Nearly a year after WebSense Inc. revamped its partner program and decided to go 100 per cent channel the vendor is recognizing two Canadian partners for their leadership, taking training online and launching a contest to drive sales in the SMB market.
Based in San Diego, Calif., WebSense is a developer of Web filtering and security software. At its recent partner conference in Las Vegas WebSense singled-out two Canadian partners as winners of All Star Partner awards, MTS Allstream and Telus.Fiaaz Walji, WebSense country manager for Canada, said the awards criteria were based on factors such as billings, new business, number of certifications and commitment to WebSense.
“When we look at partners that are truly committed to WebSense and have been for a long time, Telus and MTS Alstream really stand out,” said Walji.
Based in Toronto, MTS Allstream is a provider of IP connectivity, unified communications, security and IT consulting services to the enterprise market. Brian Metzger, Allstream’s senior marketing manager, professional services, said WebSense has been a strategic partner for Allstream for a number of years because it provides products and services that focus on key growth areas for the company.
“They have a very supportive marketing organization which we’ve been working quite well with,” said Metzger. “When you have those relationships in place and working well (the relationship) tends to be fairly successful.”
It’s been nearly a year since WebSense launched its new partner program and based on partner feedback it recently launched a new online training program, WebSense University.
The online training portal will provide information for both sales and engineering staffers in a university format with 50 online classes, quizzes, and different course levels. A “toolbox” of resources will be available to assist the sales and deployment processes, and the portal will also be used for certifications.
Walji said the online training portal is particularly needed in a country as geographically diverse as Canada. While WebSense would typically hold regular training sessions in major cities, Walji said many smaller vendors told them sending staff for the training each time there was a new product release was challenging.
“It wasn’t economically feasible for smaller partners to send people for a day or two of training,” said Walji. “This learning management system lets us put all this content online and lets folks get their engineers and sales people up to speed.”
Also, following-up on the launch of its WebSense Express offering targeted at the SMB space earlier in the month, WebSense has launched a contest running until the end of the year for the partners that book the most SMB transactions of WebSense’s Security Suite, Enterprise and Express offerings. Prizes include a custom-made Orange County Choppers motorcycle.
Walji said WebSense is the market leader in the enterprise space but the SMB space is underserved by all vendors. That’s something WebSense is hoping to change with the release of the SMB-tailored Express offering, said Walji, adding he hopes the contest will really incent partners to attack the space.
“Canada is a nation of small businesses so this is a perfect (product) for SMBs and specifically Canada,” said Walji. “The pain points are the same for SMBs, they all have security issues. I think there’s a myth out there that WebSense is (only) an enterprise product.”
WebSense held a partner advisory council at its partner conference and Walji said the feedback on the new partner program has been very positive, but he added some market-specific tweaks are planned for Canada in 2008. Specifically, he said, the $800,000 in sales currently required to become a Platinum partner. That makes sense for the U.S., said Walji, but not Canada.
“I don’t think it’s fair to expect the same amount of business given the relative sizes of the economies,” said Walji. “Those are some of the things we’re tweaking for the Canadian market.”
Allstream’s Metzger said he’s pleased with the steps WebSense has taken over the past year to restructure its channel program and become more channel-focused.
“They’re now going to market now 100 per cent through their channel partners,” said Metzger. “They’re really doing all the right things from our perspective in becoming a very good channel partner.”
Comment: cdnedit@itbusiness.ca