James Thew - Fotolia
Beyond Identity building up UK channel
Password management player is keen to add more partners and keep its recently signed distributors busy
Security player Beyond Identity is in channel-building mode as it develops its two-tier approach in the UK.
The firm has appointed in distribution over the past few months, signing up Distology in the UK and Ignition Technology to cover the Nordics, and is already working with a number of resellers that specialise in password authentication.
Spearheading the activities is Tony Shadrake, vice-president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Beyond Identity, who is keen to extend the firm’s channel base and increase the customer base via greater exposure with partners.
“It’s a build-out year and we’re getting great support from corporate in the US as we build the business. So far, I think we’ve been pretty successful in our efforts, taking on Distology and Ignition, as we build out the Identity platform,” he said.
One of the obvious places the firm can turn to for fresh partners is those in the channel that already carry a single sign-on (SSO) solution in their portfolio that Beyond Identity works with, such as Okta and ForgeRock. Those with a track record in SSO and an interest in delivering via the cloud are clearly the first targets.
The focus is also largely on the UK and Ireland, the Nordics and Israel, with those countries seen as the main areas for growth in the immediate future.
The firm has been putting investment into the UK over the past few months. It has a team of 10 here, with plans to significantly expand that headcount.
“From our EMEA organisation perspective, we want it to be about 21 people by the end of FY21...35 next year, FY22, and then about 55 to 60 in FY23, so there’s been tremendous investment,” said Shadrake.
He pointed out that major analyst firms were highlighting the prospects for growth in the passwordless market, with significant numbers of large enterprises and mid-sized customers expected to adopt the technology over the next 18 months.
The pandemic has pushed out the perimeter and underlined the need for it to be straightforward and secure when it comes to staff connecting from numerous locations to the corporate network.
“The pandemic has pushed all organisations to have the majority of the workforce working remotely. Identity and rights, and knowing who’s trying to access the network, your applications and your resources, both from a person perspective but also from a device perspective, has pushed trust and identity to the forefront,” said Shadrake.
“There’s a tremendous opportunity, and it will only get bigger over the coming five years,” he added. “We have got a slew of use cases that can add value to organisations today, replacing traditional multifactor authentication solutions.”
