Trend appoints Soft Solutions as MSP distributor

Trend Micro has appointed Soft Solutions as a managed service provider (MSP) distributor of its small to medium business security solutions.

Under the agreement, Soft Solutions will distribute Trend Micro's MSP product portfolio, ranging from the leading Worry-Free Business Security solution to the Deep Security 9 data center solutions.

"The main drive behind the new MSP programme is the number of resellers who tell us they would prefer a monthly billing model," said Aaron Bhashkar, Business Development manager, Soft Solutions.

"End users are also recognising the benefits, saying they need a monthly fixed cost for services and software and licensing, and are also attracted to the removal of large upfront costs."

Bhashkar said Soft Solutions' resellers will be able to sign in to the licensing management portfolio and provision licenses for themselves and their customers, offering the capability for monthly billing as required.

"Soft Solutions and Trend Micro enjoy the ideal partnership," he says.

"Soft Solutions is the leader in value added distribution, while Trend Micro is now the global leader in security in physical and virtual cloud environments."

Adding to Bhaskar's comments, Steve Carline, Country Manager, Trend Micro NZ, said: "Trend Micro has partnered with Soft Solutions for the last 15 years and this MSP initiative is a natural evolution that will help meet the growing needs of the managed services market.

"Increasingly, customers want to manage everything from the cloud or from one interface, which is what we can deliver with Worry-Free solutions."

Claiming MSP to be a "reality in New Zealand", Bhashkar added that MSP is "here, it's deliverable, and we can do it easily."

"A key factor is understanding customer requirements and tailoring the MSP solution," he added.

MSP plans

The Soft Solutions/Trend Micro MSP programme will kick off with advertising, webinars, and a telemarketing campaign, with future plans including sales and technical enablement.

While the initial focus is on the SMB sector, there will be scope for targeting the enterprise segment with the introduction of Trend Micro's Deep Security 9 cloud security solution.

"Deep Security's multi-tenant architecture and the MSP pricing model from Soft Solutions will enable partners to host customers in their data centers, providing the capability to separate each of the customers in the actual environment," Carline said.