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Zscaler has made several changes to its existing channel program to bolster support for resellers looking to add managed services to their business.
Vice president, channels and alliances Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), Foad Farrokhnia, told ARN these channel expansions include a managed security service provider (MSSP) component, designed to address the rising demand for cybersecurity solutions and tackle critical challenges like skill shortages and compliance requirements.
Across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) four partners including Optus, Telstra, Datacom, and The Instillery, have completed Zscaler’s MSSP authorisation process.
Other changes to the cyber security vendor’s channel program include the introduction of different levels of authorisation based on the capabilities.
Farrokhnia said the changes to the vendor’s channel program are targeted to support resellers who want to move towards a service-oriented business.
“We’re building out in the program for a series of specialisations or authorisations for each partner,” he said. “Not all partners will be supported or engaged the same way.”
According to Farrokhnia, the focus will be on the right partners based on their strengths, capabilities, and how they invest in their Zscaler practice.
“We might have a partner focused on reselling, and they would be authorised to resell with us, which is great, as that represents a significant portion of our partner go-to-market strategy in many of the markets we operate in,” he said.
But suppose they decide to invest further and build their professional services capability with Zscaler. In that case, they [will] have both a reseller authorisation and a delivery or professional services authorisation with us.”
He added partners working on resell and those involved in professional services like deployment or other services are in a position to “increase their profitability”.
“The license resell itself offers margins they can achieve, but ultimately, the bigger profitability comes from the services business,” he said. “We see much larger margins in services.
“This is a much better position than just doing the resale portion of the arrangement.”
Farrokhnia said that for partners who haven’t invested in services or where services aren’t a strength, it opens up an opportunity for collaboration.
“We’re seeing increasing demand from customers who say, we work well with this partner on the transaction side, they’ve got the contract vehicles in place, and we like working through them for procurement,” he said.
However, Farrokhnia noted that some customers may also turn to the vendor and request a different partner they trust from a delivery standpoint.
“This creates strong collaborative environments for partners to work together,” he said.
In A/NZ, Zscaler has onboarded over 50 partners actively transacting with the vendor.
“However, we are investing and driving more focus with a handful of partners, probably around 12 at the moment, across A/NZ, where we’re developing and co-creating business plans that we both agree to and can execute together,” said Farrokhnia.
“Through that, [we’re] also bringing in a lot more investment support and ensuring that we’re able to deliver on the plans that we’ve got in place together.”
These additional investments include adding up to five new roles focused on partner sales engineering, managed services authorisation and professional services enablement in APJ.