ASG, Arrow ECS scoop Symantec Pacific awards

ASG Group and Arrow ECS Australia scooped the Pacific region channel awards at Symantec’s Partner Engage conference in Tokyo overnight.

ASG won regional partner of the year for Symantec’s own products, while Arrow ECS Australia took out the same category but for Blue Coat, which Symantec acquired earlier this year.

The Pacific region for Symantec includes Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

The awards are based on a mixed criteria encompassing “innovation, overall performance in revenue, deal registration, technical and marketing investments, customer service excellence and certification”, according to Symantec.

“ASG made strategic investments in Symantec last year and experienced 222 percent year-on-year growth across all competencies,” ASG’s new world services general manager, Michael Simkovic, said in a statement.

“In addition, the company achieved platinum status from silver within six months. ASG is... planning the next phase of its significant investment with Symantec to deliver the same results in the next year and beyond.”

The ASG Group team collect their award

This year’s Partner Engage marked the first public outing for Symantec and Blue Coat as a single entity in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).

While a formal merged partner program isn’t expected until April next year, CRN reported that Symantec is already pursuing limited cross-sell opportunities across both vendors’ customer bases.

In addition to the Pacific region awards, Symantec also rewarded several partners for their performance in the wider APJ.

Telstra was named MSP of the year and Dimension Data as GSI partner of the year, both on an APJ basis for Blue Coat.

On the Symantec side, Ingram Micro Asia Pacific was named APJ distributor of the year; HCL and HPE also picked up APJ gongs.

Nick Verykios (second from left) collects the Arrow ECS award

Symantec APJ channels and commercial vice president Edwin Yeo congratulated the winners, and said he was “confident the new Symantec will provide our partners with more opportunities to innovate and accelerate growth in 2017 and beyond.”

"I am looking forward to embarking on a journey to define the future of cyber security, together with our partners,” Yeo said.

Ry Crozier attended Symantec Partner Engage in Tokyo as a guest of Symantec.