SC chooses itX as sole distie

In an interview with, CRN Eric Krieger, country manager at Secure Computing said the vendor announced to all of its partners – including BlueSky Industries – that it would review its channel program in June 2008.

“SC has grown organically and through acquisitions,” he said.

“Due to the acquisitions we inherited a lot of partners, including BlueSky from the buyout of CyberGuard in 2005.”

Krieger (pictured) claimed the vendor hired Channel Enablers to do a review of its distribution model.

“We also looked at what other regions were doing. Then we sat down with some of our resellers and asked them what they wanted,” he said.

Krieger said itX was a better model for the vendor and the decision garnered support from its resellers.

“Our top resellers, like AlphaWest and Horizon Technologies, feel the decision was a tremendous re-focus by SC,” he claimed.

“They also feel there’s now a lack of dilution and competition between distributors.”

He was also quick to reassure all channel partners that there’s been no loss of sales, due to the termination of the BlueSky agreement.

“Safety and risk minimisation is at the forefront of any decision we make,” said Krieger.

Krieger concedes that while times are tough and certain Federal Government projects are on hold, the decision to re-jig its distribution model was in no way an attempt to claw back channel margins.

“Going through a sole distributor will help bring back more margins for our partners,” he said.

BlueSky and SC’s distribution relationship formally ends on 30 September. Krieger said he felt for any organisation going through hard times.

“Its decision to call in the administrators shouldn’t be attributed to a sole vendor,” said Krieger.

“I always stress to all my partners not to run their business soley reliant on one vendor.”