RESELLERS have raised concerns over pricing around a new service SonicWall has launched.
SonicWall partners believe the new pricing is out of local businesses’ reach and does not take into account the dynamics of the New Zealand market.
However, US product line manager Mervyn Alamgir has worked hard at allaying channel fears that this is the case and has assured partners that the new pricing will not be a concern.
The vendor has had to work hard at reassuring its channel as it has met with resistance both in New Zealand and Australia in its move to improve channel relations.
Earlier, the security appliance vendor soured its relationship with distributor IT Wholesale as it had to axe the distributor after less than a year as part of a global channel shake up, resulting in the vendor retaining only “value add” distributors.
Distributor Renaissance was given its sole dealer status back as a result.
And in Australia the vendor dispatched two of its senior brass to reassure customers and agents and announce that staff for Australia will be doubled from two to four.
In an ARN report the vendor acknowledged that support issues had stifled uptake.
"Maintaining a staff of two people doesn't scale broadly with what we have in the ANZ marketplace in terms of services. What we are able to provide, in a unique way, are implementation and consulting and professional services. All three of those services will be delivered remotely through two-tier distribution. Because we have such a robust back-end infrastructure, we are able to do that very easily," SonicWall's global vice president of customer services Mike Anderson said at the time.
· For more on the full story around the new SonicWall service, go to page 21 in the April 30 issue of Reseller News.
