Surprising Security Shortcomings After nearly a decade of threat warnings, evolving threats and billions of dollars in technology investments, you’d think that businesses have at least a baseline of IT security protections. Recent reports reveal some surprising security shortcomings in the business community.
The data loss prevention technology vendor has named an aggressive new channel chief who plans to recruit sales-minded resellers to a revamped partner program.
Data loss prevention technology provider, Palisade Systems, has named former VAR and Arrow strategic account manager Monty Holloway as its new channel chief.
In Holloway's new role as vice president of sales at the company, he plans to do more packaging of financing and other programs to help resellers close deals faster. He also plans to re-launch the company's channel program in April with a recruitment effort to add 17 new VARs to the company's existing group of 20.
These new resellers, he said, will follow more a phone sales-type model, similar to that of a CDW, said Holloway, in an interview with The Channel Insider. That's possible because the solution takes between 25 and 45 minutes to install, a task which can be performed by a phone consultant.
Holloway made a mark at the reseller firm he co-founded, Software Medium by creating financing packages. At that company he created systems such as the Variable Invoice Program—a simple financing program—and Virtual Professional Services, a packaged installation service for MacAfee technologies.
Resource Library:
"We built VIP because we had many clients who wanted to buy a multi-year solution but did not want to pay for it all upfront," Holloway said. So Software Medium tried the approach at a K-12 customer in Texas back in 2002.
"It created a lot of excitement at that customer, and it was attractive to us as a reseller," he said. "It let our customers take advantage of multi-year licenses."
Such software licensing has grown in popularity since then, with distributor Ingram Micro recently announcing such an offering as part of a larger financing program.
"This is one of the hottest things going right now," Holloway said of software financing. "I like to take simple concepts and brand them. It makes easier for channel partners to digest and take out to customers."
And that's just what Holloway plans to bring to his new role at Palisades.
"There are a lot of resellers out there that don't have the marketing competency or the financing competency," Holloway said. "At Palisade we are going to teach our channel network how to finance our solution, and how to position multiple year agreements on every deal out the door."
Holloway will spearhead the launch of a new channel program on April 1. The program will include lead distribution of leads the company is qualifying through the use of a third party telemarketing group.
"We are proactively aggressively taking opportunities out to the channel," Holloway said.
Prior to joining Palisade, Holloway served as vice president of North America sales for Astrum reseller Defendware, where he developed a new sales and channel model and identified new manufacturers to add to the model, including Palisade.
Before that he worked for Arrow Electronics as strategic account manager for the software division where he managed the McAfee line, and helped develop a loyalty-based program.
Best Free Antivirus Apps
Microsoft isn’t the first vendor to offer free antivirus software to consumers and small businesses. Several vendors have free general available versions of their malware protection suites. Their strategy: get customers interested and open opportunity to partners. Here are few worth free AV packages worth considering. View Slideshow
Top 10 Most Profitable Vendor Certifications
Solution providers that invest in vendor technical certifications are more profitable, sell more complex systems and have better relationships with their customers, according to the new Channel Insider/Amazon Consulting certification study. But not all vendor certifications have the same ROI. The following vendors have the best certifications for return on their partners’ investment. View Slideshow
The IT industry is in the midst of a mass metamorphosis. Lines are blurring between networking technologies, storage, servers, software and telephony. Vendors that represent the tried and true establishment in one discipline are now making hard-right turns into new, largely unfamiliar and often competitive markets. Read on to see just a few of the major convergence plays of the last year. View Slideshow
(Sponsor)
(Sponsor)
(Sponsor)
Channel News and Analysis 
