ISS Channel Efforts Draw Skepticism From VARs

ISS, a maker of intrusion prevention and vulnerability assessment products, recently named Mark Wasiele as vice president of channel and alliances. He replaces Steve Laubenstein, who left last month after just about 16 months on the job.

Also in July, ISS channel account managers began reporting to regional sales managers in an effort to bring the company's channel and direct-sales teams closer together, said Larry Costanza, senior vice president of Americas operations at ISS.

ISS' ROCKY CHANNEL RELATIONSHIP

>> March 2002: To thwart accusations of taking deals direct, ISS announces wholesale changes to its channel program.
>> July 2002: ISS starts pushing accounts of companies with less than $500 million in revenue through the channel.
>> August 2003: Despite positive changes to ISS' channel program, partners report company is still taking deals direct.

In addition, Costanza has added personnel to the operations unit that works on ISS's channel programs.

Those changes, coupled with the other steps ISS has taken in the past few months, have helped boost the company's channel business to about 60 percent of revenue from 50 percent a year ago, he said. Almost all target customers with annual sales of up to $500 million go through the channel, Costanza said.

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While Atlanta-based ISS received praise last summer from some solution provider partners for its channel efforts, other partners say the vendor hasn't broken its habit of taking deals direct, and they're wary of the company's claims that it is channel-friendly.

Mike Stager, COO of SiegeWorks, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based security solution provider, said it's always been a struggle to work with ISS. The company's previous vows to work better with the channel have been empty promises, he said.

"We've heard that story [from ISS] for a long time,'Yes, we're going to put more into the channel,' " Stager said. "I sense that they're taking it much more seriously this time, [but] I just think it will be a time-will-tell thing," he said.

"It's kind of lip service at this point until they actually go out there and start doing it," said Sean Stenovitch, president of Future Com, a security solution provider in North Richland Hills, Texas. "It feels very much that we're working against ISS to sell ISS."

Wasiele said ISS would like to increase its channel sales to between 70 percent and 80 percent of revenue within a year. But he added that ISS's technology is a complex sale that requires more of a direct touch than other security technology, such as firewalls.

The company this spring launched its Proventia line of appliances, which are more channel-friendly and will help boost ISS's channel sales, Costanza said.

But ISS is competing with companies that are more supportive of the channel, Stager said.

Stenovitch said the "brick walls" Future Com has hit with ISS has piqued his firm's interest in the intrusion-prevention products sold by vendors such as Network Associates.

ISS' Costanza said he often is questioned about the compensation of the direct-sales reps.

"For the record, all our direct-touch folks get paid exactly the same way they would if the deal was fulfilled directly or via a channel partner. So there are no incentives for them to go out and sell something direct," he said.