Dealer Discussion: What security products and services do you provide and why?

This month, Tech for Techs asks its retailer, reseller and tech services members about the security products they provide to customers.

MARK, COMPLETE TECH

“We provide Panda for AV with mail filtering for on prem email, Ubiquiti for WiFi, Draytek for routers, Grandstream for on prem pbx or yealink for hosted, Dahua or avigilon for CCTV, and Brother printers. We only deal with businesses – no retail/home user, and we try to stick to these brands, as it can be a pain relearning and supporting too many items.”

JENNI GRIFFITHS, CHIPS COMPUTERS

“I provide my customers with BullGuard Internet Security because it works and my customers find it user friendly. In the shop I like Malwarebytes to clean up machines with. There are not as many viruses these days as malware it seems.”

STEVEN BURROWS, PYRAMID IT

“Anti virus is Bitdefender Gravity Zone or ESET if they don’t want to pay monthly. Bitdefender was at the top or near the top of independent tests and ESET is nice and simple to use for non-managed clients. Spam filtering is VADE, Barracuda or everycloudtech. Vade is easy to set up if you can’t alter the MX records and I like Barracuda for when I can. I still have some clients on everycloudtech but their control panel was not the easiest to use. Firewall is Barracuda – easy monthly fee with no upfront costs. Cyber awareness training is Knowbe4, as humans can be the weakest link. They offer weekly tests as well as training material to increase their knowledge and lower your risk.”

NATHAN WARD, SPA IT SERVICES

“We Provide Bitdefender Endpoint Security to all customers, be it a home user or business, as it provides one of the best results we have come across from the 11 years of trading. With an easy management console and simple deployment, it has been a pleasure to sell this product. It provides a strong firewall stopping not just viruses but also most spyware and malware. Heimdal Web Protection is what we use as either a tag on to Bitdefender for home users or an auto included piece of software for our business clients, stopping all pop ups or restricting you access to web pages with malicious content. We also provide PFsense Units around the UK and even to places in Western Europe.”

NIGEL PERRY, CADISHEAD COMPUTERS

“Another vote for Bitdefender Gravity Zone. It’s an easy upsell to the majority of clients once you explain to the client. It’s a case of setup and leave it for the client. Let us take the hard work out of their virus issues on their behalf.”

MITCH WESTBROOK, WESTBROOKS COMPUTER SERVICES

“For businesses’ device protection, we generally promote Symantec. The brand is well established and this lends it credibility. For home users, we are phasing out Comodo because it is completely unknown and, therefore, hard to ask money for, and we are currently promoting BullGuard, which has proven to be very popular this year. For CCTV we only supply Hikvision, but we install anything the customer has purchased.”

DANIEL POTTER, GATEACRE COMPUTERS

“In regards to internet security, we offer BullGuard free of charge with any repair we carry out. This is mainly to ensure our customers computers leave us with a robust security package installed. In regards to CCTV, depending on the customers requirements, we usually install Hikvision systems. For home users who need only a couple of cameras we sometimes install a Ring doorbell at the front and stick-up camera at the rear of the property. One of my customers actually uses the Ring camera to talk to his dog whilst at work.”

RICH FORTH, PHASE 4 COMPUTERS

“For our home users we provide F-Secure, it’s simple no nonsense AV that does the job. We’ve also started with Malwarebytes and using their fabulous Techbench (total life saver when removing viruses and other malware). Very recently we’ve started installing Uniview CCTV systems (running one in the shop) and very happy with the quality and ease of install!”

RICHARD OVERFIELD, RL SUPPLIES LTD

“We have been a reseller of BullGuard Internet Security for many years. Always found it to be a reliable solution which customers find easy to install and use. The end user support from BullGuard is great (especially the live chat), and the reseller program means an ongoing revenue stream from the original sale. The reseller portal gives regular updates of revenue earnt, as well as potential revenue share based on sales. In terms of workshop tools we use Malwarebytes, Fabs and Paragon more than anything else.”

PHILIP GRIFFITHS, TECH FOR TECHS & CHIPS COMPUTERS

“There are so many security products to offer on the market, and sometimes there is little between them. What I would recommend with any product is they you try the product out first and even trial it out before you start selling it. Always check to see if you are able to get hold of support or some form of rep easily, one of the main reasons we use BullGuard Internet Security in our retail store is that if we do have any issues we can easily get hold of live chat or even call someone who deals with resellers directly. On top of this, the product is easy to use and you get a 25% revenue share if the customer renews the product online for life. For customers we have on maintenance contracts we use Webroot or Bitdefender as they teams up with our RMM software. One thing that a lot of people forget with security is it’s not just about having a firewall and anti-virus, it’s also about having backups available in case something does go wrong, nothing is 100% secure. Even if you provide things like CCTV you have to make sure that the customer knows that nothing is 100%. We have seen a lot of cases where people can disable Wi-Fi CCTV systems with items that basically block the signal, so you need to make sure these cameras have some form of onsite backup like a built in SD card. If you are a computer tech you need to make sure you have proper tools to remove virus/malware. One tool that we have found that is very good at what it does is Malwarebytes TestBench, its able to remove problems as well as pickup other problems the system may be having as well like services not running and problems with the HDD/SSD.”

This article is part of PCR’s Security Sector Spotlight – in association with 

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