Channel shift aimed at consolidating GFI’s presence in the Benelux countries

London, U.K. – 1 September 2008 – Building on the existing small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) channel strategy responsible for amassing thousands of global partners and more than 120,000 customers worldwide, GFI announced today several changes to its Partner Program in Belgium to be rolled out in the coming weeks.  The program will further help GFI to increase its reach in the Benelux region while benefiting from the local expertise of its partners there.

Full Shift to Channel by Q4 2008
Together with Cherub and Portland, the main distributors in the Belgium, GFI is committed to a full channel shift by Q4 2008, further emphasizing GFI’s support for its resellers within the region. In addition, GFI will provide sales and technical content to qualifying partners through the GFI reseller Website, while training for technical certification will be available from September 2008.

Better Channel sales margins eliminate competition between Partner categories
To lay the foundation for the new enhancements, GFI has improved and segmented the sales margins to differentiate between the pricing strategies used by its value added reseller (VAR) and direct market reseller (DMR) partners, reducing price competition between these two partnership categories. Aiding the facilitation of improved margins, VARs can now qualify for GFI’s Gold, Silver and Bronze partnership levels, which are based on revenue attainment, sales and technical competencies, and local presence. The DMR partners will qualify for product rebates and marketing development funds based on achieving annual performance goals.

Improving the Partner’s ability to solve IT challenges
All partners, Gold, Silver and Bronze, are eligible for solution sales techniques training, product certification, free software evaluation, electronic sales collateral and the monthly GFI Reseller eNewsletter. In addition, partners qualifying at the Gold and Silver tiers receive added benefits such as technical certification, channel account management and qualified leads.

“There are a number of reasons for this channel shift in Belgium,” said Adam Bazezely, Director of Sales EMEA.  “First we want to benefit from the local expertise both in terms of the languages of the region and, more importantly, the market knowledge that these two distributors have. Second, we believe Cherub and Portland will help us extend our market reach as well as encourage resellers to join our Partner program. Finally, this is an excellent opportunity to revisit our presence in the region and boost business for ourselves and our partners.”

For more information about GFI’s Global Partner Program, visit http://www.gfi.com/pages/reseller.htm.