Fortinet Targets CheckPoint With Displacement Promotion

A Fortinet partner document obtained by CRN that was sent to partners over the weekend offers Fortinet partners displacing CheckPoint equipment a 50 percent discount on Forti-Gate-100A all the way up to FortiGate-5000 product family bundles from now until Sept. 30. The offer also includes a free FortiWiFi-60B NFR (Not For Resale) appliance and a $500 SPIFF for the sales rep closing the deal. The minimum deal sales requirement for the promotion is $10,000.

"Sick of feeling addicted to your CheckPoint renewal?" reads the partner document, which includes a circled CheckPoint logo with a slash across it. "Want to sell your customers a better solution but can't control your (renewal) dependency? Now you can! For a limited time, Fortinet is offering a fool-proof way to kick that habit to the curb. Offer your customers the industry's leading UTM (Unified Threat Management) solution and still make the money you've come to depend on."

In an interview at the CMP XChange 07 Conference, Fortinet Vice President of Channel Sales Michael Valentine would not comment on the specifics of the promotion but acknowledged that Fortinet is aiming to grow its business by displacing CheckPoint. "They (CheckPoint) are the gazelle at the back of the herd," said Valentine. "They've got the end user base I want. We have got (CheckPoint) VARs that want to work with us and a (FortiGate) product line that can absolutely crush them. We are working fast and furious and they are very vulnerable right now."

Valentine said he sees CheckPoint VARs actively searching for alternatives. "They are seeing the writing on the wall," he said. "If a VAR is trying to base their business on what CheckPoint is doing they are going to lose ground in the marketplace."

The no holds barred promotion is just one of many signs that Valentine, who joined Fortinet only three months ago after leading an aggressive channel charge at SonicWall, is determined to raise Fortinet's channel profile. Fortinet currently has about 500 active partners, but is aiming to bring on a new wave of partners from small business-focused VARs to seasoned security service providers, said Valentine. "We need more higher end and lower end partners," he said.

Valentine said he is also currently in the early stages of looking at revamping the Fortinet program with new sales goals for its tiered partner program. What's more, he said, he's determined to make sure Fortinet's "preferential pricing" deal registration program protects partners so they are not priced out of the game at the last minute by an aggressive price quote from a direct marketer like CDW. "A VAR will only get scooped once like that," said Valentine.

NEXT: CheckPoint Responds