RALEIGH, N.C., 24 October, 2006 – GFI Software, an international leader and developer of network security, content security and messaging software, today announced the availability of its new online training modules and the GFI Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Portal. GFI has now added new technical and sales training modules for its suite of nine applications for all partner levels and several new sales tools for Gold and Silver partners.
“GFI is providing training and tools equal to those from the largest vendors,” said Kurt Shaver, Vice President and General Manager of the Americas Operations of GFI. “The training will help partners cross-sell more GFI products, while the portal will help streamline the sales process through the channel, ensuring strong support for our partners.”
Now, all GFI value added resellers (VARs) have access to the GFI technical and sales training modules. The nine technical training modules educate VAR partners on the technical components of each product, provide an understanding of the installation process and demonstrate how to configure the products for optimum performance. Each module contains a comprehensive test that must be passed before achieving GFI technical certification. The three sales training modules provide interactive tutorials, real-world selling scenarios and questions designed to help uncover business processes and IT pain points. By completing the sales modules, VAR partners will fulfill the sales certification requirements and be better prepared to answer the questions that their customers ask on a regular basis.
In addition to the training and sales modules, GFI is implementing a phased roll out of its PRM portal to select GFI Gold and Silver VARs. These partners will have a central location for GFI product and sales training, plus several sales tools, which include a maintenance renewal database, a lead management and deal registration database, a certification tracking tool and a marketing campaign effectiveness application. These tools will provide partners with contract renewal periods, automatic and regular sales leads and a direct conduit to register sales in progress, ensuring the highest available sales margins, and continuous progress of engineering staff toward full GFI certification. The sum of outcomes from the portal tools provides Gold and Silver VARs the ability to measure the effectiveness of sales campaigns.
"As a reseller offering software applications from a number of technology vendors to the enterprise and SMB markets, we are continually impressed with the high level of training and support we've received from GFI," said Chuck Carlos, CEO of Caspian Technologies. "They offer enterprise-like support for their partners working with the SMB market."
“The GFI Partner Portal is 100 percent customizable, branded and fully integrated with Salesforce.com, the world’s leading web-based customer relationship management provider.” Salesforce.com’s director of PRM solutions, Elay Cohen added, “We’re proud to have GFI join our community and we expect high levels of partner adoption and channel success with Salesforce PRM.”
Access to GFI’s Partner Portal will be extended to all top-performing VAR partners in early 2007. For more information about GFI’s Global Partner Program, visit http://www.gfi.com.
About GFI
GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. With award-winning technology, an aggressive pricing strategy and a strong focus on small-to-medium sized businesses, GFI is able to satisfy the need for business continuity and productivity encountered by organizations on a global scale. GFI has offices in the US, Malta, UK, Hong Kong and Australia which support more than 200,000 installations worldwide. GFI is a channel-focused company with over 10,000 partners worldwide. GFI is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. More information about GFI can be found at http://www.gfi.com.