Trend Micro outlines stronger SMB focus

Security vendor Trend Micro's new channel director is aiming for tighter targeting of the Australian SMB market with added support to beef up the vendor's appeal.

Graeme Burt has taken the Trend Micro channel chief reins from Greg Williams.

Trend Micro was looking to strengthen the Japan-based vendor's standing with SMB customers in Australia and increase its number of resellers from 300 to 750 by the end of this year, he said.
 
"The SMB space is an area where there is a wonderful opportunity to grow," Burt said.

Trend Micro had a strong product and was capable of lifting sales to smaller companies, he said. "We want to get broad-based coverage in that space."

Chris Poulos, MD for Australia and New Zealand at Trend Micro, said the company had employed a technical services manager and added support - both moves that would help target SMBs.

SMBs, like large companies, increasingly sought a value-add. And they tended to be more reliant on external support than corporations, he pointed out.

A reshuffle of its distribution had also taken place.

"We did a bit of a strategic change six months ago. We wanted to look at re-focusing our distributors in Australia," Poulos said.

"We had a distributor who was completely focused on [customers] with 600 seats and above, but not one which was focused on smaller sites," he said.

Poulos said Trend Micro had engaged Ingram Micro to fill that role and the move was paying off. Revenue from Australian SMB sector was already growing strongly.

"We have built on 30 percent quarter on quarter for SMBs, I think," he said.

The other distributor, Alstom IT, was still doing well for Trend in its own speciality, he said.

Trend Micro develops, markets and supports IT security software and appliances for systems and PCs. It has been mainly known for its corporate products but has recently diversified its approach into network-level anti-virus appliances as well as SMBs.

The company also recently signed a major partnership deal with networking hardware giant Cisco Systems. That move is expected to help boost its sales via networking integrators, particularly Cisco partners.

For the six months ended 30 June, its global revenues were reported as rising 28 percent to 28.46 billion Yen. Net income was 6.97 billion Yen, up from 3.31 billion in the previous six months.

The company's US share price is strong, running at around the US$40-a-share mark on the NASDAQ, down from a 52-week high of around US$45 and up from a low of about US$18.