San Gwann, 25 September, 2008 – One hundred top partners of Malta-based GFI gathered in Frankfurt, Germany this month for GFI’s 3rd annual GFI EMEA Partner Conference.

Organized by the Malta office, this annual event is an excellent opportunity for GFI’s partners in the EMEA region, including Malta, and in Emerging Markets, to spend two days with GFI’s top executives to discuss and learn more about GFI’s strategy, market positioning and product roadmap.

It is also an occasion for GFI’s sales and technical teams to meet with partners in an informal setting and discuss issues of relevance to both parties such as pricing strategies, sales techniques and technical training. The goal is to provide them with a firm grounding in the present GFI product range, to enable them to provide technical support to clients and to offer a better customer service.

The highlight of the event was the presentation of awards to the top performing distributors and resellers in EMEA and for the first time those from Emerging Markets. Awards are presented on the basis of sales volumes, best sales and marketing initiatives, best technical support, among others. The 13 awards were presented to the winning partners by the Executive Chairman of the Board at GFI, Paul Sallaberry.

This year’s winners are:

EMEA
No. 1 EMEA Distributor: ADN
No. 2 EMEA Distributor: Infinigate DE
No. 1 EMEA Distributor Network Security Products: ADN
Fastest growing EMEA Distributor: Computerlinks Spa
No. 1 EMEA Distributor % New Business: Sintel SRL
No. 2 EMEA Distributor % New Business: Infinigate DE

Emerging Markets
No. 1 Emerging Markets VAD: PBcom
No. 2 Emerging Markets VAD: Computerlinks
No. 3 Emerging Markets VAD: AfricaSD
Best Emerging Markets VAD Marketing campaign: Romsym
Best Emerging Markets New VAD: Messagenet
Best Emerging Markets Technical Champion: PBcom
Best Emerging Markets Sales Manager: Computerlinks ME

Commenting after the conference, GFI’s Director of Marketing Stephen Chetcuti Bonavita said this annual event provides GFI and the companies that distribute and sell the software with a forum to discuss issues, problems and to learn about future security trends and sales opportunities.

“This is our third EMEA partner conference and the feedback we have received is extremely positive and encouraging. GFI’s to-market strategy in EMEA and Emerging Markets is based on a hard-working network of distributors and resellers so this event allows us to meet them in a more informal setting and it gives them the opportunity to meet and get to know one another better and to share ideas. It also provides important feedback for current and future campaigns organized by GFI’s marketing team in Malta,” Mr. Chetcuti Bonavita said.

The conference was held at the Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt.