With a goal of securing 10% of the New Zealand security market with its recently released eScan security offering, distributor Microbe NZ has started strongly with more than 60 New Zealand resellers signed on.

Indeed the company is looking for more resellers, “We want to grow the channel,” says Ivan Rasquinha, Microbe NZ Country Manager. “We are at 300 and we want to take it to 600 in the next year,” he says, noting that the company grew from five to 300 resellers in two years. So far Rasquinha says the company is happy with the channel interest in eScan, and that orders are already “in the pipeline” and some have already been made in the couple of weeks since its official New Zealand release on November 24.

Rasquinha says training is the next step in promoting the eScan, with technicians being flown in from India to do one-on-one training with resellers around the country. He also explained that he aims to drive market growth through marketing, with 75% aimed at the channel, and 25% at the end-user.

Syed Tahir Hassan, eScan Assistant Territory Manager – Oceania, says the release of eScan 10.0 offers new features for the security market.

“We’re trying to make our own niche,” he says. “We are projecting ourselves as an end-point security and content security software, not just an anti-virus software, and we are the only ones offering both of these products in one package.”

Specific new features of eScan 10.0 include USB control, which “gives the users control”, says Hassan.

This is complemented by the application control feature, which allows the IT manager to specifically block certain web applications and the asset management feature unique to the product.

Despite the recession, Hassan says eScan has grown 150% in the past year – proof the product is in demand.