Buoyed by its acquisition of Norman AV last November, AVG is now looking to expand its presence in the UK and Europe. Comms Dealer sister publication IT Europa caught up with Francois Daumard, VP of Global Channel Sales, during its UK roadshow last week.
"The UK is a strategic market and not just because of its size," he said. "The Chinese market is bigger but we have no plans to go into China. It is because we have been historically very successful in the UK. The UK is probably the market in which we have been most successful with our anti-virus and Internet security products so we now have an expanding portfolio of products including Managed Workplace and Secure Sign-On."
As the recent roadshow evidences AVG is also in the process of adding further capabilities through partnerships with other companies.
"AVG Business is all about ecosystems and partnership. AVG Business is local and it's all about the channel; we want the channel to understand that we are full line security company." he added. "We acquired Norman AV in November 2014 and, eight months later, I couldn't be happier about the success of the integration." And he claims it is 'real integration' of 'people, culture and systems' and that no-one from the former Norman team has left the company. "The Norman acquisition fixed the geographical gap we had between France and the Czech Republic where AVG was born."
AVG launched Managed Workplace in Germany, Sweden and in the Nordics in April and May and Daumard claims it has been 'a phenomenal success', although the company declined to provide any numbers. "We think we have first-mover advantage in the Nordics. The market is less crowded than the US and, to a lesser extent the UK, and in terms of new partners we are exceeding our highest expectations," he said.
"Since then we have grown the team in Germany in the UK and in the Nordics. The Nordics market is clearly less crowded and what we also have is an advantage from the Norman acquisition with local people speaking in local Nordic languages. In Germany and in Switzerland the competition is more visible and there we focus on the wider capabilities of AVG - as more than just a security company."
With a background in the mobile market, Daumard thought that market was hot and is surprised to find the security market even hotter: "in security there is no need to educate the market and engage in demand generation - the newspapers do that for you every morning," citing the much publicised recent hacking of the adult matchmaking site Ashley Madison as a recent example.
He claims that AVG has an advantage in awareness over other security companies: "AVG has a great asset in its 202 million users. If you consider that there are 1 billion PCs in the world, statistically speaking, one in five PC users in the world uses AVG.
"The launch of the AVG Business brand was pivotal to us - this is the transition we want to make. The AVG Business has its own set of products and it is entirely a channel business."
Asked what the target markets were for future growth in terms of future growth. "There is the other half of Europe - particularly France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
"Here we have at a historic presence. In France we have our own office and people. In Spain and Portugal we have historic AVG distributors. We are reengaging with them and putting new people in place to reinvigorate the relationships. It can be a curse and asset to have historical relationships.
"They are loyal they know the business but we need to help them evolve to promote the wider portfolio."