Deep Instinct partner programme changes making a difference

Security player Deep Instinct has seen a decent reaction following the launch of its partner programme and remains on the hunt for quality channel relationships.

The firm cut the ribbon on its revised approach to partners this spring, with the traditional three-tiered approach replaced with a simpler on-boarding offering that delivers rewards in a similar way to a frequent flyer programme.

Under the scheme, partners can accrue points based on a number of metrics, including bringing fresh business to the vendor and sealing deals with the existing user base.

Sam Linford, vice-president of EMEA channels at Deep Instinct, said the programme only went live at the start of May, but it had already seen a response.

“We’ve already had nearly 60 new Deep Instinct certifications across the channel programme from a technical and commercial perspective,” he said.

“The programme itself is rapidly driving quick adoption of new, very relevant partners that see the value in doing something slightly differently and being able to level the playing field in terms of how the partners come on board and how they get to higher levels of margin inside the programme.”

The vendor recently welcomed Integrity360 on board as a partner and Linford said this was an example of the sort of channel business it wanted to be working with.

“They operate in an early-adoption mindset, recognising the need for a fresh approach to securing their customers’ endpoints and their networks, and that includes utilising Deep Instinct to do that,” he said. “They want to offer cutting-edge technology rather than following others.”

Linford added that the success of the partner programme was to attract the likes of Integrity360, rather than to garner a flood of interest.

“We’ve got a laser focus on a very small number of partners across each focus region; we don’t want to have hundreds of partners on board,” he said. “That’s not the business model that we’re going to operate.”

Linford said the firm was still working on introducing a revised managed service provider partner programme and the expectation was that it would also provide a lift to its channel efforts in the second half of the year.

“We are doing things a bit more differently, adding more flexibility in there, adding more unique commercial strategies to help partners,” he said.

“Something that is really important to us is we’re working hard from a marketing and brand-awareness perspective to build opportunities in the business. We firmly intend to further the amount of opportunity and leads that we are passing to our partners to develop the business with us.”