Software authentication vendor Entrust has revealed it’s on a recruitment drive to bolster its channel base in the UK.
Entrust’s products include authentication and fraud prevention, identity management and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and SSL digital certificates and encryption. It currently works with a relatively small number of key partners across Europe – including Atos Origin, Kelway and Sysec in the UK – but it is looking to grow this figure with a further five to 10 new signings.
The firm hired former Centrix Software channel director Jason Jackson in January to build out its partner programme and sign up new channel partners outside the US. Speaking to Channel Pro at the launch of Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services this week, the exec says the vendor isn’t looking for huge numbers of new partners: “A handful of the right partners is what we are aiming for. With respect to our SSL offerings they would be dedicated cloud hosting companies, large Microsoft partners, security VARs and SSL specialists.”
He adds: “The number of partners we will expect to have means that there is a clear opportunity to differentiate in the marketplace.”
Jackson says Entrust is growing its sales team in Europe to work with both partners and customers, as well as launching a new partner portal where partners can manage inventory, amend customer contracts, place orders, review verification processes and access enablement tools.
He says also the firm has considerably increased its marketing investment from “from a brand awareness perspective but also with an emphasis on partner marketing, including a new MDF programme and the launch of a kick-start fund for new partners in order to accelerate their time to revenue.”
Although Jackson doesn’t reveal what percentage of the company’s sales currently goes through channel partners, he says Entrust expects to see “a significant change in favour of channel revenues” as the vendor continues to invest in its international business.
This week the firm launched Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services, which consolidates the management of digital identities, certificates and credentials via a single platform that it says offers better visability and ease of use for customers.
“Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services allows customers and partners to manage all of the Entrust services offerings via a single sign-on cloud based interface, which is in response to our customer needs and an industry first,” says Jackson.
The service offers five components: Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services SSL (formerly Entrust Certificate Management Service); Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services Discovery (formerly Entrust Discovery); Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services Smart Credentials (expected later in 2014); Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services PKI (formerly Entrust Managed Services PKI; expected later 2014) and Entrust IdentityGuard Cloud Services Device Certificates.
Elsewhere the company is re-branding its current programme – the ECS Partner Programme – to the IdentityGuard Cloud Services partner programme.
