href="https://www.dqweek.com/mcafee-announces-enterprise-mobility-management-9-5">McAfee
that delivers retail and online
solutions to secure, protect, and optimize PCs with a line of
anti-virus products has come up with a strong focus to
channel-centric programs and educational initiatives to boost sales
in India. The company has been working along with channel partners in
India for over 12 years now and has an extremely robust partner
program for elite, premier, associate and mid-market partners.
McAfee's key initiatives include Accredited Channel Engineer (ACE)
training for managed partners and SMB program.
Ambarish Deshpande, Director-Sales,
McAfee India in an interaction with The DQ Week said, that
they have introduced a new set of technical training for partners
that would enable them to conduct demos at customer premises. "This
is a two-day hands-on training schedule focused on configuring and
rolling out various McAfee products. This training helps partners
become independent managers of our POCs and will also help them
increase their service revenues," he said. McAfee SMB program,
the company's yet another initiative, which is being rolled out
through their distributors to encourage them to recruit new partners
in B and C-class cities and independently drive sales for customers
below 250 users. "This program incentivizes our unmanaged
partners to work with our distributors and leverage their resources
to sell to SMB customers. We are expecting this initiative to
generate significant business for us this year," said Deshpande.
McAfee also conducts free training and
certifications for both sales and pre-sales representatives of all
managed partners. "We have various levels such as 101, 201 and
301 certifications for pre-sales and 101 and 201 for sales
personnel," he said. According to Deshpande, 101 certifications
are online trainings and they expect partners' representatives to
be trained on security basics before they enroll for 201
certifications which are classroom trainings. "Once they pass
the 201 certifications they can appear for advanced level of
certifications through 301. These training initiatives help our
partners significantly as they become well—equipped to sell and
provide post-sales services to our customers," he said. McAfee's
channel motto is; 'Do More with Less.' "We have consolidated our
managed partners and will focus on maximizing their business this
year. It's important that we focus on partners and help them
increase their revenue and profitability from McAfee business. We
will be driving this initiative strongly in 2011," Deshpande
said.