The twister that is Kaspersky

Security solution providers, Kaspersky has been mulling over the idea of price hike for almost six months before the company decided to put it into action in this May.

The vendor has increased the prices of its enterprise range of products by 30-50% and this has not gone down well with partners.

As per one of the channel partners who wishes to remain anonymous states, "This is not a right move by the company as it will directly impact our bottomline. This price hike will reduce the overall sales by at least 50% and renewals will also drop and this will affect our overall revenue." Partner further added that recently other competitors are offering better discounts and this price hike will only worsen our condition. This move is only beneficial for the vendor and not for the partners. Even the discounts that were offered on different slabs have now changed.

Confirming this price increase and explaining the rationale, Biswajit Saha, director, Sea Infonet said, "There has been a price hike but this has been rolled out in October 2011. However, when the vendor took our feedback, we had recommended to not implement it till the coming March."

Saha said, "We don't think this is a bad move, however, it will be bit early to comment on its impact. This move is primarily to position Kaspersky as a technology vendor in the market and we believe in coming months, this will stabilize the MOP and create a more effective ecosystem." He further said that the margins will be better and it is just the initial reaction from partners.

The new pricing will be applicable for the new customers only, while the renewal will be on the basis of old price list with new exchange rates. Furthermore, the vendor had done a global revamp of the pricing list and India does not its own specific price list. It follows the South Asia price list. As per Saha, there are certain countries where the price is higher compared to India like for instance Australia and New Zealand.

Commenting on this move, Altaf Halde, managing director, Kaspersky India said, "This move is more in line with the global price revision and we follow a s per South Asia norms. These pricing were supposed to be implemented in October but considering the partner sentiments and feedback it was delayed till May this year. We were cautious with the price hike and after due consideration we had decided to go ahead with it in India."

Halde further said that to create an easier transition, the company has two personnel in place wherein the channel partners through their distributors can log existing cases.

"We have assured that as per case bases extensions will be provided to partners. But the new price list is going to be followed at any cost. Also, there is no changes in discounts on the slabs in the enterprise licensing and only consolidation had been done to simply business processes", Halde added.