As attacks seem to proliferate almost unabated, it’s
worrying to think that of the three interested parties in the
security technology market — the technology makers, the technology
sellers and the technology users—not everyone shares a common view
on the importance of the technology.
In fact it can be argued strongly that there is a marked
discontinuity between those who sell security technology and those
who buy who feel in a lot of cases that they are poorly served by
the channel.
Over the last few years the security technology market has not
changed much: there have been, and still are, worms, viruses,
breaches, holes in products and their vendors’ failure to fix them.
Something else hasn’t changed either: the way in which security
technology is sold and bought.
Stephen Bacon, veteran VAR and founder of one of the UK’s
leading Internet security resellers NetConnect believes that the
industry has actually “lost the plot”. He argues that the typical
sales pitch these days is characterised by “green behind the ears
salespeople who really don’t understand what they are selling and
are probably selling to customers who don’t understand what they
are buying. Customers get the suppliers they deserve and this has
been proven true over and over again.”
Even though many in the channel could complain of frustration in
dealing with end users who don’t typically appreciate just how
complex security technology is and how difficult is actually is to
put together a robust and reliable security infrastructure, user’s
and others believes that the customers’ needs aren’t being met by a
channel whose standing is not great.
Bacon offers his view: “People buy largely from a VAR community
that doesn’t have the reputation of quality of service nor [in]
training its staff particularly well and doesn’t justify real value
for money.”
Both end users and the channel seem to be pointing the finger
clearly at the technology vendors whose products are seen as too
complex and too fragmented. As the vendors increase selling
security products through the channel, margins are slipping and
resellers’ time is mostly spent mostly hitting sales targets and
not in the necessary education and understanding of the technology.
Furthermore, users find increasing problems from integrating the
various complex elements that typically make up a reliable security
infrastructure.
There is clear evidence that users are looking to work with less
fragmented and complex solutions from fewer vendors, a point
accepted by Computer Associates’ divisional VP of security strategy
Simon Perry. He comments: “A typical company these days wants to
reduce the number of vendors; people may want to take 20 supplier
vendors down to five or six or from five or six to two.”
What won’t happen is that one vendor’s products would be able to
everything, even a company of the calibre of CA. Says Perry:
“that’s never going to happen. We live in a world of competition
and people think there some products [do different things
better].”
Perry insists that integration of a few products offers up god
opportunities for the VAR who gets the message about training and
education. “There’s been a lot of progress in [dealer] education
over the last 12 months and the maturity of the channel to that
idea two years ago wasn’t there,” he says.
The need for robust security grows daily but preventing the
channel realising this demand is poor end user buying experience.
It’s a vicious circle; VARs will only sell to users more
effectively if they get time from the vendors to do so, but this
won’t happen if the incessant demand to hit targets isn’t changed.
The bottom line, literally and metaphorically, is that a great
opportunity could easily be lost.