PALO ALTO, Ca. – Voltage Security continues to ramp up its channel program and recruit partners. Since launching the Entourage Partner Program in November 2007, Voltage has recruited 27 partners, and its most recent version of SecureMail Server was designed to make it easier for those partners to install it.

As a provider of encryption products, Voltage Security had only worked with a couple of channel partners prior to the launch of partner program. Its go-to-market model had largely been based on a direct sales model, and although it still sells direct, about 40 per cent of its business is now going through the channel, said Wasim Ahmad, vice president of Voltage Security.

“It’s really good, solid growth in the last nine months or so,” Ahmad said.

In building the program, it was important to also create a product that was optimized for the channel so it didn’t put any unnecessary burden on partners, he explained. That’s where SecureMail Server V3.3 comes in.

“What we’ve done is we’ve made it very, very easy for people to install it,” Ahmad said.

Voltage cut the installation time by 75 per cent compared to previous versions of the product. Whereas SecureMail Server used to take four to five hours to install (plus prep time), it now takes about 20 minutes.

“It’s kind of a dramatic no-brainer kind of install, and we do that by using intelligent defaults,” Ahmad said. Voltage has been selling the product for five years, and in that time, the company has recognized certain standard settings that businesses use. Using those standards as default makes installation time a lot quicker, he said.

Since the installation only takes a fraction of the time it used to require, channel partners can then use that extra time to spend with customers, creating projects that will ultimately bring in more revenue, Ahmad said. The product was designed to help partners get through the sales and installation cycles more quickly. It also requires 80 per cent less training time to learn the system, according to Voltage.

At the start of the year, Brad Burkle, vice president of channels at Voltage Security, set a goal to find a segment of the channel where the company’s products could be important and make the partners successful. Voltage has since been targeting regional security VARs. With a goal of recruiting 30 partners this year, Voltage is most of the way there. As of the end of July, it had signed on 27 partners.

“I think they’re finding that the margin is meaningful. In many cases, our street margin is the same or very close to our list margin,” Burkle said.

Burkle described 2008 as a transition year for the company. Prior to forming the Entourage Partner Program, the company’s sales were direct and through OEM partners, but it’s now working towards doing two-thirds of its business through VARs, he said. Voltage has formed rules of engagement that encompasses all of its go-to-market approaches — direct, OEM and channel.

“We’ve had just great embracing and success with all of our partners in these rules of engagement and our registration program,” Burkle said. SecureMail helps to speed up that partner enablement process, he added.

SecureMail is an e-mail encryption product that has enough intelligence to determine, based on corporate policies, when an e-mail is containing sensitive information and should be encrypted, Ahmad explained. It works with a variety of messaging systems and mobile devices, and it can be integrated right into a customer’s business without making the process of encryption difficult, he said.

SecureMail can be set to automatically encrypt e-mails so the end-user doesn’t have to actually do anything to activate it. Since it operates at the network level, it can automatically scan e-mails for any sensitive data.

A version of the product is also available as a service.

“From a channel perspective, our channel partners are able to sell the SecureMail product and the software-as-a-service product, as well,” Ahmad said.

This column was written by Erin Bell of ConnectIT

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