Symantec Polishes Partner Program

Security titan Symantec is opening up its deal-registration program, appropriately dubbed the Opportunity Registration program. (We just love when the name of something describes what the thing is.) Primarily, the re-tooling of the program gives Silver Partners the opportunity to receive a discount on approved registrations; that perk was previously limited to partners at a higher level in the program.

"We realized these are partners that are really key to our mid-market, and some of the deal sizes are large enough that they should qualify," said Julie Parrish, vice president of Symantec's Global Channel Office.

Parrish noted that, in some cases, Silver Partners who initiated deals weren't getting the same compensation that some of their larger counterparts were enjoying from the same deals later on.

"We should reward the partner that's in there first," she told RCPU. "They got there first. They opened the door." Parrish said that Symantec has between 18,000 and 20,000 Silver Partners.

Symantec has also increased the program's payment cap from $250,000 to $1 million, although Parrish said that even deals that reach the quarter-million-dollar cap are rare.

"It's a little bit more of an emotional issue than a realistic one. It's possible that these deals would have been going to the competition," she said, noting that deals partners bailed on because they feared not getting enough compensation from Symantec were "very few" in number. "We want to make sure partners feel confident they can participate and are going to get what they deserve."

Posted by Lee Pender on June 05, 2008 at 11:54 AM