The package is being officially launched at a Credit Crunch Workshop for the channel, taking place in London in July at which Vigil and its security vendor partners and a panel of experts will host a series of round table discussions and workshop sessions to launch the Credit Crunch package and discuss survival strategies for the channel to cope and thrive in the downturn.
Vigil, which supplies information security solutions to UK resellers and customers, has introduced the Credit Crunch Busting package which is available for any reseller that signs up to their partner programme. It has been designed to address three key business areas: cash flow, sales and marketing. As part of this new initiative, Vigil has introduced a new licensing arrangement with a number of its vendors to ease the administration involved in late payments and to enable partners to have more control over their cash flow. Through this, 45-day trial keys are issued to customers and permanent keys will only be issued once payment has been made. The initiative offers channel partners an additional lever to ensure customers pay in a timely fashion and do not stretch out their credit terms. Vigil is in discussion with all its vendors to introduce this licensing process across its product lines.
The new initiative also includes free of charge support for designing tailored marketing material to help generate leads and drive sales. Vigil is offering free design and development of marketing collateral customised with the channel partner’s logos and details, such as e-shots, mailers and banners as well as complementary telemarketing support to help generate new business. For certain lines that Vigil supplies, including Safend and Safenet, technical training courses are also being provided free of charge.
Phydos Neophytou, Managing Director of channel partner Caretower comments: “We’re all under increasing pressure to get through these difficult times and whilst talk is now turning to recovery, we still need to work harder than ever to maintain sales momentum. Initiatives such as these are invaluable as they give us the means to continue to develop new business in the most cost effective way, and complement our own activities. By supporting us on a very practical level, Vigil is demonstrating its commitment to its resellers with measures that really add value to their businesses. “
Alex Teh, Director at Vigil comments, “In the current climate, we need to be as innovative as possible. From listening to our customers we know that cashflow and late payments are a major concern for them. Since trialling this new licensing structure, we’ve seen a noticeable reduction in the number of late payments and we plan to extend this across all our product lines. Our partners don’t want to be a ‘bank’ for their end users and shouldn’t get caught out when back-end processes leave them caught in the middle. The measures we’ve introduced are all straightforward processes, but they can make a huge difference not only in driving new business opportunities but also in ensuring that existing business is profitable.”