Jakub Jirsák - stock.adobe.com
Okta progressing with partner-first strategy
Identity player shares progress update a couple of months after it went all-in with the channel
Okta is looking to continue its channel push into next year after going all-in on partners earlier this autumn.
The secure identity player announced it was pursuing a partner-first strategy as it transitioned to be a channel-driven company just a few months ago.
Helping drive that strategy is James Bradley, vice-president of partners and alliances at Okta. Bradley has been with Okta for 18 months, coming in with a brief to increase the vendor’s channel business.
“The reason I joined was because there’s this ambition to really grow the business in a different way through partners,” he said. “That’s exactly the journey that we’re on.
“I’m seeing our partners grow faster than they’ve ever grown before, and first and foremost, that’s what we are focused on as a partner organisation, and that’s what’s happening,” said Bradley. “What’s driving that is there is an overwhelming amount of complexity within our end customers, just everything they’re expected to do.
“They don’t need just one big partner that does it, or they need lots of partners that do lots of things because of that [need for] specialisation,” he said.
A part of that process has been to establish a strong ecosystem that can support the different types of partners, resellers, systems integrators and distributors, and encourage greater collaboration.
Making the pie bigger
Bradley said the increased levels of cooperation and collaboration had been one of the key features of the year. “This is one of the biggest things I’ve seen change,” he said. “And I think it’s changing because it’s not how much of the pie that we each get. It’s, ‘How do we make the pie bigger?’ People have got their head around that.
“As long as you’ve got the right network and the right incentives, people really want to work together,” said Bradley. “I see way more of that than I’ve ever seen before.”
He added that identity remained a growth area, rewarding those partners that offered those products and services.
Bradley said customers were recognising that identity was of strategic importance, and the number of attacks that exploited weakness in that area meant it had to be addressed. “80% of all breaches happen because of some kind of identity threat, that’s grown 180% year-over-year,” he said. “As Okta, we are already blocking three billion threats a month. So, it’s that kind of identity that’s finally recognised as not just that architectural component, but as the most significant threat vector of every single company on the planet.”
Bradley added that there were other market dynamics that played into the hands of its channel partners. “Mergers and acquisitions will still be a big thing for our partners, that will drive a lot of opportunity,” he said. “When things happen like mergers and acquisitions, that creates quite a compelling use case for identity, and therefore for our partners to go and make the most of that and support their customers.”
He added that there were also opportunities for those that added services around the technology. “I’m seeing that a lot,” said Bradley. “Our biggest partners, probably 70 to 80% of their profitability is coming from services now, and that’s gone up year over year.”
