"I heard that statement and I don't think it's fair to characterize distributors as the bottleneck," Myers said. "We are the ones that allow business to be done efficiently and predictably on a real-time basis. We have an awful lot to do with the delivery of that value to channel partners. And customers would much rather be engaged with distributors that carry all vendors because it makes doing business easier."
In response to Salem's statement, Parrish says his words were twisted around and were misunderstood by those that heard and read it.
"Keep in mind, (Salem) was in a financial analyst meeting to help analysts understand where we have efficiencies in our go-to-market model," Parrish said. "The spirit of what he's saying isn't entirely wrong either. Another way of saying what he said but in different words is getting distributors to know that we need them to add more value in the low-end and mid-market business areas."
Parrish said Symantec has always been a channel-led company and always will be. The company relies on its partners, which Parrish said are critical in helping Symantec reach into all areas of the world.
"Distributors can add a huge amount of value with the pre-order sales process," Parrish said. "I think that's what (Salem) was trying to say. We're working very hard to help our partners understand what our strategy is. We require our partners in our robust partner ecosystem to help us serve these markets."