Symantec to reduce enterprise channel

Security vendor Symantec will reduce its number of enterprise security and solution partners by 50 percent, following an ongoing restructure of its channel.

Currently, Symantec has 200 Enterprise Security and Enterprise Solution Partners across the Asia-Pacific region and wants to reduce that number to around 100, according to John Donovan, MD and senior director, channels at Symantec Asia Pacific.

The company launched its first channel partner program 18 months ago, but admitted it made the mistake of pushing some partner into areas that they shouldn't have been playing.

Partners that will remain as Enterprise Security and Enterprise Solution partners would be those that can assess, plan and respond to security issues and are capable of selling and managing high level intrusion detection and firewall infrastructures, Donovan said.

Others partners would 'move back to levels that are more appropriate' for them, he said. The remaining 100 partners would end up as 'sales partners,' he said. 'This doesn't mean that their margins will change,' he said.

But these partners won't get access to intrusion detection and policy management software products, he said. 'We will reduce the number of partners that are playing at certain levels,' he added.

Donovan claimed the partner program was ambitious and not executed as well as it could have been. 'We pushed them into it - it was our fault, you change and expect everyone else to change with you and that's not the case. A lot of resellers just don't have the resources to do this [high level security] stuff,' he said.

He said that the company measured success by the number of partners on its books, rather than having the right partners. 'We're changing the structure in the region and are in the process of engaging the right partners,' he said.

In the meantime, Symantec is also stepping up its Global Security Partner practice and recently appointed Bryan Stibbard as director of sales for Global Security Partners across the region.