The firm said its Small Business Partner Program will target VARs that sell to companies of up to 100 employees. Partners will have to complete online training, and will benefit from the Check Point brand when making sales, which was not previously offered.
As a result of the new Check Point program, SofaWare, a company Check Point created in 1999 to target mainly residential broadband users, will close its partner program. These resellers are currently being transferred to the new program.
SofaWare will continue with development of the product, said Check Point partner marketing manager Rory Carracher. Eventually their partners will be transferred to us.
Check Point is definitely the better, or most recognized, brand for partner programs, Carracher said. He added that the company hopes to attract hundreds of new partners over the coming months.
Partners will be listed in an online Partner Locator service and will have access to co-marketing funds. There is no annual fee, but VARs must meet certain requirements to be accepted into the program.
The partner program encompasses those VARs wishing to sell Check Point’s Safe@ and its VPN-1/Firewall-1 SmallOffice NG low-end products, which compete against software personal firewalls from Zone Labs, Symantec and NAI and devices from WatchGuard, SonicWALL, LinkSys, NetScreen and Cisco.
Source: Computerwire
