Symantec Announces Subscription-Based Licensing Program

Security, storage and systems management specialist Symantec announced its ExSP Licensing Program, which offers Symantec partners the choice of buying the company's software in a monthly subscription-based model.

The program is designed to provide partners with greater flexibility in how they deliver solutions to their customers and to help those who sell Symantec-based services reduce their upfront costs and accelerate profitability. The Symantec ExSP Licensing Program is open to partners enrolled in Symantec's Partner Program who are qualified service providers, offering customers a combination of Symantec products with their own services.

Symantec had previously offered its ExSP program to large service provider partners since 2006. Understanding that many partners are finding opportunities in providing managed services to small and midsized business (SMB) customers, Symantec decided to enhance the existing program to extend its benefits to partners of all sizes. The enhanced program features a simplified, streamlined process aimed at making the program accessible to all segments of Symantec's partner community.

"Our partners are telling us that they're finding success in offering Symantec software bundled with their services to solve their customers' information protection challenges. By enhancing our ExSP licensing program to make it accessible to our broader partner base, Symantec is enabling partners of all sizes to accelerate profitability and reduce their upfront investments to support growth," said Randy Cochran, vice president of North America channel sales for Symantec. "With this subscription-based program, Symantec partners can license our solutions in a way that aligns to how they do business with their customers."

Cochran said the program provides participating partners with the opportunity for more predictable revenue and rewards growth, with partners able to reduce their capital expenses and accelerate profitability by paying for only the software they use and eliminate the need to buy future licenses in advance. The program is also designed to reward service partners for their growth by reducing licensing costs as their volume of business increases. The program has a low minimum licensing volume for qualified partners, helping enable partners large and small to take advantage of ExSP's program benefits.

"Many VARs see an opportunity in delivering managed services to address their customers' desires to trim their in-house technology infrastructure investments and cut administration costs. We expect the service provider market to continue its growth path in 2010 and beyond and project that 85 percent of solution providers will deliver managed services in some form this year," said Ryan Morris, practice director of education and consulting for channel research firm IPED. "Our research suggests that rather than move to a pure MSP approach, most VARs will be adding managed offerings to their existing models."