Priority 1 Solutions signs with Tumbleweed

US-based messaging security vendor, Tumbleweed, has signed a reseller agreement with Priority 1 Solutions and is on the verge of signing on a Melbourne reseller, as it moves to widen its Australian presence.

Priority 1 in Brisbane joins three resellers in Sydney and one in Canberra as Tumbleweed’s current reseller base.

The vendor sees plenty more potential in the Australian market after only expanding outside of the US two years ago, said Stree Naidu, regional vice president APAC and Japan.

“We’ve underestimated [Australia’s] need for technology. APAC is a tremendous market [and] we are now taking the steps to make sure we manage it,” he said. “This year we went in the channel and educated them, next year is a whole new ball game.”

The vendor hopes to advance its partner relationships by consolidating its products and to make it easier for partners to sell.

“Historically, we needed a top engineer to pick up the product, our ability to become a channel directory was hurt, our goal [now] is to make it easy for them,” he said. “Tumbleweed understands that resellers want to make money and we make sure they are adequately rewarded.”

As it stands, Tumbleweed has three products: MailGate SecureTransport, and Validation Authority Secure transactions with identity validation.

According to Marc Jolly managing director at Priority 1 Solutions, they [Tumbleweed] are in the right place at the right time. “I’ve been aware of their products for years, it’s just that their profile in Australia was not very high.”

“You hear about the technology via user groups offshore, you think how do you get it into Australia? A lot of times you have to deal with it directly and it’s painful,” said Jolly.