Cybereason Partner Program Now Offers More Margin For Top Players
Partners in Cybereason’s elite Game Changers tier will earn 30 percent margins on all sales to net-new customers regardless of deal size or product type, according to Senior Vice President of Worldwide Channels Ghazal Asif.
Cybereason has unlocked 30 percent product resale margins and streamlined managed detection and response services for the most strategic members of its channel community.
The Boston-based cybersecurity vendor plans to focus more attention and resources on the top tier of its three-tier partner program to help expand the relationship into new enterprise and midmarket accounts, according to Ghazal Asif, senior vice president of worldwide channels.
The top tier will be rechristened as Game Changers, according to Asif, and no more than 20 solution providers will be allowed to join each year. Cybereason currently works with 350 solution providers globally, Asif said, and has committed to selling 100 percent through the channel.
[Related: Rising Endpoint Security Star Cybereason Raises $200M, Eyes IPO]
"Instead of going broad, we want to go narrow and deep with a few partners," Asif told CRN. "And those few we almost want to treat them as part of our sales team."
Solution providers have indicated anecdotally that they currently earn margins of between 13 percent and 25 percent on their Cybereason business, with the more margin-rich deals having a services component attached, according to Asif.
Going forward, Asif said Game Changers partners will earn 30 percent margins on all sales to net-new customers regardless of deal size or product type. Dubbed the Catch30 initiative, the program will operate as a six-month pilot, Asif said, and the company will look to continue it in perpetuity if it's truly helping solution providers and field reps move the needle around new business.
In addition, Asif said Game Changers partners will be the first to take Cybereason's new MDR-in-a-Box (Managed Detection and Response) service to market. This is expected to unlock a significant revenue stream for solution providers by enabling them to holistically manage security tools and services on behalf of their midmarket and enterprise customers, according to Asif.
MDR-in-a-Box will be rolled out more broadly to Cybereason's channel community in roughly six months, Asif said, with additional markets and solution providers selected on a case-by-case basis.
Game Changers partners will be required to derive a certain amount of their revenue from cybersecurity (the business doesn't have to be specific to Cybereason) and have a requisite amount of their staff go through the company's new enablement program, according to Asif.
All Game Changers partners are required to have five employees certified around presales, and solution providers looking to get into managed detection and response must have at least three analysts trained in that area, Asif said.
Cybereason already has agreements in place with 12 solution providers to join the Game Changers program, Asif said, and the company expects another couple of partners to ink deals by the end of the year. Some Game Changers partners are entirely new to Cybereason, Asif said, while others had only worked with the company at a tactical level until now.
Cybereason also plans to keep an eye on the number of presales and post-sales certifications completed by partners, Asif said, and look at MSSP growth for the partners participating in the managed detection and response program. Game Changers partners will have quarterly health checks with the company on how their business is looking, according to Asif.
Solution provider Datacentrix said it partnered with Cybereason to help joint customers address an increasingly sophisticated set of risks and threats to their business. The company praised Cybereason for its full suite of technology and services as well as the incentives being offered to help partners like Datacentrix grow their book of business.