Philip Cherian, Regional Channel Director, Middle East, Africa and India (MEAI) at Credence Security, explains how Credence Security has helped its partners.
Credence Security is a 100% channel-driven organisation. Our goal is to be the region’s most trusted distributor when it comes to cybersecurity, digital forensics and GRC solutions – working closely with our vendors and partner ecosystem to deliver tailored and intuitive solutions that meet the security requirements of enterprises across the region.
To that end, we look to build very tight alignment with our partners. It’s very important for us to understand what solutions they currently have in their portfolio and where the gaps lie in terms of their ability to provide holistic security solutions to customers. As a next step, we put a plan in place for them to align on solutions which would help them address current threat exposure their customers have and agree on a GTM strategy – this is something that we customise for each partner. And finally, we focus on training and enablement. We understand that every partner has more than 10 products in a portfolio so to get them to proactively sell our solutions means we need to be extremely proactive and always provide the best support, something that we have been able to do well, to date.
It really starts with education – partners need to stay abreast of the ever-evolving threat landscape and in parallel, must keep informed on the latest technologies and solutions available on the market, to fight these threats. For our part, at Credence Security, partner enablement and continuous improvement are key – we have a channel programme that is designed to enable, evangelise and motivate them to sell our technologies proactively. Furthermore, as part of the Credence Security Partner Academy, during COVID-19, we continued to offer monthly (virtual of course) training/refresher courses on all technologies we offer as well as share insight on latest global threats, customer success stories, compliance and regulation. These initiatives have proven very successful in ensuring that our partners stay one step ahead of the competition.
Another very successful vehicle for training and enabling partners during COVID-19 was the Credence Security Roadshow 2020 which we held September 15-16. We always put the safety of our customers and partners first, which is why we joined forces with a leading virtual-platform and streaming company to provide something really different, unlike the Zoom and WebEx sessions we have all come to know. That said, we acknowledge that there will never be a replacement for face-to-face networking, so our 2020 roadshow also allowed for that, under the safest possible conditions.
Online exhibits included virtual lobbies and interactive spaces, as well as vendor stands, networking rooms, auditoriums and technical sessions. Credence Security specialists conducted real-time conferences with vendors through various tools, and held gamification sessions such as pop quizzes, leaderboards and polling, with prizes and giveaways throughout the two-day event. The event was split into four tracks – Continuous Adaptive Risk Assessment; Data Security and Governance; Digital Forensics and Incident Response; and Identity, Payments and Digital Security – and included customer case studies and keynotes by leading voices from the region’s cybersecurity industry.
The design of the event gave partners incredible opportunities to learn about the latest threats and technologies, as well as build relationships with prospective customers. All in all, the event was very well received by partners and we fully expect the event to drive sales for them.