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The acquisition of Blue Coat by Symantec creates the largest pure-play cyber security company on the planet. Interestingly there is a very small overlap between their respective products. As has been frequently stated, “It’s a good marriage.”
Torjus Gylstorff is the new vice-president, Global Partner Sales at Symantec. He came from Blue Coat via its acquisition of Norman Shark (where he was vice-president of Emerging Business). He has also worked at IBM and before that at Lotus.
His message to the 200+ partners at Symantec APJ Partner Engage 2016 in Tokyo was clear, “The company has a few ideas on how to combine the partner programmes of both companies, but the best outcome is a collaborative effort. Tell us what you want in a new programme that can help grow all our businesses.
“Sure, we can take influences from previous programmes but, more importantly, we want to take the opportunity to create a new programme and partner approach. Symantec will look at everything … think of it as a new company."
{loadposition ray}Gylstorff said: “The new Symantec has only been in existence three months, but it is 100% partner- and channel-led. It is looking to maximise both cross-selling or upsell opportunities for both groups of partners – for example, Symantec’s DLP (Data Loss Prevention) nicely dovetails into Blue Coat’s offerings.
When there was a joke that blue and yellow equals green (about the corporate colours of both companies). Ian McAdam, managing director for the Pacific Region, said, “I prefer we think of that as 1+1=3 (referring to the whole being greater than the sum of its parts)."
“Symantec partners have expressed huge support for the acquisition since it was announced three months ago, predicting the combined technology and new leadership will help lead the security vendor to its next wave of growth,” Glystorff said.
Asked about Symantec’s move to bring its offerings to small to medium business, Glystorff said that it could only happen with the adoption of cloud and with a greater uptake of managed services on a subscription model. “It’s a great opportunity for our partners,” he said.
He said that not every partner would sell every product of the combined companies. “It may occasionally happen as we have such a broad offering, but I favour partners having specialties – geography, vertical markets, and technical expertise. I want partners that are good at what they are good at.”
Partners will need to be trained and staff certified to participate in the new partner programme to be announced perhaps as late as 1 April 2017.
His final words, “Symantec is in a unique position with is end-to-end security offerings, its strong unified product portfolio, and we are determined to remain the best security vendor to partner with.”
