AVG continues its strategy of adding more focused, value-added distributors with EarthBend, which brings an MSP background and experience with AVG’s Managed Workplace solution, as well as a strong regional presence in both the American mid-west and Canadian prairies.
Francois Daumard, AVG’s Vice President of Global Channel Sales
Today, AVG is announcing the expansion of its North American distribution network with the addition of Sioux Falls S.D.-based EarthBend distribution. This is the fifth new specialty distributor that AVG has added since March, with the others being in Europe. It is also consistent with the changes to AVG’s distribution strategy that Fred Gerritse, AVG’s GM for AVG Business, discussed with ChannelBuzz in March.
“This is well aligned with our overall strategy,” said Francois Daumard, AVG’s Vice President of Global Channel Sales. “In North America, we have consolidated our relationships with broadliners, so that we now have two – Ingram Micro and Synnex. At the same time, we have begun to engage more with specialized distributors. In North America. We were previously using Lifeboat, which focuses on software, especially relating to security, and now have added EarthBend as well.”
EarthBend brings several things to the table, Daumard said.
“Their focus is on the mid-west, so they are regionally strong,” he said. “They have close to 1000 resellers, and while most of these are in the U.S., they have some in Canada, especially in the Prairie provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They also have a strong emphasis on security.”
In addition, they are capable of handling the full range of AVG’s businesses, especially their Managed Workplace Remote Monitoring and Management [RMM] solution – which EarthBend has used as a customer for many years.
“They have been, first and foremost, an MSP company, and have been using Managed Workplace for their own MSPs for many years,” Daumard said. “They love it and have built a good chunk of their MSP business around it. They will now be distributing Managed Workplace as well as using it internally, and they will be able to speak about it as experts because they use it themselves.”
EarthBend has developed their distribution business in recent years in addition to the MSP business, and Daumard said that they have been quite successful as a regional distributor.
“We invited them to our partner summit last October in Miami,” he said. “Their general manager told me that they have been growing their distribution business, and was very interested in onboarding our line.”
The changes to AVG’s distribution policies are part of a new focus Gerritse has introduced to improve the performance of AVG’s SMB business by making partners more efficient. The additional specialized distributors will provide more assistance to the broad base of partners, allowing AVG’s own account managers to focus on their top partners and develop new accounts. Most of the new distributors also have a deep focus on the managed services space and RMM sector, which is critical to AVG’s SMB business.
“Our distribution strategy is coming to fruition for us,” Daumard said. “We have brought on board new AVG employees to manage distributors, and also strengthened our marketing distribution team supporting distribution sales. All have one mission – to manage the relationship with distributors effectively.”
Daumard indicated there are no imminent plans to add further North American distributors.
“We do not want to be overdistributed,” he said. “We feel that we are well represented with these ones we have now.”
In addition to adding EarthBend, AVG has added or expanded four European distribution relationships, three of them this month. In March they engaged with CMS distribution, who have 3.000 resellers in the U.K. and Ireland, including the top 100 VARs in the UK. In May they added two new distributors on the European continent. One is ADN Distribution GmbH, whose focus is on Central Europe and on security, managed services and RMM solutions. The other is Infinigate, who have 7,500 resellers (2,500 in Germany) and who are deeply focused on IT security, including managed services and managed security solutions. In May, AVG also expanded their AVG Business EMEA footprint with ASBIS, whose focus is on emerging markets.
