Mailprotector beefs up channel program 17 March, 2009 By Mark Cox

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"This isn't a change but an addition to our existing partner model," said David Setzer, CEO of Mailprotector. "In putting together our original channel program, we decided to treat the VAR as one customer and let them deal with customers, free to charge whatever they want to charge for their service. 75 percent charge at or above our suggested price."

Margins remain strong, Setzer said, even in the weak global economy, as both the email security market and the managed service solutions market are still experiencing strong double digit growth. Setzer indicated that the pricing model for partners gives them the ability to grow margins as they grow larger, ranging from a 39 percent margin for VARS with under 10 customers to a 78 percent margin for those with over 30 customers.

Marketlink's role in this is to broaden those numbers out, by expanding the number of partners Mailprotector has, and to help both new and existing partners sell the services to more customers.

"Marketlink tells our story to more and more VARS," said Setzer. "They help our VARs sell the service. This is the major change with our program. We are not tweaking with the fundamentals."

Setzer indicated that Marketlink's initial efforts to expand the base have been successful, with an eight to 9 percent growth in the VAR base in their first couple weeks of involvement.

"The message to our partners is this is the perfect opportunity to talk to customers. Email is a very sticky application. It's one the customer stays with and tends to keep customers with the VAR. We are still growing now because of that type of benefit. That's a real driver right now, to generate revenue streams in this economy."