Symantec Aligns Channel Program to Partners' Customer Focus

Symantec Aligns Channel Program to Partners' Customer Focus

Plans New Benefits Including Enhanced Technical Support

SYDNEY - 11 May, 2004 -- Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC), the global leader in information security, today announced it is mapping partner categories to customer market segments to better align the program with partners' customer focus. This new structure will enable Symantec to provide market-specific tools and resources to help partners, such as value added resellers (VARs), increase their close rate and grow their Symantec business. In addition, Symantec is planning to enhance partner benefits and launch new ones including enhanced technical support and pre-release and beta programs.

"The Australian industry landscape is changing and VARs are now specialising in technologies and vertical markets, enabling them to become experts within a certain market segment and customer size," said John Donovan, Channels Director, Symantec Asia Pacific. "Over the past year our partners have told us they want market-specific products, solutions, and sales and marketing support. The new program structure together with new and enhanced benefits will enable partners to focus on their core customer base and help drive additional revenue and business opportunities."

Symantec's industry-leading channel partner program is part of the company's partner ecosystem and serves partners such as VARs, system integrators, and corporate resellers. With the new structure, channel partners will be categorised by the size of customer they sell to, rather than their technical ability and security knowledge. The categories include:

Enterprise Security Partners - These partners are VARs selling Symantec's security solutions to large enterprises. Partners in this category will have a dedicated security professional services organisation and have the ability to provide first line support. As security experts they are able to deploy and integrate multi-vendor security solutions, they are experienced in multiple operating systems, and have the ability to implement security pilots for customers during the pre-sales cycle. Enterprise Security Partners will have a minimum of two employees with Symantec technical certifications and two Symantec Sales Specialists on staff.
Enterprise Administration Partners - These partners are VARs selling Symantec's enterprise administration products to medium and large enterprises. Partners in this category will have a dedicated professional services organisation and the ability to provide first line support. As enterprise administration experts they are able to deploy and integrate multi-vendor solutions, they are experienced in multiple operating systems, and have the ability to implement pilots for customers during the pre-sales cycle. Enterprise Administration Partners will have a minimum of two employees with Symantec technical certifications and two Symantec Sales Specialists on staff.
Enterprise Solutions Partners - These partners are VARs selling Symantec's security solutions to medium and small enterprises. Partners in this category must be able to deploy and integrate multi-vendor security solutions, have experience in multiple operating systems, and have the ability to implement security pilots for customers during the pre-sales cycle. Enterprise Solutions Partners will have at least one employee with a Symantec technical certification and two Symantec Sales Specialists on staff.
Enterprise Sales Partners - These partners are named and managed corporate resellers and direct marketers who sell volume licenses to large and medium enterprises. Partners in this category provide licensing and software asset management to enterprise customers and have proven experience selling security software solutions.
Software Partners - These partners are security, systems management, and/or storage solutions resellers selling Symantec solutions to small businesses and consumers. Symantec continues to support Premier Software Partners, who are large retail, mass merchant and mail order resellers selling to small enterprises, with a comprehensive set of sales and marketing benefits.

The Symantec Channel Partner Program delivers a comprehensive set of benefits, including ongoing services and support and marketing and sales tools, to help partners secure and manage customers' infrastructures. Based on partner feedback from regional partner councils and partner satisfaction surveys, Symantec is planning to enhance technical support and introduce new benefits that help partners meet their customers' needs. New and enhanced benefits are planned to include:

Enhanced Technical Support - With most large enterprises running 24x7 operations and partners installing solutions after hours, around the clock support is necessary for Enterprise Security Partners and Enterprise Administration Partners. These partners will receive 24x7 implementation support along with their current support benefits, which include pre-sales support, priority queuing, and priority access to senior technicians.
Pre-Release Program - Designed to help partners gain traction in the market and get up to speed on new products, the Pre-Release Program will provide eligible partners access to new products prior to launch.
Beta Program - This program will enable partners to engage with Symantec at various levels of the product development cycle. Partners participating in the Beta Program will have the opportunity to provide technical feedback and evaluations on Symantec enterprise security solutions prior to their release.

"Symantec's Partner Program demonstrates its commitment to the channel and s sets an example for the industry in terms of support, partnership and benefits," said Ajoy Ghosh, Security Practice Manager, Volante, one of Symantec's Enterprise Security Partners. "With customers ranging from small to large enterprises and government agencies this partnership recognises our ongoing commitment to Symantec's entire suite of information security products."

For more information on the Symantec Partner Program visit www.symantecpartner.com.

About Symantec
Symantec is the global leader in information security providing a broad range of software, appliances and services designed to help individuals, small and mid-sized businesses, and large enterprises secure and manage their IT infrastructure. Symantec's Norton brand of products is the worldwide leader in consumer security and problem-solving solutions. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in more than 35 countries. More information is available at http://www.symantec.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including forecasts of future revenue, gross margin, operating profit, earnings per share and common stock equivalents, expected activities, and other financial and business results that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this press release. Such risk factors include, among others: the sustainability of recent growth rates, particularly in consumer products; whether certain market segments, particularly enterprise security, grow as anticipated; the positioning of Symantec's products in those segments; the competitive environment in the software industry; ability to integrate acquired companies and technology; general market conditions, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, changes to operating systems and product strategy by vendors of operating systems; and whether Symantec can successfully develop new products and the degree to which these gain market acceptance. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in the Risk Factors sections of Symantec's previously filed Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.