News Feature | October 19, 2015

Resellers Don't Buy From Vendors They Don't Trust

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

Resellers Don’t Buy From Vendors They Don’t Trust

A study by leader in channel strategy and partner enablement, The 2112 Group reveals that when choosing an endpoint security software vendor, trustworthiness may rank higher than expected as a concern.

The 2112 Endpoint Protection Vendor Trustworthiness Report found that trustworthiness was “a leading indicator of brand and product marketability,” falling behind only product quality and performance.

The 2112 Group performed two, consecutive surveys and found that more than 25 percent of reseller respondents indicated that vendor trustworthiness was a top priority in choosing an endpoint security vendor — a trait that came in equal to partner support and just edged out perceived product resilience in preventing hacking and compromise. Lawrence M. Walsh, CEO and chief analyst of 2112, said, “Trustworthiness is a significant factor that influences partner decision-making, but the impact ebbs and flows with current events. We can see, though, that product quality and profitability are not enough to influence partner loyalty and marketability. Vendors with lower trust among partners also have lower loyalty and marketability ratings.”

The Survey

Participants represented resellers of 12 security vendors: Avast, AVG Technologies, BitDefender, ESET, FireEye, Intel Security (McAfee), Kaspersky Lab, Panda Security, Sophos, Symantec, Trend Micro, and Webroot. Some of the survey highlights include:

  • A significant number (25 percent) of resellers believe security software vendors have already engaged in hacking for competitive purposes and 75 percent believe their vendors either have or would hack or sabotage a competitor if it meant a chance at competitive gain.
  • No vendor was able to shirk the suspicion of competitive hacking.
  • Symantec and Intel Security win out for being perceived as the most marketable security brands.
  • Intel Security was found to have the most loyal partners.
  • Resellers believe that Kaspersky and Trend Micro provider the best opportunity for profit.

A copy of the full report can be downloaded here.