that money really can't buy."

The business side of Kaspersky currently accounts for 40 per cent of its revenue, but Madley said this is increasing annually.

"The split is becoming more in favour of the business side. We have put a lot of time and effort into the enterprise side to achieve the growth levels that we are aiming for."

"It is really the change of the landscape; companies are turning more and more digital which means the threats that are out there are more substantial," he added.

"There are big groups of criminals out there who see this as a business. It is a big threat to organisations and it is up to us and other vendors to make sure we are protecting businesses."