Consumers are different from small-business customers. We needed to do a much better job of making it clear what we have and the opportunity for our channel partners.

It's very important to partners that we bring this out slowly. We've been tracking and measuring partners predominantly on volume, which doesn't recognize our smaller partners.

Launching the new partner program less than one year after one of the largest software mergers in history is a testament to Symantec's commitment to its partners and our unswerving focus on delivering both the programs and infrastructure to help ensure our mutual success in the market. Our partners are a valuable part of our company, and they are key to delivering value to customers. This first phase of the new partner program will provide partners with a simple, complete framework for doing business with Symantec.

As a channel-oriented company, Symantec places a high priority on partner feedback.

The reason that we believe this is a really important program is it helps us proactively avoid channel conflict, particularly between partners that might be competing in deals and on occasions when Symantec and a partner are competing for the same deal. By registering the deal, we know who got there first.

It's only for those partners who are authorized to sell our enterprise-type products, so this isn't really for the lower-end Windows-based anti-virus and backup type products.