Denver, Colo.-based MX Logic, an e-mail and Web managed security service provider, is ramping up its Canadian market and channel reach through its distribution partnerships with Alternative Technology and most recently with, Ingram Micro Inc.
The company, which was founded in 2002, focuses on the SMB and mid-market-sized space and currently has over 700 partners located throughout the U.S. Ken Totura, vice-president of channel sales at MX Logic, said in Canada the company has around 90 partners across the country.
“We’ve more than doubled the amount of partners we have in Canada this year,” Totura said. “We’re an attractive solution for businesses from 2,000 seats to just a couple of seats.”
Totura credits the company’s distributor relationships with Alternative Technology and Ingram Micro as reasons as to why the company is seeing such steady traction in the Canadian market place.
What’s great for partners, Totura says, is that whether partners choose to work through MX Logic directly, or through one of its distributors, the same products and resources will be offered by all.
“[Partners] will have the same products, price points, same margin potential and the same resources,” Totura said. “We want this to be a level playing field because we’re focused on doing well with the partners we have now.”
Most importantly, Totura says MX Logic remains a channel-centric company because the company’s route to market and reach is through the channel. The company, he says, looks for partners that have their own relationships with other large or small businesses to help bring in further potential sales.
“We’re committed and dedicated to the channel and we want to move more business through them,” Totura said. “We’ve flipped around the idea where the vendor is the one who creates the demand and the channel works to fulfill it.”
To help support its partners, MX Logic has a PartnerFocus program that offers partners a spot in one of three tiers, including F1, F2 and F3 levels. Instead of determining which categories partners fall under based on revenue, Totura says MX Logic qualifies partners based on their own readiness and capabilities. Depending on the level, partner support also varies, which Totura says is ideal for partners who may want little to full-blown support from MX Logic.
“We qualify our partner based on what we call MSP readiness,” Totura said. “We ask ourselves how capable a particular solution provider is in delivering a managed service. We’ve designed this program to build categories that fit whatever the company’s business and sales model is.”
Totura said that MX Logic is offering high margin earning potential to partners. Partners can expect to see upwards of 30 points of margins, he said.“Some of our partners enjoy more because they bundle things on top,” Totura said. “We also have an MSRP price list that also has built-in volume-based discounts.”
The company’s solutions include MX Logic’s Email Defense Service, MX Logic Web Defense Service and MX Logic Message Archiving. What makes these particular solutions unique to the market place, Totura says, is the fact that they are managed service solutions.
“Filtering malware is a very dynamic problem,” Totura said. “Many end customers have to deal with these issues multiple times a day and that puts an incredible burden on their IT department. We help mitigate that task and that therefore frees up a lot of time for them.”
While plans for MX Logic next year include further partner expansion in Canada, Totura says there’s always room for improvement when it comes to improving the ease of partnering and doing business with the company as well.
“I know 2008 is going to be an exciting year for us because we’ll be bringing on more partners and we’re going to be smart on where we’re recruiting to grow the number of deals with our partners in Canada,” Totura said.
