Thiago N. Felippe, CEO of Aiqon, discusses the strategies the company is employing to maintain a competitive edge in the Latin American market, elaborates on the evolution of channel partners in the region, and explains why partnerships have to be win-win-win for the clients, partners and Aiqon.
Can you give us an overview of your company’s current focus in the Latin American IT landscape?
Aiqon is focusing on expanding its presence with partners in Brazil and LATAM. With our headquarters being in São Paulo, we are well connected with partners in the area – the state represents 31,2% of the entire Brazilian economy.
Our goal for 2025 is to expand our channel program to other areas in Brazil and start setting a foot in Spanish-speaking countries in LATAM. We recently hired a seasoned executive with years of experience in developing and growing channel programs in major tech and cyber companies in Brazil.
The fact that Aiqon has a long history of servicing clients directly allows us to understand the pain and needs of our partners. We are also hands-on in delivering our products and services. We support our partners from an introductory meeting, to demos, implementation and support.
Partnerships have to be win-win-win for the clients, partners and us. Clients win because they receive services from experienced tech/cyber companies with a long history of delivering a multitude of services. Our partners win because they gain access to a vast portfolio of over 20 cyber solutions that offer advantageous cost-benefit and top-notch quality. We win because we gain access to markets that would require tremendous investment, overhead and time for us to develop.
It is important to stress that Aiqon partners have access to our full value proposition – including financial matters. We work with cybersecurity vendors and implement a multitude of efficient processes internally so we can offer the most advanced cybersolutions at prices that are feasible to Brazilian and LATAM companies. One of the key results of this strategy is to handle currency exchange and tax issues for our partners. Cybersecurity AI, ML and behavior analysis solutions that without Aiqon intelligence would be beyond the budget of our partner´s customers are, thanks to our unique approach, a solid option to the CISO.
We are working closely with our partners to accelerate, in the safest way possible, the cybersector of our region.
How do you see the role of channel partners in Latin America evolving in the next few years?
Our goal is to have at least five partners in the first target countries: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru and Mexico.
This will allow us to have a significant presence in these major markets and service neighbor countries, such as Ecuador and Panama from Colombia, for example.
Although we embrace different partners profiles, we believe that, in 2025, MSSPs and MSPs will have a critical role in helping CISOs face digital threats. Aiqon’s offerings in a Security-as-a-Service model solves several CISOs’ challenges, including the lack of head count and budget limitations.
What strategies are you employing to maintain a competitive edge in the Latin American market?
We work with fast-growing vendors that allow us to invest in developing their pipelines and marketing strategies. These vendors understand that we have over 13 years of experience bringing new technologies to markets that are less abundant, more price-sensitive and more complex to do business than other more developed countries. They trust us with building the go-to-market strategy and deploying it.
This is a model that has already proven its value in Brazil and now, is available to partners from all Latin America.
Aiqon is a gate that opens, to cybersecurity partners, a world of cutting-edge technology with the best support services in a winning cost-benefit offering.
What opportunities do you foresee in the IT industry, particularly concerning channel partnerships in Latin America?
Cybersecurity is developing fast. It amazes me to see how many new technologies and players emerge every year. There are lots of opportunities to grow within your existing client base and also to expand it since we are constantly adding new offers that add value to clients.
We are currently focusing on Data Access Governance/DSPM, discovery & classification, and data loss prevention; endpoint management & security and security configuration management; active directory security, identity/access/privilege management and password management & security.
Our portfolio allows our partners to position themselves as trusted advisors to their customers in all kinds of cybersecurity threats that the CISOs must face on a daily basis.
The partner that can act as a high-level consultant will be able to tackle today’s and tomorrow’s cybersecurity challenges of its customers and, with the technical, commercial and financial support of Aiqon, help the CISO to outline and implement the transformation journey that his/her enterprise must take to stay steps ahead of the digital criminals.
This is seldom the case for most companies in our region. Most cybersolutions are not attainable due to their high licensing or service costs. Due to our expertise, financial strength and scale, we can offer the same solutions at much lower costs which allows many more companies to improve their cybermaturity.
How does your company approach training and upskilling channel partners?
Our tech team works closely with our partners in every opportunity providing support all the way. We also have at our partner’s disposal a self-service portal where they can find technical, sales and marketing materials, take sales and technical courses and certifications and request assistance, sales opp registration and pricing quotes. This streamlines the whole process while simplifying it by having all you need in one place.
With our portfolio, we can offer solutions to partners – and, consequently, their customers – that are beginning their cyber offers. Some of our solutions, although extremely efficient, are the ‘rice and beans’ of any cybersecurity strategy. This allows MSSPs to quickly offer a valuable solution without the need for extensive training or investment. One example is Syxsense and Absolute. With this solution MSSPs can offer services on top of AI-automated patch and vulnerability management as well as software deployments and remote access.
Moreover, we have solutions that are in the cutting-edge of the cyber industry. We have PAM, IAM, IGA solutions. We can identify and intercept a hacker attack in course by monitoring the customer’s environment against known hacker techniques such as golden tickets, horizontal movements, code injection into LSASS process, Windows SSP injections and DCSync attacks.
Our goal is to strengthen the cybersecurity knowledge of our partners teams, helping them to be attuned to all that is going on in the global cybersecurity arena.
What benefits can channel partners expect when working with your organization?
Flexibility in processes and pricing, best-in-class cost benefit and full-on support from our well-trained sales and technical teams. Moreover, since we are actively looking for solutions that have a fit in the LATAM markets, we are constantly expanding our portfolio to offer what is best in every cybersecurity niche.
Our focus is to be THE Cybersecurity hub for LATAM and Brazilian MSSPs and resellers; a sort of ‘one stop shop’ for the best curated technologies at attainable prices.
Can you share any case studies or success stories that involved a collaboration with channel partners?
We are closing deals in Brazil at a rate never seen before. We onboarded several partners that are actively offering to their customers’ Aiqon portfolio.
Many of our solutions are great door-openers. We have solutions that fit all kinds of company sizes and industries (we are industry-agnostic, by-the-way) so this allows our partner to be extremely effective in its commercial efforts. Every meeting has a to-do and a follow-up because they are now able to offer a broad spectrum of solutions and services.
We work with the partner in their go-to-market strategy. We support them in their marketing efforts (and we also co-invest in digital and in-person efforts) while working side-by-side with their sales and tech teams. This quickly allows them to confidently be in front of their clients to identify their needs and pains.
What advice would you give to companies looking to become a channel partner with your organization?
If you are a reseller/MSP/MSSP in LATAM and Brazil, give us a chance to show you how we can help you better service your client needs and increase your top line while making your operations more efficient.
Our goal is to build with our partners a long-term two-way relationship. We understand that, sometimes, closing business deals in LATAM and Brazil can be challenging, and we strive to do our best in supporting our partner in all fronts and stages of their sales journeys.
We love what we do and have an engaged team. Our goal is to make the client and the partners heroes. We gladly and happily work on the sidelines so our partners can grow and reach new heights. Our utmost goal is to help solve clients’ needs while allowing our partners to gain their trust and business for the long run.