Walling Data Systems, Inc., a Claremont, N.C.-based value-added software distributor and IT solution provider, recently released retail box versions of AVG anti-virus products in an effort to increase both its channel and revenue opportunities.
Previously, AVG products were sold through electronic licenses with Walling Data Systems. Luke Walling, president of the company, said with the release of the new retail box security products, customers will feel more convinced about their software purchase.
“The products have recently been created for the channel,” Walling said. “It gives customers a real product feel and it looks more legitimate with a box. In general, customers feel more confident with their purchase if they can see and touch the product.”
Walling says before, resellers were looking for an easy way to distribute products to retail shops and says they also wanted to give their customers more of a product feel when it came to their purchase. This, Walling said, is what helped spawn the creation of the retail box versions of AVG anti-virus and anti-spyware and AVG Internet security products.
Walling Data Systems currently has around 1,200 resellers within the U.S. and Canada and Walling says this group is made up of small shops, multi-million dollar resellers, VARs and consultants.
The products are centrally deployable and can be managed, monitored and deployed all from one central location, Walling said. This, in conjunction with solid security and comprehensive high-level protection makes AVG products a real steal from both a partner and end-user perspective.
“The retail box is an easy sell,” Walling said. “Partners can sell the purchase and also the renewals,” Walling said. “Margins start at 20 per cent and go all the way up to 40 per cent. The biggest thing we hear from our partners is about performance. In general, we find that the product detects more threats than other ones,” he added.
Steve Chapman, president at S-Tech, an Oakville, Ont.-based independent wholesaler of IT products and also distributor of AVG products, says it was the products’ performance that attracted his company to work with Walling Data Systems.
“The performance is great and the amounts of resources that are used is low,” Chapman said. “The AVG products are very light-weight and it doesn’t take up a lot of space on the computer. It just runs in the background.”
For the reseller community, Chapman says, the release of the AVG box products from Walling Data Systems is huge.
“It means a lot to our resellers,” Chapman said. “Before they were e-mailing for key codes with the product, but now, there’s more visibility because of the shelf space. Customers can actually pick up a box to read about and understand the technology behind AVG so they can make more of an educated decision.”
Walling says the retail box pricing at retail price is the same as the electronic license pricing. However, he notes that the cost for resellers is slightly higher to help cover the costs of box production.
For its partners, Walling says the company provides a sort of all-you-can-eat type support system.
“There’s no limitations,” Walling said. “If partners have any issues, we’ll provide them with the necessary training and we help them train their customers. We’re quite flexible.”
Kevin Beaver, an independent information security consultant at Principle Logic in Atlanta, says based on the security assessments he has conducted so far this year, he still sees a lacking of adequate and sufficient security controls being used.
“The real focus [for distributors], is whether or not the demand for security software is even there,” Beaver said. “If the demand doesn’t start from within, then no amount of software distributors in North America will fix the underlying business problem [of security].”
Walling remains optimistic about business opportunities in the U.S. and Canada and says resellers have also seen tremendous demands from their customers as well.
Up next for Walling Data Systems’s partner community is more channel outreach, which partners can expect to see within the first quarter of next year, Walling said.
“We’ll continue to focus heavily on our reseller channel and we encourage all of them to continue to reach out to customers,” Walling said.