Symantec Thinks It Should Be Easy to Sell Symantec
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Symantec, and specifically its channel chief, Julie Parrish, operate with the novel idea that it should be easy for VARs to sell a vendor's wares. The security vendor announced this week it was removing the coursework requirements attached to its sales and technical certifications and would began making all of the tutorials and study guides available free and online. Tests would also be free and online, making certifications "free and easy" for all but a minority of partners who insist on classroom preparation, the company said. "The goal should be to pass the test, not to sit in a classroom," said Parrish, vice president of global channel sales and strategy at Symantec, in an interview last week with The Channel Insider. "If you can pass the test, you understand the strategy, you understand the architecture and you can integrate it. That is all we ask of partners." Parish is trying to engage more of the ecosystem already selling her company's product line, but outside the partner community. She estimates there are some 200,000 VARs selling Symantec worldwide and only 60,000 of them registered partners. "If they're already selling they can probably pass that test," she said. "If we can make it as cheap and easy to be in the program by removing these roadblocks, we can engage them and get them selling more." Technicians will be able to take an assessment and certification test online, and if they pass, they're done. If not, they have resources to prep for multiple tries, including the failing test results, tool kits, study guides and online instruction. If they insist on a classroom experience, it's still available. Previously, required courses cost between $150 and $200, not to mention the expense of travel and lost time required to get technicians to classes. VARs have long pleaded with vendors to make certifications easier, cheaper and quicker, but few have listened. Some, such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, have come part of the way, working with distributors, such as Arrow Electronics, to pack multiple certifications into a single week, but the fix seems more like a workaround than a solution. Symantec began tinkering with training and certifications in July when it announced that certifications would be product-specific and not tied to solutions or marketing strategies. |
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Comments (3)
Easier? I dunno about that...
When I last month tried to perform a renewal and upgrade from BackupExec 10 to 10D, it was an entirely confusing process, and I am still not convinced that I got accomplished what I needed completed. In evidence is the email notification from Symantec I received yesterday stating that I need to renew my BackupExec licenses ASAP or risk their expiration -- for the exact same products I thought I had already renewed last month.
Not that Veritas' licensing was a lot easier, mind you, but since Symantec acquired their products, it's definitely a whole different challenge.
On an aside, Symantec is killing-off yet another quite useful acquired product, the former Delrina Winfax Pro. Symantec's version 10.0.3 is their last version, having stopped short of making it (out-of-the-box) compatible with Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. There will be no version 11, whether Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista compatible or not, based on statements from Symantec's tech support personnel. It's gone the way of the admirable @Guard personal firewall and PowerQuest's many powerful applications such as ServerMagic and DriveImage Pro. Symantec is doing an incredible job of forcing BackupExec toward that eventual precipice. The mounting carnage makes me weep.
Posted by Rick | February 14, 2007 4:30 PM
Hi Guys and my Geek Gals
Symantec has lost my vote on their latest version of
Internet Security. Every time I open up my internet explorer browser I do it with trepidation, and forget power surfing because all I get anymore is pop-up after pop-up peddling everything from software downloads to porn, its pathetic to say the least. Yes my pop-up blocker is turned on in my browser as well as in my Norton but it aint a happening. If there were a crime for this I would prosecute them for malfeasance and false advertisement but unfortunately there isn't so there you go. If I want porn I'll go www.xxx.com or something of that sort and if I want software downloads I'll go www.softwaredownloadsrus.com or something of that sort too. It's a shame that these stupid people don't have any better use of their time than to send this s*** out on the net only for computer owners to have to do a complete reformat of our hard drives and loose everything we've saved on our systems and also the very software we rely on to keep things like this from occurring isn't worth the code-sheets these programs are written on. I think I need rehab, maybe I'll room with little miss pop princes Britney Spears and get some loving or something. There it is I said it and I mean it.
Erica Baker
bakerlakid@msn.com
Posted by Erica Baker | March 4, 2007 11:45 AM
There should simply be the "hold your nose" test. I have "Gold" support contracts for several customers, and have been dismayed by the problems with the 10.x line of Symantec Corporate/Small Business Security. While it is well known and understood that the consumer product is dreck, with perhaps the worst off-shore support in the industry, destroying the credibility of the Corporate version is a crime. I've had Gold support technicians lecture me about how bad the product is!
Posted by Patrick C. | March 6, 2007 9:28 PM