Vormetric teams up with Arrow in UK

Distribution partnership could extend to Europe

Vormetric's EMEA channel boss has said its recent tie up with Arrow could be expanded across EMEA due to the success the duo is enjoying.

The pair has been working together since the start of this year, and EMEA channel director Chris Smith has now told CRN that there is potential to extend the partnership further afield, although there is no timeframe for this as yet.

A partnership already exists between the pair in the US.

"The premise of where we started was ‘we like what we hear, let's prove the concept in the UK and then we have the option to move it to wherever really'.

"There is the option to expand that to other regions and it would be easy to do that contractually, but that has to be right for both parties.

"It's a partnership and I want there to be the appetite to work with us."

John Dams, managing director for security and networking, at Arrow, added: "As a provider of integrated security solutions we fully recognise the importance of data security for companies facing up to the current climate of cybercrime.

"Our commitment to providing our customers with the very best security products makes Vormetric a perfect fit for our portfolio of enterprise security solutions."

One of the main aims of the deal with Arrow is for Vormetric to increase its partner base in the UK, but Smith still wants to keep it "relatively small" to have a close relationship with resellers and protect their profitability.

The vendor currently has partnerships with around 23 resellers in the UK, 15 of which Smith calls "valid".

"[The ideal partner number] might be 20, it might be 12 - it's really what fits for our business because the Vormetric sale is very much an enterprise sale."

"I don't want to create an over-competitive market which just trashes their [partners] margin.

"It can be quite complex - it's not shifting boxes - so the reseller has to have the appetite to take it on and sell Vormetric because it's not something you can just cold call and sell over the phone."

Smith announced plans to introduce a two-tier channel model at Vormetric when he joined the firm last year, and plans to extend the model to around 95 per cent of Europe.