Overshadowed by the massive HP separation was the Symantec/Veritas split.
While some portion of the market waited to see what this particular company would do internally Sean Forkan made moves that saw his role shift away from Symantec to become the new vice president of Veritas in the central U.S. region and Canada.
In this new role, Forkan became responsible for sales less than six months from when the official separation was to take place (Feb. 1, 2016). The Symantec side would still focus on security led by its flagship product Norton, while Veritas core would be information management.
After this internal restructuring of resources the news hit that Symantec parlayed Veritas into an $8 billion win fall by selling it to private equity firm The Carlyle Group.
But to Forkan’s credit the ship kept on sailing as Veritas clarified its approach to the channel by posting indirect sales targets (78 per cent growth) and its transition plan ahead of the actual separation date. With that Veritas did not leave channel partners in the lurch.
The company also switched from volume-based rewards to value-based rewards system and introduced a new buy-in program, a new ways of licensing, reduced the amount of skus by 17 per cent, and brought in a single price list as opposed to multiple ones.
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