CyberGuard's Direct Hit On Reps

The requirement is the underpinning of CyberGuard's new One Partner Program, an initiative designed to help the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based network security vendor achieve its goal of having 100 percent of its sales go through the channel, said Bryan Bain, vice president for worldwide marketing.

"We are not taking the passive approach and throwing a program out there with only the hope that people will take advantage of it," Bain said. "We are turning our salespeople into channel managers. And if they don't sell through a reseller, they don't get paid."

CyberGuard is revving up for the midsummer launch of what Bain describes as a new multilayer security appliance that integrates antivirus, firewall, intrusion prevention and VPN. As the company's hundred-plus direct-sales people take the new appliance to market, they also will be tasked with signing up select resellers to the One Partner Program, based on the worldwide geographic regions they are assigned to, Bain said.

Kris Zupan, CEO of E-DMZ, a solution provider and CyberGuard partner in Wilmington, Del., said he's never encountered problems with CyberGuard's direct-sales force, but the new arrangement should drive more business his way, especially in services after the initial sale. "The majority of our service business is from managing firewalls, so [the program] should help increase our long-term relationships with customers," he said.

Membership rewards in the One Partner Program will be based on the reseller's certification in CyberGuard products, which include firewall appliances and high-performance VPNs, as well as Web and e-mail content security solutions brought on board by CyberGuard's recent acquisition of Webwasher.

"Reseller margins will escalate according to the level of certification of CyberGuard products," Bain said. Resellers interested in the program but not already certified on certain CyberGuard products must go through certification training within 30 days of signing the partner contract.