Symantec, Partners Clash Over Deal Registration Issues

Several of Symantec's closest partners are seething over the way they're being treated compared to large account resellers, and they're planning to confront executives with a laundry list of concerns at the vendor's annual partner conference in San Diego next month.

The most pressing issue, according to these partners, is that Symantec's deal registration program does not offer enough protection from predatory pricing.

Several high-ranking partners in Symantec's channel spoke with CMP Channel on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals from the vendor.

Partners said that in the security and storage vendor's deal registration program, partners have six months to close a deal they've registered. After the six-month mark, if the sale isn't closed, the deal is up for grabs.

"The problem is, in a lot of opportunities, six months is not a long enough cycle. And if you go beyond six months, Symantec won't allow you to renew the opportunity," said one solution provider, who requested anonymity. Without the protection of opportunity registration, it becomes a free-for-all in which other partners can come in with a lower bid, partners said.

"All a partner has to do is call the Symantec rep, get the pricing, and they can come in at one to two points lower," than the partner who registered the deal, one partner said. "Without having done any work, they can win the business."

Another Symantec partner, however, said he hasn't encountered any problems with the program.

Kevin McCann, vice president of sales at Continental Resources, a Symantec Platinum partner in Bedford, Mass., said that the limit on opportunity registration hasn't interfered with his business. "The spirit of the agreement is that if you're doing the work in the account and you keep Symantec and their sales reps informed, renewing an opportunity will never be an issue," said McCann.

Julie Parrish, Symantec's vice president of global channel sales and strategy, said opportunity registration is limited to six months in some cases, but when the term expires, the partner is permitted to re-register the deal.

"We check with the Symantec sales rep associated with the deal so that we can verify that it is a live deal and can be applied to our forecast. I can't think of any time when a deal came up for renewal, and was live, and we didn't renew it," Parrish said.

Randy Cochran, vice president of Americas channel sales at Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec, said a partner has a chance to re-register a deal that has expired as long as there has been "good activity" with the engagement. But it gets more complicated if a partner lets a deal expire, because another partner may have come in during the interim and registered the deal instead, Cochran said.

"You can re-register, but then you're thrown back into the tank with everyone else who wants to register the deal. And once you start working with the customer, they may start checking in with other partners to see if they can get a better price," Cochran said.

Another problem Symantec partners face is that their overall margins in registered deals are decreasing. "We recently had a million-dollar [registered] deal and made $15,000 -- that's meaningless given the amount of time and effort needed to close the deal," one solution provider said.

However, another high-ranking partner said these types of complaints are unwarranted. "If a partner is relying on a back end rebate to make a deal worthwhile, then they're not doing their job," said the source, who requested anonymity.

Symantec does place a cap of $250,000 on registered deals, but there is a front-end discount and back-end rebate for U.S. Gold and Platinum partners that can reach as high as 24 percent of MSRP, Parrish said. "That's a pretty good deal," she said.

As Symantec's partner conference looms, solution providers say they're concerned over the direction Symantec's channel program has taken in recent months, particularly in light of its longtime reputation as one of the industry's most channel-friendly companies.

"We're losing interest in Symantec, and frustration is at an all time high. If they really want the channel to be a remote extension of the corporate office, they're going to have to give us some exclusivity and benefits," said one solution provider.