RSA To Update Channel Program To Reward Partners That Bring On Net-New Customers

@RSA plans to enhance its channel program in early 2018 to reward partners that attract net-new customers. The Bedford, Mass.-based security vendor said that partners should receive more generous incentives to help RSA further penetrate the marketplace, according to Faraz Siraj, director of Americas channels. The initiative won't come at the expense of partners that support existing and expansion accounts: They will continue to receive competitive margins, rebates, co-op, and marketing dollars, Siraj said. "It's going to give partners the ability to hunt and produce net-new logos for RSA and be rewarded for it," Siraj told CRN. [RELATED: Sources: Symantec Is Looking To Break Into The SIEM Market] @RSA told the channel in August that changes will the coming to the company's SecurWorld partner program, Siraj said, with a formal announcement expected in January. One of the most noticeable changes will be the renaming of the tiers in the company's partner program to align with the precious metals nomenclature (titanium, platinum and gold) favored by @DellEMC, according to Siraj. Siraj said there will be a slight adjustment in the thresholds associated with each tier, although no major changes are expected from a re-leveling perspective. Tier assignments today are based on partner revenue and education, Siraj said, with RSA looking closely at the amount of annual sales being brought in by a partner as well as the levels of certification they've achieved. "We don't want to have anybody left out in the cold," Siraj said. "We want to make sure that everybody is taken care of."      All told, Siraj expects the changes will make supporting RSA more financially profitable for partners. "We want to be able to penetrate the marketplace as best we can," Siraj said. "If we have more incentives available to partners that are finding us new business opportunities in any of our product lines, they should be financially rewarded." RSA does roughly 70 percent of its business in the Americas, with the company's direct operations comprised primarily of high-revenue, global customers as well as accounts that have traditionally been supported under a direct model. The company has 3,000 channel partners in North America, which Siraj said span the gamut from 50-employee companies to billion-dollar organizations. RSA's offerings includes RSA Archer for governance, risk and compliance. Archer assigns real-time threats a risk score of between one and five based on what they mean in the context of a particular business, according to Andrew Homer, RSA's director of business development. The company's product line also includes RSA NetWitness for security incident event management and threat detection and response; RSA SecurID for identity and access management; and RSA Fraud & Risk Intelligence.

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