Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, announced its Annual Channel Partner Day event, held from 12th to 14th April, in the verdant environs of Shimla. During the event, the company unveiled its latest strategic products and solutions and shared market & sales insights. The three-day event witnessed engaging sessions delving into areas such as the global threat landscape, on securing the connected world and an update on the partner program initiatives by Trend Micro.
As part of the partner program update, the event saw the rollout of a very comprehensive channel program, one which will ‘reward partners’ who have demonstrated a good technical capability to deploy and service their customers, among other parameters. Trend Micro announced the MDF (Marketing Development Fund) for their partner community who are in the Gold and Platinum category, depending upon the revenue that they achieve, thereby enabling a collaborative market development activity. The company has already rolled out the ‘rebate program’ for partners, wherein their top focused partners, across Gold, Platinum, and Silver categories are eligible for a rebate, depending upon the revenue they achieve, which would be over and above the margins that they make. Apart from this, there would also be sales incentives for individual sellers from the partner organizations, depending upon the strategic solution offered.
Trend Micro is also enrolling partners for Professional Services, who would be involved in deployment, service and support customers. To further enable their partners, they are also launching the ‘Product Cloud’ platform. Trend Micro will make the ‘Product Cloud’ accessible for most of their focused channel partners, so that they can use their products which are deployed in the cloud, helping them demonstrate the product capabilities to all their customers.
Speaking on the significance of the event, Nilesh Jain, Vice President – South East Asia and India, Trend Micro, commented, “We have been growing very fast and the last year has been one of the fastest growing years for us. Most of the growth came from across our product line, whether it was Endpoint security, Cloud security or Network defense security. We wanted to recognize the fact, that this growth would not have been possible without the support of our channel/partner ecosystem. They were there when we wanted to bridge the solution with the customer, during deployment & servicing, as well as during post-support instances. This channel event is all about thanking them for all the support that they have extended to us all through the year, as well as to plan for the next 1 to 2 years strategy of working together.”
“In the light of how customer expectations are changing very rapidly, in terms of how security services are to be delivered and how ROI has to be measured, it’s important for partners to look at engaging with the right set of vendors. Firstly, a vendor who understands CIO’s and CSO’s mindset, and are trying to customize their offerings with the requirements of the customer. Secondly, a partner who can stand long-term with them and finally a vendor who is channel oriented. These are essentially the three criteria’s that partners should look for in their vendors”, he further added.
Nilesh in his keynote session on ‘Global Threat landscape and Trend Micro Direction’ also stressed on how Trend Micro is helping CIO’s and CSO’s, who are faced with a limited budget, to put back their critical assets in this complex environment. An environment where they are trying to adapt to Big Data, AI, Machine Learning and Robotics while moving their Severs to Cloud.
The event culminated with an enriching CSR activity organized at the MCD local Government Senior Secondary School, Totu. The initiative included several outbound activities, like the Cybersecurity briefing drive for students above grade 10; a Gratitude drive which saw donation of tracksuits, water cooler, CCTV cameras, badminton rackets, basketballs, cricket bats, cricket balls, footballs and books; and a Cleanliness drive involving clearing of garbage at the Valley area with planting of around 400 tree saplings in the school campus.
