By Sharmee Roy
The focus of Checkpoint Software Technologies in 2009 will be to realign its distribution set-up and appoint a new national distributor for the SMB market. The vendor also plans to roll out its Managed Services Partner (MSP) program.
Said Bhaskar Bhakthavatsalu, Checkpoint’s Country Manager, “The realignment of our distributors will make them more focused. We will also bring in a new distributor to target SMBs.”
Checkpoint’s existing distributors are Inflow, Select and M-Virtual Technology.
This new distributor will target tier-2 partners. As part of this new strategy, one of Checkpoint’s four distributors will focus on large enterprises, another on SMBs, while the other two will distribute products targeting specific verticals. The final details will be worked out once the fourth distributor comes on board.
Checkpoint has redefined its engagement levels with different sets of partners, namely platinum, gold, silver and bronze. They will now be clubbed in two groups and managed separately by Checkpoint and its distributors. “Moving forward, we will be responsible for managing, training and enabling platinum and gold partners, while the distributors will be responsible for enabling the silver and bronze partners,” informed Bhakthavatsalu.
The vendor will launch its MSP program in February with a focus on the SMB market. “We believe that the MSP model has huge potential in India. Initially we will work with our platinum and gold partners to roll out the MSP services, and we will appoint two partners in each industry vertical to provide customized offerings,” Bhakthavatsalu explained.
Of the 300 registered partners the company has, 45 percent do consistent business and are classified as In Program (IP) partners, while the rest come under the Not In Program (NIP) category. Checkpoint expects a growth rate of 50 percent in 2009. |