Closing the cybersecurity business gap with SonicWall
In association with SonicWall
How would you summarise SonicWall’s channel philosophy?
At SonicWall, our mission is placing partners and customers at the forefront. SonicWall values the loyal relationships it has been able to build with partners. The SecureFirst Partner Program was created to pursue profitability and predictability for all our partners worldwide. Listening to the partner community is incredibly important and SonicWall is always striving to provide the best partner experience, with the goal of building highly profitable security practices. Through this, SonicWall has built a world class global channel organisation that remains one of the most committed in the industry. The channel still sees us as an SMB vendor where we are very much an enterprise player.
Tell us about SonicWall’s partner programme.
SonicWall’s SecureFirst Partner Program accelerates our partners’ ability to be not only game changers but thought leaders in an ever-changing security landscape. Becoming a SecureFirst partner with SonicWall offers superior products, technical expertise as well as aggressive margins and partner loyalty. The SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Program includes co-competitive margins and deal registration protection; technical training and sales enablement; and marketing and lead generation support.
How many partners do you work with in the Ireland?
We work with over 200 partners across Ireland.
Are you looking either to expand or reduce that? If so, what partner profile does this apply to?
Recruitment of new partners is always key. Currently there is a particular focus on MSSPs.
Have you made any major changes to your partner programme recently, or are you about to?
SonicWall plans to unveil a revamped partner program later this year designed to boost sales and better assist partners. It all starts with the partners, we’re 100% channel. The major changes to the SecureFirst Partner Program will most likely come in March or April.
The enhancements will include better aligning rebates and incentives to committed partners and rewarding partners for their training, as research has shown that partner who train more sell more.
We’ve already been talking to the partners about what we need to change. SonicWall has 17,000 partners worldwide.
Describe your perfect partner?
Committed, nimble, dynamic and MSSP ready.
In which areas would you most likely see your partners invest over the next 12 months?
New customer acquisition is very important for the business growth of both partners and SonicWall. Over the next 12 months, we’d like to see a focus specifically in sectors such as cloud, building defence in depth and securing distributed networks with SonicWall.
What are your priorities for the next 12 months?
As a business we’re looking around some key areas as we expand. It starts with our partner base. Our partners are core to our success. So the point is, now that we’ve navigated some interesting waters around Covid-19 and economic times, we’re asking how can we add core capabilities, you know, be those maybe XDR or MDR, to really allow us to equip more services for our key partners to offer our end customers. So that‘s where we’re really focused – providing increased threat intelligence. There also must be remediation, but also simplicity. But one other little-known fact, is that SonicWall has a rich, rich set of data relative to threat data. We‘ve got 1.2 million sensors around the world that are constantly calling home and providing key insights on the latest threats out there. That amounts to about hundreds of terabytes of data. When you think about taking that and marrying that up with additional threat detection, think about all our MSP and MSSPs (partners) and the ability to equip them with value added services. It’s big. The recruitment of MSSP partners will be a big focus.
Do you feel SonicWall is doing enough to cater for non-resale partners, including those that sell technology as a managed service, ISVs, or agents?
At SonicWall we empower our partners to ‘Secure Anyone, Anywhere, On Your Terms’. Allowing them to deploy what works for them — where it works for them. SonicWall helps partners and their customers to build, scale and manage security across cloud, hybrid, and traditional environments.
We have intentionally aligned our organisation to become very close with our partners and to listen to their needs — where they‘re taking their businesses, what their challenges are. As we take the next step, it is even now more important to stay aligned with those key partners. But not just from a go-to-market standpoint. It’s everything, from how we service, how we design, how we invest, the products that we are bringing to market.
Is direct-channel conflict ever an issue in your partner ecosystem, and if so, how do you mitigate that?
There is no direct-channel conflict as SonicWall is 100% two-tier channel and our end user teams work tightly with partners across multiple verticals.
How do you feel SonicWall’s margin proposition stacks up against your peers?
I believe we stack up really well against our peers in the current climate. As other vendors are increasing their prices, we are actually doing the opposite. If a customer and a partner commit to buying three years of services—services that go with our solutions—what they end up getting is the firewall hardware at no charge. That translates to a double-digit price decrease savings.
Our “Three and Free” program is successful precisely because of its simplicity. It is easy for the customer to understand and it’s easy for our partners to understand.
What’s the most challenging aspect of being a channel leader at SonicWall?
Perception. The channel still sees us as an SMB vendor where we are very much an enterprise player. We actually have a significant presence in the enterprise. Our CEO has referenced the 15% factor on our cloud capabilities. But about 25% is related to enterprise. So we‘ve been in enterprise. We’ve been very intentional and smart there, focused on key verticals, key use cases, distributed network, government. That’s actually one of our fastest growing areas.
Also we are often perceived as a firewall vendor, whilst this is a key strength our solution portfolio extends far beyond that to areas including endpoint security, wireless security, secure remote access, cloud security and more.
At SonicWall we want to help partners on their cyber journey, no matter what stage they are at. Our extensive solution portfolio coupled with flexible pricing models enables out partner to offer defence in depth at a lower TCO to their customers.
SonicWall delivers boundless cybersecurity for the hyper-distributed era in a work reality where everyone is remote, mobile and unsecure. To find out more, reach out to Tristan Bateup, tbateup@sonicwall.com, visit www.sonicwall.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram
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