Vendors change channel programmes too much, claims Sophos

Sophos' channel director tells CRN that resellers don't like it when vendors chop and change partner programmes

Security vendor Sophos has championed the consistency of its UK channel, while rivals chop and change partner programmes to the annoyance of resellers, it claims.

The firm has a long-standing UK channel relationship and Jonathan Bartholomew, channel director at Sophos, told CRN that its steady hand is what appeals to resellers.

"What I see in the market is a lot of the traditional end-point, firewall vendors trying to diversify and bring new products in - which we are doing too, there is no denying that - but these other vendors are trying to reinvent their channel programmes too," he said.

"We don't just flip up our channel programme every two years, because what I've tried to do in the eight years I've headed up the channel here is to create consistency. That consistency is hard to achieve, but we have managed to do it."

Bartholomew said the feedback from its channel partners is that the "flip and change of vendors" really frustrates them.

"You will have a vendor who will embrace the channel and court the channel for a period of time, then it will start taking business direct and only working with certain partners," he said.

"Partners like that we are consistent and doing that is actually very hard and has taken several years. There is a lot of integrity in what we do.

"The key tenets of our UK channel are: consistency, competency and integrity. We want everything we do with the channel to have credibility. That is why we have huge resources behind the channel in the UK."