The adoption of digital technologies is growing at exponential rates. This trend shows no signs of slowing as organisations constantly seek flexibility and functionality to accommodate evolving work models.
With growing mandates to accelerate digital transformation, cybersecurity is also increasingly becoming a key priority for businesses in 2022. However, the constantly expanding threat landscape and ongoing security skills gap further exacerbate the pressures that businesses face.
With security teams often spread thin, organisations are looking for innovative solutions from providers who can offer support, experience and knowledge to keep systems running and data secure.
“In security, customers are no more looking for a set of solutions that can help them fix known issues. Organisations typically look for system integrators that can formulate an adequate security strategy, build a plan of action with short-, medium-, and long-term goals; identify the right solutions that the customer truly needs to overcome their security concerns; and ensure the smooth implementation and integration of all these acquired solutions,” says Meriam Elouazzani, Regional Channel Manager – META, SentinelOne.
The reality today is that every company needs robust cybersecurity, but few have the resources to achieve it. Channel partners are uniquely positioned to offer access to cutting-edge technology and can leverage expertise to meet the needs of evolving but often overwhelmed business customers.
“Channel is the first point of contact for the customers when they initially start developing their cybersecurity strategy,” explains Elouazzani.
“At the discovery stage, the customer expects the channel to be on top of the new releases in the market. They need to be able to identify for them which products to adopt, which areas of concern they need to be looking at, which metrics they should consider, which security tests, methodologies, and frameworks exist today and which they should lead with.”
To successfully support enterprises, channel partners need to develop, foster and maintain strong relationships – both with customers and vendors within their portfolio.
“Cybersecurity is an ever-changing market. New players that are more agile, more nimble and more innovative are now taking the lead, and the channel has the responsibility to tell the customers about these market players,” says Elouazzani.
Channel partners across the Middle East also need to take cognizance of the latest trends in the security space and how they will impact their customers’ security transformation agenda. They need to be ready to invest and leverage cybersecurity innovations and build services and value around complementary technologies, to effectively achieve the engagement expected by their customers.
“In SentinelOne we work with the best value-add distributors who work closely with our channel partners to not only deliver products to our customers but also provide the best services that will enable customers to implement our solutions in the best way. Our goal is always to achieve customer satisfaction. We adapt our solutions to the use case our customers choose, and we make sure that our customers are protected against all the cybersecurity attacks and threats,” says Elouazzani.
Channel partners can develop talent within their teams by investing in their vendor partner’s training and certification programmes.
“As a security vendor, we invest heavily in channel enablement. We believe that the right channel has a lot of value in driving scale in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region,” explains Elouazzani.
She adds, “Our customers expect us to have the right channel to execute the projects we have in place, and we work with the partners to achieve the right capabilities to be able to offer the best services and support to our customers.
“We have put in place transformational partners who not only are driving the solutions sales but also putting in place incident response services and managed services that will allow them to support customers in META.”
Digital transformation powered by cybersecurity is the need of the hour for many organisations. Channel partners have the opportunity to facilitate this journey and help propel their customers to digital success.
