F-Secure gives Vars key to buying direct

Move reflects tough price competition in the antivirus market

Antivirus vendor F-Secure will bypass distributors and give resellers the option of buying direct.

Jason Hollaway, UK country manager at F-Secure, which launched its first partner programme only two months ago, said: "We want to give resellers more direct support so they can focus on our products.

"Distributors add some value that some partners need. We have worked alongside distributors for a few years and will continue to do so."

F-Secure's distributors Allasso and Unipalm, both admitted that F-Secure was not their main focus.

Bernie Dodwell, sales and marketing director at Allasso, said the F-Secure products were good but that the move reflected the tough price competition in the antivirus market.

"F-Secure is up against companies such as Symantec, Network Associates and Trend Micro in this market and there is a lot of margin pressure," he said.

"How will it encourage distributors to grow their accounts if they could just lose the business to resellers buying direct from F-Secure?"