Distributor to manage PGP channel

Messaging software vendor PGP Corporation has outlined its first formal reseller program, which will be delivered to resellers here by niche Sydney distributor Aquion.

PGP Corporation - a US-based company formed June 2002 to push PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software - entered the Australian market last October, signing Aquion as distributor.

Audrey Lyon, business development manager at Aquion, said PGP was setting up its first formal channel program to coincide with its recent signing of Ingram Micro as US distributor and release of its 'self-managing' security architecture, PGP Universal.

'In Australia in the first instance we are signing people as authorised resellers. There will be three tiers, but we will sign everybody on at the lowest common denominator,' she said.

Lyon said all authorised reseller partners and their performance would be assessed in the next year and gradually funnelled into the most appropriate tier. The other two tiers would be volume and authorised solution partner designations, she said.

'I've got a list of 30 companies that we're targeting ... people with specialised knowledge. We're not being absolutely exclusive. It is a strategy to open it up and determine where we put our best efforts over time,' Lyon said.

Aquion aimed to sign about five security-focused VARs, four 'high-end' service companies and 12 licensing companies, she said.

Authorised resellers would not have to commit to financial or sales targets up front until they entered the second-tier volume partner designation, but would still receive training and support from PGP, she said.

'They get access to the partner portal and three levels of training. Two provided online in a total investment of the channel partners of three hours,' she said.

The third level would be provided on site by a PGP systems engineer. Aquion was in the process of signing on a Sydney-based certified PGP system engineer to cover the Asia-Pacific region, Lyon said.

Aquion specialises in policy-driven security packages and software, including email management and digital rights management vendors, to large organisations in Australia and New Zealand.