Partners Welcome Channel Shift

"I would definitely say they're becoming a better partner," said Sean Stenovitch, president of Future Com, North Richland Hills, Texas.

McAfee, Network Associates' antivirus unit, has rolled out a revamped channel program with new rules of engagement and improved sales, training and support. Another big change: On Jan. 1, McAfee began committing 100 percent of its business to the channel in accounts of 1,500 nodes and below.

"This is a paradigm shift," said Steven Palange, president and CEO of Boston-based solution provider TLIC Worldwide. "There is $250 million this year and $250 million next year of business that was formerly direct that they'll bring to qualified resellers." And the new opportunity involves renewable business, not just a one-time transaction, he added.

McAfee's new SMB policy presents a huge opportunity for partners willing to do the work to earn the deals, Stenovitch said. "If the program works like it should, we and all resellers should benefit from this," he said.

Last year, some solution providers claimed Network Associates courted their customers directly, and some channel partners have opted not to work with the software vendor any longer partly because of its history of direct-sales overtures.

"Too much bad blood over the years, not to mention that Network Associates has eliminated its security practice," said Kelly Dowell, CEO of Garrison Technologies, an Austin, Texas-based security firm.

Except for McAfee antivirus, Network Associates has shed most of its security products, including the Gauntlet firewall and PGP encryption. "We are in the security business," Dowell said. "We do not see [Network Associates as a major competitor outside of antivirus."

Palange said he expects Network Associates to reduce channel conflict. The only times that the vendor's sales representatives went direct were when TLIC didn't follow up on license renewals, he said.

"I never had a problem in the past. I liked the aggressive nature of the sales reps," Palange said. "Now it's even 10 times better because they can't go direct. They have to go through the channel."

And signs of Network Associates' friendlier channel stance have emerged, solution providers said. For example, McAfee sales staffers have notified Garrison Technologies of customers due for license renewals instead of calling the customers directly, as the vendor has done in the past, Dowell said.

McAfee, which generates 58 percent of Network Associates' revenue, is leading the company's new channel initiative. The other units, Sniffer and Magic Solutions, still operate their own channel programs, but Network Associates is starting to align its channel operations in North America, said Mike Menegay, vice president of McAfee channels and alliances for the Americas.

Network Associates said it plans to increase its channel spending 36 percent this year but declined to disclose the company's annual channel expenditures.