Tag Archives: Channel partners

Introducing the New AVG Partner Certification Program

AVG has seen the role of our channel partners evolve from being “solutions providers” to “trusted advisors.” We believe this is a critical transition that our partners must make; and one that requires the ability to make “consultative sales.”

To do that, partners need to be able to put any product or service recommendation into a broader business context while demonstrating measurable ROI.

It also requires more in-depth knowledge of their product portfolio than ever before.

Partners have told us they need a fast, efficient, and systematic approach to knowledge acquisition and skills development – coupled with ongoing support on multiple levels. They want to be able to ramp-up quickly on AVG products and technologies, clearly understand our product value propositions and how to position these with customers.

Our answer to this need is the AVG Partner Certification Program (PCP) – a certification program that rewards each partner for developing their knowledge.

The PCP has three tiers: Select, Premier, and Elite. Each tier provides additional benefits based on the number of individuals who achieve certification. For example, Elite level requires the certification of 3 Engineers and 3 Sales professionals.

Certification is achieved through on-demand Technical and Sales Training.

Partners who pass all course assessments of our Fundamentals training become an AVG Certified Technical Associate or AVG Sales Associate.

This program is an important element of our strategy to help partners sell, cross sell and upsell our product portfolio and continue activating and retaining new partners.

Please visit our AVG Partner Portal today.

APH improves margins, drives revenue with AVG Business solutions

One of the things I enjoy about my role is receiving feedback from our AVG partners. A recent example is APH in the UK.

The team at APH was ready to take a more modern and proactive approach to their operations. But one challenge was the ability to expand their customer base – 110+ small-and-medium businesses operating in the distribution, manufacturing, engineering and services sectors – with the same APH staff of 15.  The team had to be able to close the loop on the better management and delivery of a complete managed services solution.

AVG Managed Workplace and its integrated Premium Remote Control, plus the quality of the technical and sales support from AVG Business, convinced APH to migrate its entire base of managed service clients from a standard antivirus product to the full-service AVG Business solutions platform.

Chris Carter, the Technical Infrastructure Consultant at APH, explains how APH’s move to AVG CloudCare and AVG Managed Workplace is a win for their clients and for them: “AVG AntiVirus picks up more threats than other products we were using, plus the AVG Business stack gives us wider, proactive control over the complete infrastructure at our client sites.”

As a trusted technology partner, we provide the support our partners need to confidently build relationships with their clients.  Chris is being supported by his AVG partner account manager who “wants to know where we’re trying to take our company and is helping us decide which services and features of the AVG Business stack can strengthen our customers’ infrastructure while creating profitable, long-term revenue streams for us.” 

Having completed the first phase of the AVG Business rollout, APH is now able to pre-empt client system faults as it takes advantage of AVG’s single pane of glass view, its automatic network discovery and monitoring, remote management and network audit reports.

And next, the remote, automation and reporting capabilities of the AVG Business solutions will allow the APH team to better schedule PC maintenance, coordinate patch management and control the rollout of Windows updates.

As Chris explains, APH has made the decision to “cover the cost of client installations because within a year we’ll be supporting only one product. We have higher profits from the new licences because the margin difference between where we were and where we are now with AVG Business is significant.”

Chris also says the detailed reporting within AVG Managed Workplace “will allow us to see what’s happening with all assets on every customer site and give us the opportunity to upsell services.”

Where are they headed as an AVG channel partner? There are no limits.

Glideslope drives growth from a niche customer base

Many of our channel partners are driving successful businesses by building their reputations from a niche customer base – by proving their understanding of those clients’ special needs they grow a portfolio of very happy, referenceable sites. Here’s how one partner is using our AVG Business AntiVirus and Internet Security solutions to ensure its not-for-profit customers can operate virus and spam free and focus on their valuable work.

Glideslope Software Ltd, in Manchester, England, has developed highly specialized expertise in delivering quality IT support to charitable organizations. Now, with those services underpinned by the right security solutions, Glideslope is leveraging customer satisfaction to get a foot in the door at other businesses.

To give you an idea of the security issues, some of Glideslope’s charity customers have as many as 12 administrative sites and hostels, with staff travelling between locations and who introduce data to the network from a risky mix of devices and memory sticks. The problem is how best to secure and manage the data of geographically dispersed sites, as well as staff who are operating on disparate and often ageing hardware. Data security is further complicated by UK’s strict laws covering end client privacy and the use of cloud-based services. And, of course, every proposal has to deliver the greatest value for the money.

Glideslope’s answer to bringing a consistent level of service to all its client organizations has been to install AVG Internet Security Business Edition and AVG AntiVirus Business Edition. As its clients’ current policies expire, Glideslope is migrating all 35 of its regular clients – with 1,000 end users – to AVG Internet Security Business Edition or AVG CloudCare, depending on the best fit.

John Miller, Glideslope Software’s Director, describes his approach: “We see efficient IT support as the key to our clients’ growth, agility and happy employees. For our charity sector customers in particular, AVG Business solutions are essential in ensuring they can operate virus and spam free so they can seamlessly and effortlessly continue their valuable work.”

He’s also pretty pleased with how the AVG suite is helping his operations: “AVG works brilliantly in the background, so no calls from clients checking on pop ups. The admin console shows us which machines have problems. The Anti-Spam plug-in removes over 2500 spam emails before they reach end user machines. And I can’t remember the last time a client called to say they’d found a virus that AVG had missed. Everyone saves time and money.”

So, while areas of specialization can create differentiators for you in the marketplace, what every channel partner needs to do is back that expertise with quality services, at an affordable price, and a trusted, knowledgeable team.

The need for managed services will continue to grow in 2016 — AVG Business is here to support you

Industry research is already indicating the growth of managed services in 2016 as the channel continues to recognize its potential for SMB clients.  According to one recent study from market research organization Techaisle, as much as 71% of U.S. SMB channel partners surveyed are currently offering one or more managed services solutions and another 18% are planning to offer the services within the year.

Here at AVG Business, that’s no surprise. More of our partners are moving toward a proactive approach and transitioning to managed service models, moving away from reactive strategies that are difficult to manage and maintain for their SMB clients.

Yet, successful implementation is key to unlocking the power of managed services. Simplifying the experience for both the partner and SMB customer is critical.  Depending on the technology in place or the type of service contract, there could be multiple steps required before both the channel partner and SMB can realize the benefits of a centrally planned and automated security defense.

The benefits of this type of defense reach far and wide.  A centrally planned solution enables AVG channel partners to efficiently deliver their unique service offerings within one standardized service delivery platform. This puts automated, service standardization in place to enable a scalable offering to better address the security needs of their SMB customers.

At AVG Business, we’re committed to helping our partners effectively unlock the power of all AVG security solutions in their marketing, selling, and implementation of managed services so they too can see the magic behind this proactive, planned and automated approach.

Here are just a few of the AVG partners experiencing great results:

  • Dave Barnard, owner of DB Computer Services came to AVG Business because he’d been told by a friendly competitor that our AVG Managed Workplace solution had “every tool a MSP needs” something we were happy to prove. According to Dave, DB Computer Services is now able to “offer an outsourced IT support solution that is complete, simple to understand, predictable, affordable and scales with the growth of our clients’ businesses.” 
  • For Darren Nichol, the Technical Director of pckwikfix, the move to managed services was about “standing out in the crowd by continuing to truly care and put our customers before sales targets.” The proof of this came just a few weeks after purchasing AVG Managed Workplace – the team was able to convert more than 50 clients to the streamlined monthly subscription model. With routine jobs now automated, fully integrated systems and access to unprecedented detail, Nichol says the team is “starting to get a feel for the freedom we now have to be more hands on with customers’ more interesting challenges.”
  • Meanwhile Chris Carter, technical infrastructure consultant at APH, was so convinced by AVG Managed Workplace’s new premium remote control feature, plus the quality of our technical and sales support, that it migrated its entire base of managed service clients from a standard antivirus product to the full-service AVG Business platform.

We have done a lot of work toward addressing the business needs of AVG partners, including within our AVG Managed Workplace technology platform, as well as best practices on how to fulfill service contracts in the most efficient and profitable way.

We are listening and responding – and we will have more updates and news to share this year.

Until then, please continue to share your feedback in 2016!

Bluecom Buys Big from AVG Business

2015 has been a big year for AVG Business. Our worldwide community of partners has been supporting businesses in cities across the globe, giving their customers the reassurance that their applications and data are protected on any device, anytime, anywhere.

I’m excited to welcome a new partner, Bluecom, to our AVG Business network. Stockholm-based Bluecom, a rapidly-growing IT service provider, has recently chosen AVG Managed Workplace to manage network monitoring, control and automation for its small and medium business customers throughout Sweden.

This represents the largest order of the year for AVG Business in the Nordics region.

According to Bluecom CEO Robert Sjöholm, after conducting tests with several solutions on the market, AVG Business was selected because our product had the breadth Bluecom needed, “AVG Managed Workplace has all of the major functionality, while being more user-friendly than other products on the market we tried.”

Bluecom has already seen a positive effect on its sales since it started using AVG Managed Workplace, with Sjöholm noting that, “The reports we get from Managed Workplace are so good that we can often see flaws in customer systems that are unknown to them.”

AVG Business solutions like AVG Managed Workplace are a great example of how we are listening to our partners and responding with powerful security solutions to help partners proactively manage and monitor their customers’ networks and automatically deploy and update critical security tools.

With Managed Workplace 9.2, released in September, we move one step closer to a complete, end-to-end IT and managed security solution. The Managed Workplace platform streamlines IT management for our partners, providing ease of use, security and control of the entire IT infrastructure (devices, applications and networks) from a “single-pane” of glass. With premium remote control integrated at no additional cost to the remote monitoring and management platform, partners also gain cost savings as well as reporting tools to streamline billing and demonstrate client ROI.

Visit http://www.avg.com/partners to find out more about our AVG Business solutions and how we can help your business.  We look forward to sharing new products and services with you in 2016.

Happy holidays and best wishes for the new year!

Making the case for channel-delivered cybersecurity

For our AVG partners and distributors these findings may not come as a surprise, but it presents another opportunity for the channel to help fill these security gaps with value-added solutions, best practices and excellent customer service.

According to the topline results of the survey, 36% of global organizations lack confidence in their ability to detect sophisticated cyber attacks. Linked to this, 36% don’t have a threat intelligence program, and 18% don’t have identity and access management programs – little wonder then that 69% thought that their IT security budgets should be increased by half.

Protection from cyber attack should be a priority for all businesses and as the EY data has shown, many organizations could benefit from the guidance of the channel. AVG partners, including A+ Computers and Services, DB Computer Solutions, MCC Computers Ltd., SortMyPC and many more, are already addressing the gaps using AVG Business products.

Channelnomics editor Jessica Meek also highlighted findings from the EY survey in her recent article, again, emphasizing the opportunity for the channel to help IT professionals prioritize security, provide solutions and services, and also act as trusted advisors on industry developments.

A few key stats to note:

  • 88% of respondents did not believe their information security infrastructure fully meets their organization’s needs
  • 57% said that the information security function suffers from a lack of available talent
  • 47% said they don’t have a security operation center
  • 54% said they lacked a dedicated function to focus on the impact of emerging technologies

AVG Business products like AVG Managed Workplace and AVG CloudCare are great examples of how our partners are using end-to-end solutions to help resolve security issues, staffing and infrastructure challenge for their clients.

AVG CloudCare offers a modern approach to security with streamlined access to advanced features through one centralized pane of glass. Ease of deployment, through one click installation and activation, helps our partners become more agile. The product can be used for managing services, proactive monitoring, content filtering, cloud backup, daily reporting, providing secure sign-on and more, essentially helping our partners act as outsourced IT departments for their clients.

AVG Managed Workplace also offers powerful automation to help partners proactively manage and monitor clients’ networks.  Deployment and update of security tools are easily handled by automation helping to ensure a strong security posture at all times. With premium remote control integrated at no additional cost to the remote monitoring and management platform, partners gain cost savings as well as reporting tools to streamline billing and prove client ROI.

These flexible and powerful AVG solutions empower businesses to address security issues and run more effectively and efficiently. That’s powerful reassurance to give your clients.

AVG Business strengthens team with new General Manager

With more than 20 years of industry experience and an impressive track record building high-performing SMB sales and marketing teams, Fred will be a valuable asset to our AVG Business team as we accelerate our business to effectively support our channel partners and their SMB customers, in 2016 and beyond.

Through Fred’s vision and direction, we will offer more flexibility, more value and more ways for our partners and their clients to succeed. A core part of this will be building strong relationships with our channel partners and providing a full suite of managed services and security solutions, with simplicity in mind, and with the business, marketing and technical training to deliver excellent service for their SMB customers.

In this role, Fred will be drawing on his extensive channel, solutions selling, cloud computing and managed service experience, while working closely with our partners to respond to their challenges and equip them for success.

Before joining AVG, Fred spent eight years at Cisco Systems, where he held roles as Director of Partner Organization & Commercial Business in the Netherlands and Northern Europe. He has also had leadership positions at Copaco, one of the largest ICT distributors in the Netherlands, and Compaq Computers.

We wish Fred a warm welcome as we continue to stay strong behind our vision and strategy of being the Online Security Company offering integrated and easy-to-use security services for our channel partners and their SMB customers, with the reassurance that their applications and data are protected on any devices anytime, anywhere.

We look forward to sharing updates as we head into this exciting next phase together.

A simple solution to IT security sprawl?

According to recent research conducted by Forrester Consulting, the vast majority of enterprise security professionals believe that security should be delivered as an integrated platform via the cloud.

Indeed, 98 percent of those questioned said that integrated security platforms would be effective to both improve their security posture and to reduce overall cost in comparison to traditional on-premise security appliances and point solutions.

As our channel partners have experienced firsthand from their small and medium business clients, the ultimate problem addressed in the research is one that has been gaining increased airtime over the past year – security sprawl. With more data sharing, more device connections, and more security solutions to manage everything than ever before, companies are struggling to keep themselves secure.

Though targeted at an enterprise level, I believe you’ll agree that these research findings are just as applicable to smaller businesses – with the fragmented security landscape posing a management headache no matter your company size.

Our AVG Business product line includes a managed services and security platform that offers a range of features. We have designed the products with absolute simplicity in mind to help relieve security sprawl headaches. AVG CloudCare is one example, enabling direct, real-time management of a full suite of cloud-delivered security services – antivirus, online backup, content filtering, email security, premium remote control, secure sign-on and more, all from one dashboard. Instead of having to deal with the complexity of multiple, different security solutions, we provide a ‘single pane of glass’ view for easier IT management.

AVG CloudCare supports our partners, so that MSPs can give their customers the reassurance that their applications and data are protected on any device, anytime, anywhere.

As John Quatto, Channel Partner Manager at Zobrio Inc. recently put it, “the only problem you might face now is that your clients will never witness and appreciate the work you’re doing – As an MSP you have to be able to prove your worth – ironically, that’s difficult if you’re fixing issues before the customer even knows they exist!”

If AVG CloudCare sounds like it could be an asset for your business, visit our AVG Business website today to find out more.

Position your managed services business for success

It has been a busy time at AVG Business with our recent product releases and there is still more to come.  As we roll out new tools and services, your feedback continues to be critical.  Insight and comments from our channel partners and their clients help us continually raise the bar for security and managed IT business solutions.

So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Starting with our latest release of AVG Managed Workplace®, we’ve delivered the advantages of premium remote control at no additional cost and remote monitoring and management all in one platform.

We haven’t stopped there. Weeks later, we introduced our new, enterprise-class business security products that feature advanced protection. Last month, AVG also received a 100% detection rating of real-world malware and 100% detection of widespread malware from the Independent IT Security Institute, AV-TEST.  Our business security products are based on this same AVG engine.  This ‘double 100%’ result from AV-TEST demonstrates that our products are protecting SMBs without compromise whether the threat is new or a known malware variant that is widespread.

They say that good things come in threes, and now we’ve rolled out new onboarding training and support to help new partners get up to speed right away and established partners continue to drive growth for their managed services business.

The simple-to-follow onboarding services can be accessed through our partner portal, which was recently upgraded with a brand new user interface and easier navigation to give partners quicker access to the technology and knowledge they need to succeed.

If you’re not an AVG Business partner yet, sign up for a free 14-day trial today to check out the latest release of our Managed Workplace 9.2 product, the new services portal and onboarding tools.

Here’s a look at what you’ll find:

  • A 12-month, 5-step success plan: Targeted business plans that help partners achieve monthly, quarterly or yearly milestones.
  • AVG Accelerator Partner Academy: On-demand business and technical training to quickly onboard technical staff plus best practice tips and discussion on sales, marketing, business and channel operations.
  • In-depth knowledge base: Frequently asked questions and information for troubleshooting issues.
  • User forums: Community engagement and fast access to your peers for learning and networking.
  • Sales and marketing materials: Ready-to-use content to sell AVG Managed Workplace and other AVG Business products.

But that’s not all. Coming soon, you will be able to access our new AVG Managed Services Pricing Calculator from our partner portal. This cool calculator can be used by AVG channel partners to help price their managed services, develop the desired contract margins and predict profitable monthly recurring revenue. It captures critical elements of client service: labor costs, business overhead and software licensing, onboarding and more.

These new updates are all part of our continuous effort to develop and improve upon the products and support we provide to our partners — an ongoing process that is informed by the valued feedback we receive from our growing network.

Below is just a sample of some of our most recent feedback:

“AVG Managed Workplace has completely changed how we do business. We really like it because we now have visibility on our clients’ networks. In many cases the automation feature detects and resolves an issue before something fails.” — Terry Johnson, Consultant, Infrastructure and Data Solutions, Experis  

“As a value added reseller, we needed a partner that could help us create and implement solid security plans, and then deliver cost effective ongoing monitoring and maintenance of customer networks. The strength of AVG CloudCare’s cloud-based administration, integrated with the power of AVG Managed Workplace, was the answer.” — John Quatto, Channel Partner Manager, Zobrio   

“Our partnership with AVG is taking our business to a whole new level. We have a complete portfolio to deliver, from the security aspect outwards. The antivirus side of our business has grown 96% year on year, and anti-spam 29%. And with hosting, Online Backup and social media services still largely untapped, the only problem is finding the time to follow up all the AVG-generated opportunities.” –Gordon Montgomery, Operations Director, MCC Computers

Visit http://www.avg.com/gb-en/partners to find out more about our AVG Business solutions and how we can help your business.