Symantec and Veritas systems to split in October

Symantec has outlined that Veritas will operationally separate In October, ahead of its sale to a Carlyle Group consortium on 1 January.

"Beginning in October, Symantec and Veritas businesses will run on separate systems ranging from our upstream sales and quoting systems all the way to our downstream invoicing and collections systems," the vendor stated in its latest monthly update to partners.

"Your interactions with us regarding Symantec enterprise security solutions will remain unchanged. Interactions with Veritas regarding your information management solutions will be handled differently in some respects."

Symantec announced the separation of its data management business October last year, but the situation was escalated last week when Veritas was sold by Symantec for US$8 billion to a group of investors led by Carlyle Group. The security vendor paid US$13.5 billion for Veritas back in 2005.

The August update to partners claimed the sale would make the separation easier.

"As you know, we've spent the past year readying for the separation of the businesses, and the sale simplifies the process, giving us even greater confidence we can make this transition as seamless as possible for our partners," Symantec announced.

"The sale of Veritas is expected to close by the end of our third quarter ending in December 2015, and we remain on track to achieve operational separation of the two businesses by October 2015."

The vendor urged channel partners to be informed about the coming changes to the Symantec and Veritas channel programs and update their vendor account contacts.

Partners that order directly were warned to "understand the simplified ordering process, which will include an enhanced invoice format and billing process", to setup Veritas as a separate vendor in procurement systems and "anticipate new stock keeping units for ordering".

"Know who to contact for Veritas support matters (eg, technical support, product support, etc), and share this information through your organisation," said the partner update.

Symantec also revealed details about the new Veritas Partner Force Program due to begin in October. The vendor claimed that enhancements include a simplified Growth Accelerator Rebate (GAR) calculation, customer references to be tied to joint customer or partner cases, removal of customer satisfaction requirements, and reduction in competency requirements to achieve platinum expert status.

On the security side, changes to the Symantec Partner Program will be announced in early September.