Role for channel in outlining new Norton support

Symantec insists its Middle East retail partners will profit from the availability of Arabic language support for Norton customers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia - even though the vendor is directly managing the service itself.

The security software firm recently enhanced its customer support for Norton users in those two countries by ensuring they now have an Arabic, as well as English, language option when calling a dedicated hotline for product assistance.

Although Symantec is handling the support internally, it claims there are sales benefits for partners. "This is a very big value add that our partners can communicate to end-customers across these two territories and it will definitely help them build up a stronger sales pitch," said Sanjiv Vij, head of consumer sales MENA at Symantec. "Also, this new USP puts Norton far ahead of our competitors in terms of dedicated local language end-user support."

Symantec says the retail channel doesn't have a role to play in delivering the support, but the company is relying on partners to raise awareness of the service. "At this stage, retail partners are required to act as a medium of communication to promote the visibility and usage of this new service," explained Vij. "We are also mentioning these support numbers on end-user manuals - placed inside retail boxes - in addition to highlighting them on our support webpage."

As well as the Arabic-language support, Symantec's Norton consumer division has attempted to broaden its appeal among customers by recently updating its product packaging.