Symantec launches Aspire program

Symantec has introduced an Aspire Rebate Program to help silver and registered partners boost SMB sales.

Director of enterprise partners, David Dzienciol, said partners could access an additional 5 per cent rebate on top of ordinary sales on eligible products. The range includes all of its windows protection solutions as well as the recently released Symantec End Point Protection 11.0.

"We launched this program in Europe and it has been extremely successful, so we took pieces of it and rolled into the Asia-Pacific," he said. "It is an online system that partners can go to and register. There is an agreed set quota with them and the margins start to kick in at above that agreed quota.

"It certainly focuses on the opportunity and the growth that we have been experiencing and continue to see in the SMB space, particularly in the windows protection space."

Partners will obtain a $500 sales bonus towards their quota if they register before the November 30 deadline. Dzienciol said partners that sell the Symantec End Point Protection 11.0 until the deadline will receive one-and-a-quarter times the value of the sale towards their quota. Symantec distributors that look after the windows protection solutions include Express Data and Ingram Micro.

Resellers that are not a part of the Symantec partner program were also able to participate, but had to sign up to become a registered partner first, Dzienciol said. He hoped to reach about 1000 partners in this space.

The Aspire program will run until the end of March 2008.