By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
May 7, 2010

Security software giant Symantec recently introduced their enhanced partner strategy to the market, which puts a premium on partners’ specialization of Symantec’s key products, solutions, and expertise, company executives announced Wednesday.

Symantec, considered to be the 3rd largest software company next to Microsoft and Oracle, said the re-focusing of their partner strategy would help partners differentiate from competitors, maximize profit, and help accelerate their businesses.

“We treat [our partners] as an extension of [the company itself],” remarked Eric Hoh, vice president for Asia south region, Symantec. “Channel partners play an important role in Symantec’s business. The partner ecosystem is important to us, so we keep on looking for ways to improve it.”

The cornerstone for the enhanced partner program, according to Luichi Robles, country manager, Symantec Philippines, is a deeper emphasis on specializations, which has been part of the partner strategy for many years now.

These specializations include endpoint management, data leak prevention, and SMB, which the security firm—whose business relies on a huge majority of partners, according to Hoh—have introduced previously.

They will act as badges or distinctions, Robles said, to recognize that a certain partner has a certain expertise of Symantec products or technology. “This makes sure that partners don’t only sell, but they also deliver solutions and support them,” he added.

In the same vein, Robles said the new addition to the strategy is a win-win situation for all parties. “Customers can be assured of local expertise of the products, while specializations give partners a competitive advantage over others,” he recalled.

In the coming months, the vendor said they will start rolling out a host of other fields partners can specialize on, such as storage management, e-discovery, and archiving.

Alternatively, and to assure partners around the world are highly specialized, these specializations will form part of the criteria for attaining levels in the partner ecosystem, namely Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Registered Member.

Today, Symantec Philippines has four silver, five gold, and four platinum partners in command. In the whole of Asia Pacific region, the company has over 400 specialized partners.

Partners can move up the ladder by acquiring a certain number of specializations, attending online and physical trainings, acquiring the needed resources, and taking the specified tests, Robles said.

In addition, partners who have undergone specialization trainings will become part of Symantec’s Partner Locator, which makes it easy for users to search for partners in their respective vicinities.

In the near future, Hoh said Symantec will take a step back and shift its services/consulting model to benefit the partners, by enabling them to offer consulting services to client. Currently, end-users consult directly with Symantec for their needs. “Making them services partners will enable them to maximize on their revenues by offering this as a value-add to their solutions,” he added.

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