Frost & Sullivan presents F-Secure with the 2007 Global
Award for distribution strategy leadership in the anti-malware
products market. Given the maturity of the market and the high
degree of competition, distribution is a key area that determines
growth.
“Having identified upcoming distribution channels several years
ago, F-Secure has built strong channel relationships and
sustainable distribution business models,” notes Frost &
Sullivan Industry Analyst Katie Gotzen. “The company continues to
strengthen its distribution strategy consistently and has thus
gained a significant competitive advantage in this area.”
The year 2006 saw the acceleration of a new distribution trend
for security software sales. Internet service providers (ISPs) are
becoming the next distribution battleground for vendors. While this
distribution channel has long been a secondary focus for many
market participants, F-Secure has been implementing best practices
in its relationships with ISPs since the late nineties.
In 1999, the company signed its first Security as a Service
partnership. Moreover, it launched a subsidiary known as F-Secure
Online Solutions (F-SOS) in 2000, which was focused on delivering
security services through ISPs. The F-SOS operations were
integrated into F-Secure in 2002 to gain synergy benefits.
“As a result of this early focus on the service provider market,
F-Secure has a lead in a market which is now becoming a key
distribution battlefield,” says Gotzen. “Currently, the company has
partnerships with almost 150 ISPs, including such international
names as France Telecom, TeliaSonera, Charter Communications
in the USA, PCCW in Hong Kong, Optus in Australia, SingNet in
Singapore and VSNL in India, and also with leading mobile
operators, such as Swisscom, Orange UK and T-Mobile.”
F-Secure has successfully adapted its processes and business
model in order to integrate them with service providers’ business
models. The company has also built up expertise in service
providers’ billing systems.
“The company provides integration with service providers’
monthly billing models,” remarks Gotzen. “This flexibility
distinguishes its business model from the standard anti-malware
vendor practice of selling licenses on a yearly basis.”
The company dedicates a number of specific channel marketing
activities to the service provider segment. Its annual service
provider event attracts worldwide participants. It is also engaged
in joint marketing activities with service providers and the “SPA”-
website is an example of this.
“In addition to having an attractive business model for service
providers, F-Secure’s product portfolio also provides an edge for
telecom operators,” states Gotzen. “The company has been a pioneer
for instance in the mobile security market and continues to remain
at the forefront.”
F-Secure was the first vendor to launch a commercially available
solution for protecting Symbian OS smartphones in 2004. The company
has since refined its technology and extended its protection to
Windows Mobile 5.0 in October 2005. It also released ‘Mobile
Security’, which has a mobile firewall and antivirus protection for
the users of the world’s most popular mobile computing platform,
Symbian S60 3rd Edition. This product line will be extended to
Windows over the course of 2007.
The Frost & Sullivan Award for Distribution Strategy
Leadership is presented each year to the company that has
demonstrated superior practices in distribution strategy within the
industry.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognise companies
in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating
outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as
leadership, technological innovation, customer service and
strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market
participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews,
analysis and extensive secondary research in order to identify best
practices in the industry.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has
been partnering with clients to support the development of
innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's
industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership
services and corporate management training to identify and develop
opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele
that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies and the
investment community, by providing comprehensive industry coverage
that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing
analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics and demographics.
For more information, visit
www.awards.frost.com
About F-Secure Corporation
F-Secure Corporation protects consumers and businesses
against computer viruses and other threats from the Internet and
mobile networks. We want to be the most reliable provider of
security services in the market. One way to demonstrate this is the
speed of our response. According to independent studies in 2004,
2005 and 2006 our response time to new threats is significantly
faster than our major competitors. Our award-winning solutions are
available for workstations, gateways, servers and mobile phones.
They include antivirus and desktop firewall with intrusion
prevention, antispam and antispyware solutions. Founded in
1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since
1999, and has been consistently growing faster than all its
publicly listed competitors. F-Secure headquarters are in Helsinki,
Finland, and we have regional offices around the world. F-Secure
protection is also available as a service through major ISPs, such
as France Telecom, TeliaSonera, PCCW and Charter
Communications. F-Secure is the global market leader in mobile
phone protection provided through mobile operators, such as
T-Mobile and Swisscom and mobile handset manufacturers such as
Nokia. The latest real-time virus threat scenario news are
available at the F-Secure Data Security Lab weblog at
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/
For further information, please contact:
Frost & Sullivan
Sandra Holze, Promotions Co-ordinator, Best Practices
T: +44 20 7915 7866,
sandra.holze@frost.com
F-Secure Corporation
Jaana Sirkiä, Communications Manager
T: +358 400 303096,
firstname.lastname@f-secure.com
