Sophos signs first NZ distie, Oz to follow

Sophos has signed its first distribution agreement in New Zealand, appointing Connector Systems to distribute its full range of products.

The security company's newly-appointed Asia-Pacific boss Stuart Fisher told CRN the company had also partnered with a distributor for Australia and was in the process of finalising the agreement.

He declined to provide further details but said the distributor was "tier-one and security-aligned".

Sophos had been relying on a “hybrid” channel structure across A/NZ, despite working in partnership with distributors throughout the Asia Pacific.

Fisher said after conducting a review into the overall business, he decided to unify 700 Australian partners and 40 from New Zealand under one structure supported by a distribution tier.

“We’d reviewed distribution on and off over the years, and once I looked at the numbers and what the business required I saw we needed to move to the two-tiered business model."

Fisher said Connector System’s coverage, partner ecosystem, run rate and especially its lack of alignment with Sophos’ direct competitors, made it a good fit. 

“They had the track record and capability to bring us on. We’ll be one of their top three vendors which was important,” Fisher said. “If all goes to plan we’ll get the attention from them we need.”

Connector Systems will distribute Sophos’ entire range of solutions including endpoint security, encryption and data loss prevention (DLP), web and email protection, mobile control and Sophos' network security and unified threat management (UTM). 

Sophos expects to sign eight to 10 new partners in New Zealand over the next six months.

Growing pains

Fisher said Sophos' appointment of a distributor in Australia would help it better manage the sprawling partner base that emerged following last year's rapid growth.

“We needed a distributor to manage our partner ecosystem and make sure we have access to the tier one partners we maybe don’t have access to today, and handle the sheer number of deals we do in the mid-market.”

Sophos reported growing 20 percent in Australia last year, helped by a 90 percent customer renewal rate. But it's new business that the company is most focussed on this year.

“In the Australian market we have extensive customer loyalty and that needs to be leveraged,” Fisher said, while admitting Sophos' "biggest constriction at the moment is our route to market."

Accessing fresh partners through its newly appointed Australian distributor would help address this.

“Our distributor selection will help us recreate, drive and enable new partners as well.”