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Tumbleweed blows across channel

Email security firm wants to 'go deeper and wider'

Messaging security vendor Tumbleweed recently adopted a new indirect global market strategy but reckons direct sales will continue to grow.

The firm, which has traditionally stuck to the direct business model and a customer base primarily made up of government, banking, finance and healthcare organisations, said it hoped to push up market share by partnering with resellers, system integrators and infrastructure folk.

Tumbleweed EMEA managing director Craig Whitney, who joined the vendor in May this year, told The Register that the firm had previously "concentrated on the security elite and we've done extremely well there.

"What we see now is a huge opportunity to go deeper and wider in different vertical markets or even market sectors such as the mid-tier and SMB space. In order to do that we need to really embrace the channel."

He said that up to now Tumbleweed, which was founded in 1993 and is NASDAQ-listed, had not been particularly well known within the channel. However, he reckoned that the firm has had a very positive response from potential partners following the launch of its new channel Alliance Programme last month.

Asked if part of its new channel strategy could be seen as a face-saving operation within the squeezed European direct market place, Whitney said:

"There's still a heck of a lot of growth that we see in the direct market, but the growth potential is probably a lot greater in terms of going to other markets where we haven't played before."

When Tumbleweed posted its preliminary Q2 results in July this year, it admitted that revenue had fallen short of expectations.

The firm hopes to bring around 30 European partners on board by the end of this year. ®

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