WatchGuard gets partners to register deals

Security vendor WatchGuard has asked its channel partners to register deals in return for a larger front-end discount on its products.

The company, which makes firewall and virtual private networking products, introduced the deal registration system in April to help match its support resources locally to upcoming customer projects.

"We weren't getting any deals registered before," WatchGuard's regional director Scott Robertson told CRN.

"Since we introduced the system we've probably seen about 15 or so deals registered with us, which has been a pleasing result."

Once a deal was received, it was reviewed by WatchGuard before an increased discount was offered to the partner.

Robertson said that deal registration was one of several "alterations" the vendor had made to its partner program in the past year.

It had also shifted from offering back-end rebates to front-end discounts on its products and created a ‘try-before-you-buy' scheme where partners could loan evaluation stock out to their customers at no cost.

Robertson said the move to front-end rebates was having a positive impact on partner cashflows.

"We'd seen that with a lot of partners the rebates were delayed two or three months. We didn't want to see a delay in that injection of cash," he said.

"I think some of our larger partners weren't as severely affected by back-end rebates but smaller partners [were and they] see the advantage of... upfront discounts."

WatchGuard has "over 40" partners in Australia and New Zealand.