Panda Security Offers VARs Improved Program and Margins

Determined to win a bigger slice of the U.S. market for security products and services, Panda Security has launched a three-pronged channel program -- covering a portfolio of software solutions, appliances, and a hosted offering – that promises resellers net margins of 20 percent or more.

Panda’s solutions consist of Security for Business, a software play; GateDefender, a set of appliances; and Panda Managed Office Protection, a malware protection service.

Panda’s technology enables resellers to offer advanced anti-malware solutions on the market via the deployment platform that fits their unique business model as well as their customers’ needs, said Thom Fraser, Panda’s vice president of sales.

 “We are offering very aggressive, real margins across our portfolio of solutions because we want to attract resellers that want to grow their security business,” he said. “We are also doing this because we want to protect the integrity of our street prices.”

Fraser said the street prices of some products from leading vendors of security software are so low that neither the vendors nor the resellers make more than a few percentage points by selling them.

“A huge chunk of this market is being controlled by direct marketing resellers that buy huge volumes of products, sell them very cheaply and provide very little, if any after-sales support,” said Fraser. “On top of that, many of these products are not very good. Everybody loses out, the vendors, the resellers and the end-users.”

Fraser added a major consequence of this situation is that about 17 to 18 percent of the entire market turns over each year, a segment worth about $300 million right now.

Panda’s long-term goal is to capture as much of that sub-market as it can aided by resellers. Prior to launching its reseller program, Panda had about 1,100 resellers and managed service providers (MSPs) in the United States.

Fraser said Panda’s new partner program, backed by 24/7 support, will help to create a sales strategy that ensures a constant revenue stream for resellers.

Every Panda product distributed through the channel is built upon the company’s “cloud computing” technology. Fraser said cloud computing minimizes the resource and bandwidth consumption of protected systems by automatically detecting, correlating and responding to malware in real-time, all from the cloud.

All of Panda Security’s channel solutions are available to resellers through distributor Tech Data.