Jon-Marc Wilkinson, WatchGuard Technologies Director of Sales, UK and Ireland, and Tony Price, Director of Solutions at WatchGuard distribution partner Northamber, outline the benefits of partnering with WatchGuard recruitment drive. We are interested in working not just with traditional cybersecurity partners, but also other technology providers that may be looking to add cybersecurity into their stack to generate additional revenues and good margins. We are already seeing a lot of success in recruiting telco partners and expect to attract interest in other areas where margins have been eroding in recent years. One of the things we have found is that potential partners are really attracted to our WatchGuardONE partner programme. That’s a key lever for us in recruiting net new partners. Which aspects of the WatchGuard One programme do new partners find most attractive? Jon-Marc Wilkinson: The first, and perhaps most important point, is that WatchGuardONE is value-based, not volume-based like other programmes where you have to sell a certain amount in order to become a Gold partner, say. Selling is important obviously, but we feel it’s more important to be technically trained and technically certified on the product, especially in the mid-market where partners have an important role as trusted advisors to end user customers. With WatchGuard, it’s a case of ‘the more you learn, the more you earn’. That’s one point. The other thing that should never be forgotten is that our partner programme is 100% channel, 100% of the time. We do have a direct sales team, but we do not take any deals direct; everything goes through the channel. In fact, one of the big benefits of becoming part of WatchGuardONE is that it gives you access to a complete toolbox to help drive business, including direct access to our account teams, whether that be channel account managers, who can advise you on the different elements of the partner programme and help you get certified, or our direct sales teams who help sell into your customers. As part of this toolbox, we also provide a portal where partners can access masses of information including data sheets and integration guides to help partners integrate WatchGuard solutions with their customers’ existing third party products. How do you help resellers that might previously have been selling a competitor’s products manage the transition to WatchGuard? Jon-Marc Wilkinson: Clearly, many potential partners already work with other vendors and will have certifications and accreditations with them. To ease their transition to WatchGuard, we have something we call Status Match, where we will match The lack of unified security is a top reason why organizations fall victim to cyber attacks, as threat actors are able to exploit the gaps in defences. The lack of a unified security solution also impacts partners’ bottom line as they lose productivity and efficiency when they switch between multiple product interfaces to manage security for a single client. WatchGuard’s mission is all about helping partners elevate, modernize and expand their security delivery by delivering a scalable, unified security platform that is key to helping them on that journey. Today, partners can manage all WatchGuard security solutions, from the network to the endpoint, through one cloud-driven management console, WatchGuard Cloud, giving them greater visibility and control, improved reporting, savings on infrastructure costs and more efficient operations through the automation of security and account management tasks. For managed service providers (MSPs), the platform’s true multi-tier, multi-tenant capabilities make it possible to create and manage an unlimited number of customer accounts and accelerate customer acquisition. To capitalise on these developments, WatchGuard is now undertaking a partner recruitment drive, as WatchGuard’s JonMarc Wilkinson and Northamber’s Tony Price explain. WatchGuard had a busy 2021. What are your priorities for the first half of this year? Jon-Marc Wilkinson: Over the last couple of years, WatchGuard has made significant progress in successfully building out our Unified Security Platform that enables partners to consolidate their offering on WatchGuard. Now that process is complete – with the platform primed to integrate additional capabilities in the future – we are focusing our efforts on a new partner Q&A BUSINESS BRIEFING : SECURI TY 01732 759725 38 Jon-Marc Wilkinson
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