ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
its academies for training and education. It
has already set up an academy in Egypt and
is looking at making a similar investment
in Saudi Arabia. The idea is to take fresh
graduates out of the university, train and
develop them in security and business, as
well as Trend Micro security specifically.
This will make them ready as security
market consultants, thereby increasing the
number of resources that can be employed,
while making them available for channel
partners and end-customers.
“As Trend Micro, we fully fund this
programme, and we provide these
resources to our customers and partners
free, to be able to employ them and use
them in the projects and to grow them
and to develop them. So, it is a huge
investment we are putting into the region.”
The basic approach embedded in Trend
Micro’s channel strategy is to enable and
support the various business models that
are in demand from the end customer in
the region. “Both Trend Micro or Trend
Micro alliances and channel are there to
service the customer. The customer will
be the one that picks whether, I want this
from the cloud or whether I would like
to do this on my separate datacentre, or
whether I want the hybrid model. What is
very essential for us is that we support the
choice of the customer and enable these
business models,” he points out.
Going forward, what is the value system
that a channel partner needs to have to fit
into Trend Micro’s partner programme. Dr
Ali feels it is all about commitments, made
by the partner, both to the vendor and the
end user. And the commitment is defined
by the end customer.
“Trend Micro and our partners are both
customer oriented organisations. We are
here to service the customer. As Trend
Micro I am providing all the business
models that can support my partners. Now
how are my partners are going to support
my customers? This is where commitment
needs to happen whether it is a resource,
whether it is technology, whether it is
finances. What type of commitment is my
partner going to provide to my customer
and vice versa. So, commitment is really
the key word,” Dr Ali concludes.
18
Trend Micro partner
programme, structure
T
he Trend Micro Partner
Programme for resellers
recognises each partner’s unique
capabilities and includes benefits and
requirements consistent with their
commitment to selling and supporting
Trend Micro solutions.
Platinum Partners realise the greatest
financial, technical, sales, and marketing
benefits of all partner levels. They must
meet the highest set of requirements,
including significant minimum annual
revenue commitments and the Platinum
partnership is by invitation only.
For partners that are committed to
working with Trend Micro and delivering
significant Trend Micro revenue, the Gold
partner level offers benefits to meet their
needs. Gold partners enjoy higher margins
and discounts than Silver partners. They
must attain more significant annual
revenue commitments. They are also
required to lead with Trend Micro when
selling security solutions. Gold partners
have the benefit of working directly with
Trend Micro partner managers to develop
joint business plans, and with dedicated
additional resources to help them succeed.
Silver partners must meet a minimum
annual revenue commitment. Benefits at
this level include those made available
to Bronze partners, plus enhanced
discounts, access to evaluation software,
and priority access to Level 1 support.
Being a Silver partner opens new doors
for their business.
Entry-level Bronze partners must
complete and submit the online
registration form to begin realising
programme benefits. Also, certification
and training enable Bronze partners to
achieve specialisation status, and access
additional sales incentives.
The Trend Micro Service Provider
programme is suited to organisations that
serve the small, medium, and enterprise
business market. This programme
automates security management
and offers pay-as-you-go billing. The
programme offers monthly pay-as-you-
go billing, tools for central management
and self-provisioning, both on-premises
security solutions, and cloud solutions,
solutions that integrate with leading
RMM and PSA tools providing single-
pane-of-glass deployment, monitoring,
notifying, ticketing, and reporting, and
integration with industry standard
application deployment platforms, such
as Odin and Appdirect.
Specialisations are an integral part
of the Trend Micro Partner Programme
for resellers. Specialisations, earned by
meeting a combination of training and
certification requirements, allows partners
to align expertise with customer needs;
differentiate business; accelerate and
maximise revenues and profitability; gain
access to additional financial, marketing,
and sales incentives. The specialisations
consist of Small Business Security, User
Protection, Hybrid Cloud Security,
Network Defense.
Small businesses around the world
rely on Trend Micro’s security solutions to
protect them. Consumerisation is driving
a big change in security focus—from
devices to users. As users leverage cloud
and mobility solutions to collaborate,
organisations need greater visibility and
control of their activities.
Trend Micro User Protection solutions
secure all users’ activity - any application,
any device, anywhere. In an effort to
reduce expenses, increase business agility,
and respond to changing business needs,
most organisations are using or looking
to use virtualisation and the cloud. Trend
Micro provides adaptive protection for
data center and cloud environments.
Issue 16
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS