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Washington, D.C. - During this year's annual Partner Engage conference, Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) executives took the time to reinforce the company's investment in and appreciation of its channel community by promising to continue delivering quality products and continuing to make it easier for its partners to do business with.

Just a few months after his comments caused a firestorm of confusion about Symantec's channel commitment following a call with financial analysts, Enrique Salem, Symantec's COO, kicked off the event's first keynote session yesterday by stressing the importance of the company's channel ecosystem of partners.

“The majority of Symantec's business has gone through our channel partners and that will not change,” Salem said. “Our future is linked to all of you, make no mistake about that. We couldn't be in business without you and I therefore expect great things from all of you. What you can expect from us, is great things in return.”

Given the state of uncertainty brought about by the current weakening North American economy, Salem admitted that no company in operation today is immune to what's happening in the market place.

“We've seen a change in tone from the buying economy,” he said. “Customers are taking longer to decide before they purchase and in some cases, partners will have to take extra steps in the sales process by sometimes even having to convince the company's CFO about a product now.”

For Greg Rokos, president of Montreal-based ESI Information Technologies Inc., an IT services and solutions provider and also long-time Symantec partner, the challenging economy just means that ESI, as a partner, has to be able to correlate volume with value.

“This is a challenge because there's always a cost issue and figuring out how you'll be able to bring value to your customers,” he said. “As a partner, we have to be able to talk deeper and wider with our customers.

Customers are looking to simplify their systems and we have to show them how they can save money, consolidate and virtualize their infrastructures.”

In the next couple of weeks, Symantec's channel leadership structure will also undergo some element of change. Julie Parrish, Symantec's worldwide channel chief, last week announced to internal staff that she will be departing the company at the end of the month in order to pursue other “personal interests.”

Right now, there is no confirmed news on where Parrish may end up, however there are rumours circulating that she may soon surface at storage and data management solution vendor, NetApp.

Michael Murphy, general manager of Symantec Canada, said Parrish leaving the company was her decision to make.

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