Services key to anti-virus profits

A services-driven approach to selling anti-virus software has helped reseller Group Services & Systems (GSS) garner profit margins of between 20 percent and 30 percent.

Will Court, strategic marketing manager, and Hayden Tanner, business sales manager at GSS said the anti-virus market companies have evolved from needing a sole anti-virus package to a variety solutions looking at spyware, adware and malware.

Court and Tanner claimed the company was making average profit margins of between 20 percent to 30 percent, using a services-driven approach.

“I’ve noticed that there has been a big drop in margins in the hardware sector and basically a reseller needs to make deals very quickly or they make no money.

“With [anti-virus] software solutions, value-added services can still bring in the cash,” said Tanner.

“If a reseller was looking at coming into the software market and only concentrated on box moving then they’re not going to make much money. If they provide ongoing services then there’s money still to be made,” he added.

GSS has been a McAfee channel partner for the past eight years and has mainly focused on supplying and implementing the security vendor’s products to the SMB market.