StillSecure Heeds Call

The program, dubbed the StillSecure Partner Program, is a three-tier model that provides partners with joint sales and co-marketing opportunities, Web-based sales and technical training, and other support resources.

The program will launch with "a handful" of carefully selected partners with which StillSecure has worked informally for years, said Rajat Bhargava, president and CEO of StillSecure, Louisville, Colo.

"This is the culmination of a lot of effort in working with partners, learning from them and building a program around what they've said they want," Bhargava said. "The channel has become such a significant portion of our business that we just felt we had to formalize a program to bring it all together."

The program divides partners into three groups: Referral, Authorized and Preferred. While partners in the Referral group will be compensated for providing leads with no obligation to sell the product, Authorized partners will be able to qualify for additional revenue and opportunities by providing sales and implementation support, Bhargava said.

The top group, Preferred partners, will include solution providers that commit to quarterly revenue goals. In return, these partners will be eligible for premium discounts and market development assistance, as well as other special incentives.

Expectations for the program were high among StillSecure channel partners on all levels.

Bud Heege, president of ECCT, a solution provider in Plainview, N.Y., said he's looking forward to the vendor's program because the company is "small enough to treat its partners with respect," unlike some larger firms with hundreds of partners. "I like the flavor StillSecure brings to the table," Heege said. "They're a hands-on, service-oriented kind of vendor, and that's the kind of commitment we like to see."

Don Wisdom, president of Datalink Networks, Santa Clarita, Calif., agreed, adding that StillSecure products are so strong that they practically sell themselves.

"This company has some great technology," Wisdom said. "Once we get into customers to show them this stuff, I don't see how anyone can say it doesn't offer what they need."

StillSecure's product line includes the StillSecure Border Guard intrusion-detection/prevention solution, the StillSecure Safe Access endpoint security-compliance solution, and the StillSecure VAM vulnerability management system.