Certifications and rewards the mix in Check Point’s channel

Check Point Software Technologies recently introduced a range of enhancements to its partner programme in an effort to reward those that drive sales of new technology for the vendor. It also rolled out a professional services programme and expanded its lead generation campaigns.

Getting more detail on the plans reveals an ambition from the security player to arm its channel with a chance to differentiate and gain rewards.

“The new professional certification certs are effectively giving our channel the opportunity to become specialists themselves,” said Martin Rutterford, head of managed channels at Check Point UK.

“The channel is going to effectively decide whether they want to be Check Point certified to deliver the solution and the skillset and give that kind of peace of mind that they have the badge and they’re certified to actually do that and then they can choose the different skillsets around it based on their approach and how they go to market.”

Michael Wakefield, head of UK channels at Check Point, said certifications gave partners the chance to have a more “sticky” relationship with customers and it had seen a surge in interest in certifications. “It enables partners to increase profitability and increase their stickiness with their customers,” he added.

Some of the professional services tap into the issues that customers are dealing with right now, including securing the remote workforce and threat prevention.

David Rawle, group CTO at Bytes, said his firm had viewed the certifications as a positive, adding: “The enhancements to Check Point’s partner programme this year have helped us accelerate sales and respond faster to our customers’ needs.”

Check Point has also made it clear that it will reward those partners that sell new technologies into fresh customers and Rawle said Bytes had also seen some benefits there through its relationship with the vendor.

“During the pandemic, we have made full use of Check Point’s wider portfolio, such as its Infinity architecture and CloudGuard solutions to help customers pivot their security to keep working efficiently and securely,” he said.

Rutterford said Check Point wanted to reward those that delivered new logos, sold emerging technology and the adoption of its Infinity protection product. “The growth programme really enables and rewards the partners that are able to take our message of the emerging technology to their client base and there are incentives and additional margin to be made from doing that,” he said.

Check Point has also launched White Space to reward partners that can share a prospect’s requirements and take input on what technologies would best meet the customer’s needs.

“We are looking to provide them with effective data analysis on what we understand the partner would be interested in and to give them a steer and give them the information to streamline and accelerate their go-to-market into the new logo, with the support from Check Point,” said Rutterford.

The vendor has already found that incentives for deriving fresh business work, with the firm running similar schemes last year, which resulted in the UK delivering its best performance in terms of customer acquisition, with new logos up significantly year on year.

“All we’re doing this year is enhancing that, we’re improving the discounts and we’re doubling down on that and giving greater incentives to the partners,” said Wakefield.