Company introduces a basic accreditation scheme for resellers that want to start selling its products without an initial upfront investment.

Stonesoft, a provider of integrated network security and business continuity solutions, today announced the launch of Tech-Start, a free, basic accreditation scheme for resellers that want to start selling its products without an initial upfront investment in technology and training.

The company states that Tech-Start is designed to offer resellers a risk-free stepping stone to its accreditation. At the core is a free induction session, run monthly, that condenses basic technical and business development training into a single day. It further states that armed with this knowledge, resellers can begin securing the sales from customers that would justify investing the money and time for full accreditation. The company adds that attending resellers will receive a certificate of recognition to highlight to customers that they have started the process towards full accreditation.

"Accreditation is a very important step for resellers who want to successfully sell into a tough market, such as the security space. But the initial upfront investment in training and technology means that it's also a stumbling block for resellers that want to test the water with a new product. We've designed Tech-Start to enable resellers to take on Stonesoft products with the minimum investment and only commit fully when they have the forecast revenue to do so," says Ash Patel, country manager UK & Ireland at Stonesoft.

Ash concludes, "In this economy, we've seen that customers are very willing to look outside of the dominant vendors for a solution that can deliver a better price to performance ratio. However, we recognise that, as a challenger vendor, we need to make it easier for resellers to bring our products into their portfolios and we believe that Tech-Start will help them do that."