Encryption, storage and collaboration platform Egress Software has announced it will recruit 30 new partners in the next six to 12 months, with a new channel programme to tempt recruits.
The company, which has 27 partners at the moment and sells 100 percent through the channel, says it will bring more of a structure to its programme and offer extra incentives to boost its offerings in the security space.
The company currently has three tiers of partner: Approved, Associate and Alliance. It has four Approved, 19 Associates and four Alliance partners, but says it wants to add another 30 across the board.
However, Kelly McCann, UK sales manager for Egress, says the company is being selective about the new partners it brings onboard. “For us it’s about the right type of partner who can add that value and can be that sales arm and support for our sales team,” she explains.
“There’s a lot more emphasis on customers taking security and encryption more seriously...so that’s the kind of partners we’d be interested in looking at first.”
Because customers are looking at increasingly moving their services to the cloud, Egress says it wants partners that are reviewing what vendors they have on their books in the cloud space.
The extra investment Egress is making into those who sign up to its channel programme includes providing more technical training for its Alliance partners to show them how to demo the product.
“Both Alliance and Associate partners are entitled to what we call resale licensing, subscriptions on our solutions. So not only do they learn the product they would also use it themselves to make demoing the product more effective,” McCann says.
The company’s partner portal will also be revamped for both Associate and Alliance partners.
“By visiting the partner portal, the channel can get access to case studies. They would get access to e-shop templates, or any campaigns that we run, and we put together for our partners. The partner portal is really the hub of where partners would go to for information but also learn a bit of how to register opportunities and billed registrations,” adds McCann.
Although Egress’ team is available for any partner questions, the channel also has access to the company’s business development managers and senior sales executives too for seeking out opportunities.
