RedSiren Calls On VARs

Plans call for the Pittsburgh-based company to redouble its efforts in specific geographic and vertical markets, plus offer new solutions to address a rising demand for managed security services. As part of the moves, due to go into effect June 1, RedSiren also will kick off an initiative to team with new solution provider partners to sell managed firewall and intrusion-detection solutions that support its Balanced IT Security Framework.

RedSiren CEO Doug Goodall said the expansion also will include a push to give his company's direct-sales representatives incentives to work with partners as deal facilitators. That would mark a shift in RedSiren's approach, since the company previously relied on an even split of direct vs. indirect sales.

"We subscribe to the philosophy that channel partners have more regional presence and can offer much more of a value-add [than our direct-sales force]," Goodall said. "I don't look at our relationships with channel partners as marketing relationships. I look at them as sales transactions."

Some solution providers welcomed RedSiren's efforts to ramp up its partner-driven business.

Marshall Cromwell, director of managed services at AAA Networks, a Falls Church, Va.-based solution provider, said RedSiren's focus on managed firewall and intrusion-detection solutions is a "perfect fit" for the enterprise customers that his company targets.

"RedSiren isn't trying to be everything to everyone. What we like about them is their focus," he said. "You have a whole bunch of customers who have purchased intrusion-detection software but don't know what to do with it. And that's where RedSiren can help us really set ourselves apart."

Gordon Hunter, vice president of federal sales at iGov, a government VAR based in McLean, Va., said that as RedSiren adds more firewall and intrusion-detection services, his company should be able to land more contracts.

"With the government's needs changing every week, we need to have flexibility so we could offer an a la carte offering to our customers," Hunter said. "As [RedSiren] increases its services, we'll be able to increase our sales, too."