Trustwave Allows Partners To Resell Services For The First Time

Trustwave allowed partners to resell the company’s database and email security products, but required the channel to refer all managed threat detection and response services engagements back to the vendor.

Trustwave is for the first time allowing VARs, MSPs and agent partners to directly resell the company’s managed threat detection and response and professional services.

The Chicago-based cybersecurity provider traditionally allowed partners to resell the company’s database security and email security products, but required solution providers to refer all services engagements back to Trustwave, according to Suzanne Swanson, vice president of global partners. Partners can now enjoy 5-to-10-percent better margins by delivering the services on their own, she said.

“This is an opportunity for partners to work with a leader in cybersecurity services and enhance their own offerings by leveraging Trustwave’s expertise,” Swanson told CRN.

[Related: Avant, Trustwave Team To Boost Managed Security Sales For Partners]

The new Trustwave PartnerOne program will also make penetration testing services available to the channel for resale, which Swanson said range from traditional application testing all the way to red and blue teaming. Partners find it more attractive to package Trustwave with related technology and deliver the bundle themselves rather than having to refer services engagements back to the vendor, she said.

The new partner program also includes a 2-to-8-percent rebate to incent partners to invest in technical certifications and sales skills to become component with the company’s more complex database security tool, Swanson said. Trustwave plans to extend the rebates to its secure email gateway products and penetration testing services going forward, according to Swanson.

Trustwave is also offering an incentive that will boost margins by 5-to-10-percent for partners that proactively identify customer opportunities on their own, Swanson said. A tremendous number of the managed threat detection and response engagements come from the partner community, but on the product side, Swanson said Trustwave is still identifying more of the opportunities itself.

Solution providers will also for the first time have market development funds (MDF) available to them for either proactive campaigns addressing a specific topic or quick, timely campaigns addressing changes in the threat landscape, she said. The MDF available to the channel ranges from $500 to $10,000 based on the size of the opportunity the partner is pursuing as well as the anticipated return on investment.

Trustwave is encouraging partners to be creative with the MDF proposals and put together events like cooking classes, wine tastings and CIO roundtables that feel fun and unique despite the COVID-19-related restrictions, Swanson said.

Roughly 25 percent of Trustwave’s business goes through the channel today, and Swanson hopes to increase the share of business flowing through the channel to 35-to-40 percent a year from now. The company has 135 partners in North America and just under 600 globally, and is looking to grow its business with existing partners as well as add partners on the West Coast and in parts of Latin America.

Trustwave’s top goals with the PartnerOne program are to acquire more new customers and increase the number of deals solution providers close with the company on a consistent basis, Swanson said. The company said it has 200,000 business and government customers worldwide.

Logicalis has been a Trustwave partner for just under a year, and said the company’s security monitoring and incident response capabilities have been an important part of Logicalis’ Security Operations Center (SOC) offering, according to Renata Randi, Logicalis’ chief marketing and alliances officer. The joint SOC capabilities have been appealing to clients in the financial services and healthcare verticals, Randi said.

Going forward, Randi hopes to put a business plan in place with Trustwave that addresses how to train and enable staff, the go-to-market motion and the types of campaigns and marketing plans in place to make sure people are fully aware of the partnership. Once Logicalis has mastered its learning curve with Trustwave, Randi hopes to expand the offering into other Latin American countries served by Logicalis.

“Being able to offer a secure environment for clients to work in is fundamental,” Randi said. “Making sure we’re fully aligned [with Trustwave] will be a fundamental growth driver for Logicalis going forward.”