Clearswift looks to bulk up Australian channel

In the local market Clearswift currently has five premium partners and a further 25 associate partners. With a new offering and more channel coverage in the pipeline, the vendor is hoping to gain some leverage in the competitive Australian security landscape.

Peter Croft, managing director of Clearswift Asia Pacific, told CRN: “Our associate partner base will expand and we have some channel friendly campaigns we will be launching. Previously our offering bottomed out at 250 seats, now we have some pricing and bundling allowing resellers to sell to the small side of the SMB market, so we now cater for down to 50 seats.”

Croft claimed there are a number of opportunities on the services front around the Clearswift offering, with some resellers adopting a managed services model.

“We are going to stick with the premium partners we have, we might add one or two maybe, but I don’t want that base to expand too much as we don’t want to expand our focus too broadly,” he said. “I want to have two national premium partners and another option of a premium partner in each capital. We will be looking to add Perth-focused premium partners over there.”

Croft said Clearswift’s new lower-end offering will attract more local associate resellers, with the vendor looking for a maximum of 50 resellers at that level.

“You need to pay attention to the performance of your resellers, but vendors also have a role to make sure resellers’ business is active. We are the quickest and simplest way for resellers to make their quota. We are a way of resellers adding value to every discussion they have.”

Clearswift has also promoted Melissa Dean to the position of channel manager. “Dean has been looking at renewals and licensing for us previously and will now step-up to look after the channel. She understands the business model of resellers,” added Croft.