Forescout invests heavily in UK channel growth

Cyber security player Forescout has UK and European growth firmly in its sights after making significant investments in the region.

The vendor has cut the ribbon on a new London HQ, invested in a European Operations Centre in Cork, Ireland, and hired Matt Poulton as general manager and VP of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The firm has seen its headcount swell by 40% across EMEA since the start of the year and can now house more people at its London operation.

At the same time, the vendor has named Exclusive Networks as its primary distribution partner across Western Europe, solidifying a relationship that has been running for three years.

Gerard Allison, senior vice-president EMEA at Exclusive Networks, said the distributor would provide the vendor with a focused push across EMEA, backing that with support for resellers.

“We’ve been really pleased with the way we work together, the shared objectives we have between both companies, from marketing to sales to all the different services that we offer together to the cyber security community,” he said. “But we’re at the next stage of the journey and this really allows us to put even more investment into the relationship.

“Clearly, there is a shortage of skills right across the industry, from users and customers. We have invested in doing more pre- and post-sales support to support the channel and complement their go-to-market. So, it’s a new chapter for us.”

Allison added that Forescout’s automation security offering sat well in its wider portfolio of offerings that resellers could take out to market.

“We remain laser-focused on cyber security and with the fact of automation in cyber security, it becomes an imperative for all organisations to focus across IT, OT and IoT,” he said. “This is exactly where we are having discussions with our partners and helping them.”

Forescout’s vp for worldwide channel sales, Keith Weatherford, said the Exclusive relationship was a big part of the firm’s plans for channel growth in the UK and Europe.

“Typically, we have operated with multiple distributors in just about every country that we go to market globally,” he said. “This is a departure from our previous approach and we are making that change because Exclusive is willing to make that investment back into us, to invest in all the technical resources on their side to make sure that they’re doing the training at the partner level that we need.”

Weatherford added that its decision to invest heavily in the UK would also benefit its UK channel. “As we as we move into the back half of the year, I think more and more partners are going to feel the investment being made.

“Some partners are seeing it immediately, but in others, it may take a little bit for them to fully understand and grasp the level of investment that we’re making.”