Symantec talked up its channel plans even if its global sales boss, dubbed a “channel champion” has exited the company.
In a second-quarter conference call Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said he was concerned about the exit of Adrian Jones as Symantec’s head of global sales. Weiss called Jones a “channel champion”.
Symantec chief executive Mike Brown said Jones’ leaving will not put the brakes on Symantec’s channel momentum.
“The good news is, we have a pretty deep bench of folks with experience with the channel,” he said. “Symantec always have been a channel company. We’ve been a channel company for 30 years.
“So I think those partners who work with us for a long time know that our commitment is unwavering there. And it’s great that we’ve now introduced Secure One, our new channel programme, which now for the first time can be focused on security partners.”
He said that previously Symantec’s channel was previously more geared towards our Veritas business.
Symantec is spinning off its information management arm Veritas on 1 January but the duo split operationally on 3 October.
Veritas unveiled its new partner programme this week and apologised for some technical issues thrown up by the split last month.
Brown insisted when questioned that Jones’ leaving will not put the brakes on Symantec’s channel
“At our October partner event, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive as we laid out our strategy with the launch of Secure One, an enhanced channel partner programme tailored specifically for security-focused channel partners. The new programme consists of training, deal registration, technology support and incentives to drive the results for successful long-term relationships.”
