SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp. has announced expanded licensing options and new advisory fees for its security channel partners as part of the company’s efforts to expand its Security Software Advisor program.

The SSA is an incentive program for eligible partners that advise on the purchase decision and deployment of Microsoft’s Forefront security software products that protects the client, server and edge.

Since launching the SSA program in July, membership has grown to over 1700 members worldwide in its first four months.

One of the main focuses of the SSA is to support security partners as they incorporate Microsoft Forefront products into their security practices.

Steve Brown, director of product management for the security and access product group at Microsoft Corp., said the program has met with great success but feedback from customers and partners has led to a fine tuning of the SSA program to better reflect the role partners play in helping customers secure their IT infrastructure.

“What we are doing now in response to the strong enterprise demand of the Forefront products, and in recognition of the critical role our partners play in advising and deploying enterprise security solutions, is expanding [licensing] to most of the Microsoft licensing levels that our enterprise customers typically use,” said Brown.

The licenses within the SSA program now include Microsoft’s Select C, Select D and enterprise license types.

“[The licensing types] are comprehensive. Everybody from small businesses up to large enterprise are now all part of the [SSA] program,” Brown said.

In addition to expanding the licensing, Microsoft has also announced changes to the advisory fee structure for SSA partners that will result in higher payouts.

When the program launched in July, Brown said the fee was initially 20 per cent with a 10 per cent bonus for the first 90 days of the program. The changes were made also in response to the growing demand for the Forefront security products from business customers and feedback from SSA partners.

“This is a fee that is not dependent on the partner actually transacting the deal but is in recognition of the strategic deployment and influence partners play in the selection and deployment of the product,” he added.

Not only does the new SSA fee include the sale of new products but product renewals as well. Brown explained that the renewal fees will be for Sybari Software customers (the anti-virus and anti-malware company that Microsoft acquired to be part of its Forefront security products) who are now looking to purchase Microsoft Forefront products.

“Partners that advise them on the sale of new Microsoft Forefront products will be eligible to be paid [the 30 per cent advisory] fees as if it were a new product sale,” said the Microsoft executive.

To be part of SSA, partners need to be a registered member of the Microsoft Partner program then they either need to be a member of the Microsoft security competency program or a member of the Sybari partner program or a member of a competitive security vendors’ partner program.

“The commitment that we have to our partners is the vision to build the industry leading security partner ecosystem and continue to make investments in both the products and program to make that a reality,” Brown said.

This column was written by Vanessa Ho of ConnectIT