A Sonic Partnership

SonicWall, however, is one vendor talking the talk and walking the walk with the channel. That commitment was on display when CPU Sales and Service, a Waltham, Mass.-based solution provider with a growing security practice, gathered 75 of its top clients recently for a security seminar the company hosted in conjunction with SonicWall. The seminar, which featured Kenneth Walker, SonicWall's director of platform evangelism, was anything but a tired sales pitch. Walker used the seminar to educate CPU Sales' customers about some of the thorny security issues facing small and midsize businesses. CPU Sales used the event to strengthen its consulting ties with longtime customers.

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STEVEN BURKE

Can be reached at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected]

The power of the tight and trusted relationships that CPU Sales has built up and nurtured over its 13-year history was clearly the carrot for SonicWall. CedarPoint Communications' Vice President of Manufacturing Charlie Snell, who attended the seminar, has been a loyal CPU Sales customer for the past five years at three different companies. "There's more to it than buying a piece of equipment," Snell says. "In business, you don't want to be ratcheted up to the next thing. You want a cost-effective solution. CPU acts as an intermediary. They work with you on what the solution is. At the same time [that] they are representing the vendor's equipment, they are [also] representing you."

Todd Barrett, sales manager for CPU Sales' security and networking division, expects the company to deliver close to $1 million in SonicWall sales this year. He says SonicWall has a personal touch with the solution provider that is unmatched by other vendors. "These guys listen," he says.

Listening to partners is what SonicWall was doing last week at its Peak Performance partner conference. Barrett and his boss, Luigi Giovanetti, were both at the event.

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Barrett says the passion and loyalty at the SonicWall conference was palpable. The fact is, SonicWall's channel commitment has fostered a loyalty between VAR and vendor that is all too uncommon, he says. "We are 100 percent committed to SonicWall," he adds.

Commitment and relationships, that's what it's all about.

Do you have any sonic relationships with vendors? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected].