Changing the game when it comes to selling IT security

It doesn`t seem like so long ago that the IT world was being rocked by the likes of Melissa, Love Letter and My Doom, mass mailing threats which spread in a matter of hours and cost billions in damage. However, the threat landscape has changed significantly, driving new security spending priorities for businesses.

This is an ideal opportunity for resellers to take advantage of a changing landscape and grow both their security practices and revenues. The key opportunities for the channel lie in providing multi-functional solutions to protect against a wider range of more advanced threats. Additional opportunities lie in moving towards selling security as a service rather than a one-off product sale and in providing on-going support for customers.

The rapidly increasing number of threats faced by businesses provides a significant opportunity for resellers to grow their security practices and increase the number of solutions they offer. Whereas in the past a desktop firewall and anti-virus protection may have sufficed, it is simply not enough in today`s environment which includes threats ranging from denial of service attacks to buffer overflows and key logging.

Anti-spam, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention and network access control are just some of the additional solutions that should be added to any security portfolio. The savvy reseller can now educate its customers over the changing nature of IT threats and the need for a greater portfolio of security solutions, thereby increasing the number of solutions it is able to offer.

Furthermore, resellers can start offering more complex solutions, which offer greater margin opportunities. This is also important if companies are to respond to the increasing sophistication of threats.

An example of this sophistication was seen in March 2005 when police uncovered a highly targeted attempt to steal money from the London offices of Japanese bank, Sumitomo Mitsui. Hackers had gained access to the bank`s computer systems using keystroke logging software and managed to transfer lb13 million into an account in Israel before being caught. The Sumitomo example is a good pointer to the IT threats of the future: highly targeted, commercially motivated, attempts to deceive and steal money. According to a research report from Gartner entitled "Prevent Targeted Attacks", although fewer than 10% of the attacks on the Internet are targeted against a single company, the financial impact to an individual business of a single successful targeted attack will be 50 to 100 times greater than the impact of a successful worm or virus event.

While businesses need to look at new and different security solutions, there is a danger that they can over complicate their security set-up. Having multiple solutions from multiple vendors can be a headache to manage and maintain. Regular updates will be needed for each solution while licences will need to be managed on an on-going basis. Not only is this hugely time-intensive and inefficient but it is also more expensive in the long term.

Resellers increasingly have the potential to take this headache away from customers by offering integrated solutions such as McAfee`s Total Protection. Here you have multiple, integrated solutions to protect against the full range of IT threats, all controlled through a single management console. This will allow the reseller to deliver peace of mind to its customers with full protection and, at the same time, make it easier to manage security and deliver cost savings.

Managing security for a business means providing training for internal IT staff, technical support and upgrading security solutions as the needs of that business evolve. Why not take the headache of managing security away from customers completely? When it comes to maximising margins in the security market, the reseller should look to build longevity with each customer, moving away from selling point security products and selling security as a service. This will generate a constant revenue stream, which in turn gives a boost to a reseller`s business forecast.

Selling security as a service presents significant revenue opportunities for the reseller. With more advanced security solutions, for example, a reseller can look to sell up to 100% more of the order value in providing support. In addition, resellers can increase both customer loyalty and dependence. As the customer`s security requirements increase/evolve, the managed service reseller will be ideally placed to meet these new requirements without the need for a long tender process. In the same scenario a reseller may also gain opportunities to cross-sell other IT services because of the trusted relationship. IT security currently represents one of the most margin-rich areas within the IT market. And as the security market continues to evolve, there is an opportunity for resellers in this space to shift their business model and benefit from a range of new revenue opportunities. The reseller should look at each security sale as the potential start of a long term relationship with the customer where it may become that customer`s trusted security partner, providing advice and support and building the customer`s security protection as its business grows.