Optiv Launches ‘Data-Driven’ Program For Cybersecurity Partnerships

The security solutions and services provider powerhouse is aiming to ‘break from convention’ with its new program for working other companies such as security vendors, CEO Kevin Lynch tells CRN.

Optiv announced a new partner program Thursday that brings a heightened focus on using data to drive growth along with improved cybersecurity for customers, executives told CRN.

The program — which provides the basis for Optiv’s partnerships with other companies, predominantly cybersecurity vendors — aims to provide a clear roadmap for working with the company to serve end customers, said Alan Mayer, senior vice president of partners, alliances and ecosystems at Optiv. The Denver-based security solutions and services provider powerhouse said it currently works with more than 450 partners.

[Related: Optiv Doubles Down On Federal Business With Acquisition Of ClearShark]

The program brings a “data-driven approach that allows us to give unprecedented value back to our partners, which in turn drives better outcomes,” Mayer said.

Security vendors mentioned by Optiv in a news release about the new partner program are CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and Proofpoint.

In an interview with CRN, Optiv CEO Kevin Lynch said that the new program demonstrates “a willingness to break convention in the pursuit of something better.”

“I think that this has given us an ability for us to actually — commonly with our partners — look for spots to break from convention and do something different, and materially better for our clients and for obviously the economic interest,” Lynch said.

For instance, the program helps to provide the basis for Optiv to deliver more solutions and services that deliver a “managed outcome” with “multiple technology partners,” instead of just one, he said. “That’s breaking convention. No one has ever done that.”

Optiv, No. 25 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500, is placing a major emphasis in the new program on using data to help Optiv “prioritize our top partners in a way that we can actually drive greater value for them and greater value for us,” Mayer said. “Our data-driven approach on this has allowed us to look at which which partners [to prioritize] and how we want to prioritize them.”

Optiv is utilizing a variety of different criteria as part of assessing its partnerships with other companies, such as the amount of revenue growth each partnership is producing and the type of growth — including whether it’s from new or renewal business — being delivered, according to Mayer.

Prior to this new partner program, Optiv had largely treated its partners in a “homogeneous” fashion, Lynch said.

With the data-driven approach that Optiv is now taking with its new partner program, “this is bringing that rigor and discipline, but also enhancing the partnerships in a really material way,” he said.

Along with enabling Optiv to differentiate between its partners, the company is also able to provide its partners with improved transparency about their joint business, executives told CRN.

“They want to be able to hear from us about why and how they’re growing,” Mayer said. “So for the first time ever, we’re actually able to give them that information — where are they growing? How are they doing across core growth? What percentage of that business is new versus renewed? How are we growing across our services portfolio? Our partners are hungry for that information.”