SurfControl adds seven more resellers

Content filtering vendor SurfControl has taken on seven new channel partners in a move to expand channel sales, a sales move it claims is already paying off.

Charles Heunemann, managing director at SurfControl, said the vendor had recently signed Queensland's SuretyIT, DDM Australia, BCS Computing, Victoria's Commander, Computelec, Network Help and People to People as resellers.

“We're always looking for new partners,” he said.

Heunemann claimed the channel expansion was paying off with sales to government departments and manufacturers in Queensland and Victoria.

The partners were signed in the last quarter, after SurfControl had added a channel manager for Victoria in March and one in Queensland a year ago.

Channel sales had grown by about a third in the past year, but SurfControl wasn't prepared to give any actual figures reflecting that growth, Heunemann said.

“We've got a growth rate of 36 percent. That's very good growth,” he said.

SurfControl had a total 32 partners, including the seven new signings, and divided its formal channel into platinum, gold and silver, each representing “different levels of investment” for the partner and vendor.

The vendor also worked with other partners with whom it did not have any formal agreement, Heunemann said.

He could not say how many resellers SurfControl wanted to have. The company preferred to decide on an ad hoc basis. When sales stopped growing, the channel would have enough partners, he said.

SurfControl believed content filtering would prove increasingly popular in time. Pending legislation in Australian governments suggested that employers would have to rein in their staff more tightly regarding internet use, he said.