McAfee Pilots Managed Services Console

The management offering and associated Web site tools let solution providers selling McAfee's antivirus service track order status, set up free trials for customer prospects and existing accounts, collect and sort statistical information and manage online renewals, said Mike Menegay, Network Associates' senior vice president of channelsfor North America.

Network Associates has teamed up with several U.S. distributors to create the McAfee Security VirusScan AsaP offering.

Under the partnership, the distributors began hosting and offering the service through their NOCs to their reseller client bases earlier this year. The new management console is being tested by about a dozen solution provider partners, although Network Associates extended its recruitment campaign during a keynote address at the Breakaway XChange channel conference in San Diego last month.

Network Associates hopes to release the new tools to the entire channel next month, Menegay said.