Kaspersky Expands Channel Program to Public Sector Accounts

Written by DH Kass 1
April 15, 2013

Kaspersky Lab has extended its channel partner program to cover public sector accounts and named a new director of sales to head the effort.

Kaspersky Lab has extended its channel partner program to cover public sector accounts, including state and local government agencies and educational institutions (SLED), and named a new director of sales to head the effort.

In the last year, the security vendor has achieved some 25 percent growth in its public sector business, prompting it to formalize a unit to meet the demand. The new group is headed by Jeff Gaffny, Kaspersky SLED Sales director, who joined the company three months ago and will report to Matt Goulet, Kaspersky SME Sales vice president. All of Kaspersky’s public sector business with run through channel partners, the vendor said.

“The public sector faces different challenges than the private sector—from a smaller staff to constant downward pressure on IT budgets,” said Goulet. “The launch of our new SLED division shows our commitment to addressing those challenges and to ensuring public sector customers have a customized experience and solution. With Jeff at the helm of the team, we are confident that Kaspersky Lab will bring even more value to the public sector in 2013 and beyond.”

The SLED unit will rely on Gaffny’s decade of experience in selling network security solutions to the public sector and his knowledge of how best to address the sector’s unique security needs, Kaspersky said. Gaffny’s background includes a one-year stint as sales director at Awareness and an eight-year tenure as regional sales manager at Sophos, where in 2004 he compiled the security firm’s public sector team. Kaspersky also has hired an undisclosed number of new sales reps to work exclusively with public sector accounts on renewals, and pre- and post-sales assistance, and to apply special discounted pricing the vendor is offering to the segment.

The company said that its recently released Endpoint Security for Business, aimed at helping organizations to operate and manage a secure, efficient network, is suitable for public sector organizations faced with security issues of a disparate network.