Trend Micro Names New Channel Leader, Partners Hopeful

Channel partners are eager to breathe life into Trend Micro business now that the company has brought on a new channel chief, Stephen Mungall.

Mungall, named vice president of U .S. channel sales Wednesday, will be responsible for executing channel strategy in both the enterprise and small business for the Tokyo-based company, including managing partnerships and achieving growth goals.

Mungall said that one of his highest priorities is to establish better communication with the partner base, adding that over the next one to three months he plans to have more face time with the channel community and elicit feedback on areas of improvement.

"Communication is one that I'll definitely work on," he said. "We've had some brief discussions and gotten feedback on how we may be able to partner stronger going forward."

Other areas he plans to address include finding new ways to incent partners, as well as beefing up education programs and support, he said.

Mungall comes to Trend Micro after serving as vice president of channel sales at Lenovo. Prior to that, he was vice president of channel sales at IBM until the company sold its PC group to Lenovo. During his time at IBM, Mungall led an initiative that combined the inside and outside channel organizations into a teaming model.

Mungall's appointment at Trend Micro fills a channel vacuum created by the departure of former channel chief Cody Leser in the fall, who left after just one year with the company. Trend Micro executives were vague on the details surrounding his exit but said that Leser's leaving was a "mutual decision."

The role of channel chief has been filled for the past eight months by Tom Miller, executive vice president of U.S. sales and marketing.

"We are really in this transformative phase," Miller said. 'The CEO thought it would be a good move to put me in the sales leadership role and then draft the strategy."

Meanwhile, partners say that they're a little more optimistic following Trend Micro's protracted stint without permanent channel leadership.

Channel partners contend that the new chief will help the No. 3 security company gain traction in the channel and acquire a competitive edge in the market against security giants Symantec and McAfee.

"I think [a competitive edge is] something that they've been lacking," said Bob Venero, president and CEO of Future Tech Enterprise, a Holbrook, N.Y.-based VAR. "I will tell you, they've always been the second choice. I think that the way to get to the first choice is to have the channel be driving that for you -- if you have a very strong channel leader who understands the channel and can take that to the next level."

NEXT: More Positive Signs

Other solution providers say that the addition of a new channel chief is in line with an upward trend of positive changes.

Ken Phelan, CTO of Montville, N.J.-based Gotham Technology Group, said that Trend Micro has been proactively reaching out to his company while making other positive changes in its virtual desktop product line.

"The fact that they're reaching out to us is huge," Phelan said. "We're hearing the right things. I've seen some good things. I've seen some good people hired in the channel arena and we've seen some good programs."

"I just don’t see changes at the top. I see a change throughout the organization,’ he added.

Phelan said that the recent moves could serve to reinvigorate Gotham's relationship with Trend Micro, which had waned with the absence of a channel chief, among other reasons.

"Trend had really become something we were doing opportunistically, rather than proactively, to the market," Phelan said. "We had some traditional Trend business, and we were kind of nursing that along. But it wasn’t worth going out and beating the drum over it."

That sentiment was echoed by Venero, who said that Trend's eight-month stint without a channel chief served to destabilize the channel and create doubt and credibility issues within the partner community.

"It puts the VARs in the position to say, 'What's their direction? Where do they sit from a channel perspective and what's their dedication?' for eight months, which is a long time not to have that focus," Venero said, adding Trend Micro was almost saying, "Yeah, we're committed to the channel, but we really have nobody to help us with that vision."

Going forward, Venero said he hoped to see a stronger education process, stronger registration and partner protection systems and a fair value differentiation discussion with the partners about the "behemoths that are out there today."

"I think that's what's going to help resonate with partners and grow the channel for Trend."