Fred Patterson, director of enterprise channels at Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) Canada, said despite a tough economy in 2009, this year saw more business going through channel partners than any other year, across all segments.
This was in part because partners are “becoming smarter” at selling Symantec solutions and are “doing a better job” demonstrating their value to the company’s sales organization and customers, Patterson explained.
“Value means margins,” Patterson said. “Partners that combine products and services into a larger solution have enjoyed greater margin because they can help save their customers money, while streamlining the number of relationships customers have to manage in the supplier community.”
Earlier in the year, Symantec also partnered with GE Capital to offer an Extended Terms Program, which extended distribution financing to partners and offered Symantec Registered or Silver partners up to 60-day interest-free payment terms.
Most recently, the company announced SymDemo, a Web-based demo and training platform for Symantec products, an Enterprise Authorized Renewal Program, a new Partner Community on Symantec Connect, an Enterprise Security Specialization and a Sell-With Services model.
These announcements were made at Symantec’s annual Partner Engage conference that took place in the fall in Orlando.