Altech says no more bull

The distributor told CRN it was promised exclusive distribution rights to Bullguard products, but the vendor also had other distributors and sub-distributors on its books.

At the time of the agreement Kevin Hartin, ex-national sales manager at Altech told CRN both parties were looking at signing a distribution in November 2006.

Altech would have the rights to Bullguard’s range of anti-virus products. The deal also included an OEM agreement, which allowed Altech to pre-install Bullguard Internet Security on to Altech’s own range of hardware products

Altech managing director, Antony Sheen said the confusion over distribution rights and disappointment in Bullguard’s products lead the distributor to terminate the agreement between the two parties.

“James Rhodes, ex-territory manager at Bullguard, promised us exclusive distribution, but it was still selling products through other distributors. There was too much bullshit and Altech decided to drop them,” he said. We were also disappointed with how the anti-virus product worked with Vista and are now using an alternative Microsoft approved solution.

Sheen told CRN there was also concern over Bullguard stock, currently sitting in Altech warehouses.

“It won’t take the stock back and we can't return it. We are now dumping the product at cheap prices,” he said.

New Bullguard Australian and New Zealand sales manager Bronwyn Gascoigne told CRN that the vendor was interested in changing its direction and heading into the retail space.

“Altech did a fantastic job distributing out to systems builders but we are dedicated to making tracks in this region and we can do that by refocusing and making a push into the retail market,” she said.

While the vendor will stick with distributors Intellitron and Computer Wholesale Distributor in Queensland, it has also signed on Ingram Micro to distribute its mobility anti-virus product, said Gascoigne.

“Ingram Micro has a great interest in mobile products and sees the value in adding our mobility product to its portfolio. The deal was finalised in early August by Bullguard’s head office in Copenhagen, Denmark,” she said.

At this stage, said Gascoigne, the vendor is also in final discussions with two retail distributors and one SMB targeted distributor to distribute the full range of Bullguard products.

“Distributors and resellers are interested in our revenue share program. In most cases when customers buy a software product and the subscription runs out, they go and buy it online and the channel misses out on this second stream of revenue. However at Bullguard when the end-user renews their subscription we tag it back to both the distributor, who gets 15 percent of the renewal and the reseller/retailer, who gets 25 percent,” she said.

Gascoigne replaces James Rhodes, previously the vendor’s territory manager for A/NZ region.

“Rhodes was hired on a contractual basis. Once they hired a full-time employee, the vendor no longer needed his services,” she said.

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