Symantec announces new partner services model

ORLANDO – Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) used its annual Partner Engage conference to launch a new services model to help partners achieve greater sales and revenue opportunities.

The new model is called Sell-With Services and was created by Symantec based on feedback from the company’s partner advisory councils. Symantec CEO Enrique Salem said the purpose of the Sell-With Services model is to provide partners with more direct services opportunities to help them grow their business.

Salem said that while partners knew how to sell software licenses, they didn’t really know how to deliver services.

“For partners, it wasn’t always clear if we or they were going to be delivering these services,” Salem explained. “Partners wanted clarity and we wanted to solve this problem with the introduction of this program. We want to work with partners to deliver services in the market to help them be more successful.”

The services model is open to Symantec partners that register new deals in the enterprise, mid-market, or SMB spaces. These partners will then be given the services opportunity that goes along with the deal, Salem added.

Randy Cochran, vice-president of channel sales for the Americas at Symantec, said the company’s encouraging partners to lead with services whenever they’re selling licenses.

“Our goal is not to compete with our partners here,” Cochran said.

The program also provides partners with access to tools, new accounts and is a way to have direct access to Symantec, Cochran said. Partners can also leverage a variety of templates and deployment guides to help them be more successful with their services businesses with customers, Salem added.

Ves Bjelakovic, vice-president of sales and marketing at Mississauga, Ont.-based Lanworks, a core IT infrastructure and solutions provider and also a Symantec Gold partner, said the Sell-With model should help to grow his business.

“We’re looking for the new program to help us expand into new (solution areas) such as with DLP (data loss prevention) and Enterprise Vault,” (product) he said.

The Sell-With Services model is currently in its pilot stages now with about 70 Symantec partners participating in it. Cochran said Symantec’s goal is to make the program widely available to the rest of its partners by April 2010.

Cochran said while there’s no magic number of the amount of partners Symantec would like to see involved with the Sell-With Services model, it’s ideal for the company’s metallic partners who have an appetite and are willing to make a services investment.

At the end of the day, Salem said his goal at Symantec is to ensure the company is more “open and transparent” with its partner community and Sell-With Services is one way of achieving this.

“We’re continuing to make it easier for partners to do business with us,” Salem said. “Is there still work to do? Of course there is, but we’re listening to our partners.”

Lanworks’ Bjelakovic, said with the announcement of the Sell-With Services model, Symantec is proving that it really cares about the partner community.

“We’re seeing a major push and investment by Symantec to help protect our engagements which means we can drive more business,” Bjelakovic said.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Maxine Cheung
Maxine Cheung
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