Kerio eyes rapid expansion down under

Security and mailserver specialist Kerio has inked a deal with distributor Digital Techniques to help boost its presence in Australia.

US-based Kerio set up shop in Australia last April with its eye on organisations with between 10 and 500 employees. It brought with it its stable of four products including Kerio Connect 7.3, the latest version of the company's email, contacts and calender server and a direct competitor to Microsoft Exchange and Google Apps.

The security vendor said it sold 100 percent through the channel, with Computers Now, XciteLogic, Betta Computers and Crunch IT among its established local partners.

Abi Vickram, Kerio's senior channel manager told CRN the Digital Techniques (DTI) partnership meant access to a previously untapped market.

“DTI’s background is in the voice space, and one of the big advantages of working with them is it opens up that market to us,” he said.

DTI will sell Kerio’s unified threat management Control security appliance and IP voice Operator solution in the short term, with plans to extend the partnership to cover the entire portfolio in the next three to six months. The DTI deal has seen Kerio add another 19 partners to its books, including Automatica, Seacom and Entire IT.

A big focus for Kerio this year is partner recruitment, and Vickram said the company is on track to almost double its current stable of 300 partners in Australia, based on a forecast 40 percent year-on-year growth in sales.

Vickram attributed much of the growth to date to strong sales of Kerio Connect 7.3.

“It’s always been predominantly one of our stronger products here,” Vickram said. “There’s been a dramatic increase in sales, and we can measure that through customers who come back to us for maintenance and new upgrades as well as new customers, and both those numbers are promising.”