Deep Instinct takes a fresh partner programme approach

Deep Instinct is hoping its innovative partner programme will make a difference to its existing channel base while also making it a more attractive prospect to those that haven’t worked with it before.

The firm unveiled its programme at the start of the month with a system that is more akin to a frequent flyer model than the traditional three-tiered approach.

Sam Linford, vice-president of EMEA channels at Deep Instinct, said the firm had increased its channel commitment and wanted a programme that was memorable, simple and profitable. 

“We’re trying to achieve a dramatic programme shift [by] doing something entirely new. Historically, we had a fairly lightweight, traditional channel programme, which was medallion tiers based,” he said.

“We’re trying to level the playing field [across] our partnerships, where all of our partners have the opportunity to reach the highest level of programmes, without only doing significant volume bookings,” he added.

“The programme is very much margin focused, rather than discount focused, so our resellers can be confident that they have a true partnership in place with a programme that provides a transparent pathway towards profitability.”

Partners will be able to accrue points based on a number of metrics, including bringing fresh business to the vendor and sealing deals with the existing user base.

“We’ve worked very hard to ensure we’re looking after partners of all sizes,” said Linford. “They have different ways to gain that success. We look at the number of deals registered and opportunities closed with those registered opportunities. We look at the different types of certain certifications they’ve completed and partner-initiated pipeline.”

He added that the rules for the partner programme took up two sides of a single piece of paper, which contrasted with many of the lengthy alternatives from other vendors that proclaimed a “simple” offering to the channel.

Through this approach, Deep Instinct is expecting to stir channel interest, and with more support planned for managed security service providers (MSSPs), it hopes to swell numbers this year.

“We’ve increased the number of partners that we have as an EMEA channel business by a really significant amount over the past year. I believe it’s around 260% in terms of the number of partners we have across the region. This programme is designed very specifically to attract new partners with the right talent for Deep Instinct,” he said.

“We’re now starting to work on the development of the MSSP programme that will integrate with this, to also drive adoption of our technology into the right MSSPs. We’ve had incredible success over the past year without this programme, but this is designed to make partnering much easier, more simplistic, profitable and memorable,” he said.