McAfee offers higher margins, free training

McAfee has launched a free training program aimed at improving the technical skills of resellers by increasing the number of channel engineers.

Raising enablement and profitability were two key areas for the vendor this year, said Gavin Struthers, director of Channels and Alliances for McAfee Asia Pacific.

The Accredited Channel Engineer (ACE) program was being rolled out globally. It consisted of two-day courses for each product that taught engineers how to demonstrate and install McAfee software.

McAfee had hired a dedicated channel system engineer who would, as part of the accreditation process, accompany a trainee to a customer site and observe the demonstration.

“Customers want to see it running in their environment,” Struthers said.

The program had been a big investment for the vendor, Struthers said. “Most vendors struggle to justify a dedicated resource for training  the channel,” he said.

The vendor had also established e-learning courses for certifications.

McAfee had also taken to the channel a four-day internal training course for new hires. The channel version of the Startrack program was cut down to a two-day course as “no-one can spend four days out of the office”, Struthers said.

The second channel Startrack for Australia was run last week. As part of the workshop resellers must pitch the solutions back to the class. This was daunting for some but excellent training, Struthers said.

McAfee had also made efforts to raise profitability and had put together a “best in class” program, Struthers said.

McAfee has a deal registration program that encourages resellers to register deals in return for incremental margin and deal protection. Deal registration grew by over 200 percent in 2010, Struthers said.

Some resellers were selling as many as 14 security vendors, he claimed. “How do you learn or train with that many vendors? We encourage them to consolidate to two to three vendors,” Struthers said.

The rebate model has also improved; payouts increased by 50 percent in 2010, Struthers said. “We have more partners earning rebates, and we are paying out more.”

A rewards system based on a frequent-flyer program provided cash rewards and prize incentives for individuals in sales and presales through an online automated system. “Their involvement in the deals is significant. We acknowledge that,” Struthers said.