McAfee Seeks to Enable Partners
The security company’s new head of channel operations has plans to help partners become more trusted security advisers to their SMB clients.
By Cecilia Galvinalvin
Fernando Quintero, the new vice president of channel operations-Americas at Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee Inc., recently outlined his plans for the company’s partner program, Security Alliance. Topping his list is enablement–better preparing partners to be trusted security advisers.
“Security has evolved and threats have increased,” says Quintero. “Last year there were over 1.5 million threats [to customers]. We need to take those challenges and help partners build services and business opportunities around them.”
To do so, Quintero will leverage partner expertise through advisory councils. Also on the table are initiatives to align profitability models with today’s realities; react quickly to market trends; ensure that the SMB channel is profitable, with pre- and post-sales support; and make it easy for partners to do business with the company.
With acquisitions fueling 13 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, McAfee will also concentrate on engaging its partners quickly on new offerings added to its portfolio from such acquisitions. “How do we enable the sales and technical teams? The partners?” asks Quintero. “The more companies we buy the more channels they bring to the table, so we have to be better at the on-boarding process.”
The phrase Quintero uses to describe the company’s plan is “simple, smart, and secure. The technology has to be simple so the reseller can add value, it has to be smart so different components can share information, and it has to be secure. That’s the unique offering we have.”
