VAD Zedsphere hunting 500 new partners for ESET

Zedsphere says end-point security vendor's offerings will be a 'key' feature of its wider portfolio

ESET has teamed up with MSP-focused distributor Zedsphere in order to sign an additional 500 UK partners, as part of its recruitment push.

Rick Yates, managing director at Zedsphere, told CRN that the partnership came about because of ESET's focus on working in the MSP space.

"They have decided to work with us because they felt like they wanted a specialist in the MSP space and we have a record of being MSP exclusive," he said.

Yates added that the distie wants to add an additional 500 UK-based MSPs to ESET's partnership programme by the end of 2020.

The vendor signed Distology in 2017 as part of an enterprise push.

Established in 2015 by Yates, Zedsphere recorded revenue of £2m in its first two years of trading, and has 700 MSP partners.

Yates said ESET's technological competency and its new billings offering was a draw in partnering with ESET.

ESET's daily billing charges MSPs only for the number of days in the month it was used, as opposed to a standard monthly subscription model.

"ESET have also got this feature of daily billing, which is quite rare in the industry," Yates claimed.

"It allows MSPs to have a much more granular approach to how they build customers, and not be overcharged for a resource they haven't used."

The Zedsphere MD added that the company wanted a "meaningful relationship" with an end-point security vendor and that ESET's offerings will be a key security feature in the distributor's wider portfolio.

Malcolm Tuck, ESET UK's managing director, said the vendor had made "strong inroads" into the MSP space, but knew that it needed to partner with a specialist to address the market.

"Zedsphere brings to the table industry knowledge along with high-quality marketing resources and an impressive customer experience for MSPs," he said.

"It was a very easy decision for us to form an alliance and work together to achieve our goal of being the end-point security vendor of choice in the UK MSP space by 2021."