Cybersecurity platform Coro enters Australian and New Zealand market with SMBs in mind

Launched down under last month, the vendor is focusing on enablement and education.

Cybersecurity platform Coro has entered the Australian and New Zealand market signing an exclusive distribution deal with Bluechip Infotech.

The platform is built for small to medium-sized businesses in mind and is 100 percent channel-based.

Cybersecurity and channel leader veteran Joe Sykora spearheads the international expansion into Australia and New Zealand.

He will be supported by regional vice president of sales APJ Demetrios Georgiou.

Now that the company has launched in the market, Sykora, global channel chief at Coro told CRN Australia they are focusing on the enablement and education piece for partners.

"We've been very thoughtful around the backend, as far as the marketing, and, the partner portal and what I consider table stakes, those have been built,” he said.

“We can leverage, some of the what's been built for the other markets. But we've been also modifying things too for local markets to make sure that we capture everything that Georgiou needs for his partners.”

Coro will be establishing an partner advisory council in the ANZ market.

“I do believe you have to have that constant contact to validate what we're doing is what partners want,” Sykora said.

"Call it shocking, but we listen to partners, and you'll see some of the changes that we've made was from feedback, right away from partners.”

Sykora said one of the first things he did was he baselined where Coro was in their channel program.

“When I first got here, I looked at where we had some strengths and of course, where partners are saying that's good, you don't change that,” he explained.

“The areas that we needed to improve, it's something I took very seriously.”

Georgiou, VP sales APJ explained Coro wants to maintain investment in their user groups, like the SMB community.

He highlighted the importance of knowledge sharing and supporting other vendors and partners, regardless of whether they are customers.

“These user groups are really important for the Australian channel, irrespective of trying to sell something, the channel is an ecosystem and a community,” he said.

“Being part of that and sharing knowledge, you share a lot of knowledge between other vendors and peers, and that's important too, because there's room for everybody in the market.”

Georgiou emphasised the importance of supporting the channel, especially as a vendor.

“Arrogance is something that's not part of our model, and it's something that's important to Sykora and his core leadership team around the world,” he said.

“It's when you are 100 percent channel, you remove some of that arrogance that comes with selling, hat's really important for channel.”

In conjunction with them coming to the local market, Coro has recently launched its partner program, Coro Compass which Sykora said is “simple and easy to understand”.

“[It’s an] easy to implement program that protects our partners and makes sure that they have predictable revenues and managed services,” he said.

What Sykora is excited about is bringing this solution to the partners and MSPs in the ANZ market as he believes there is a gap in the cyber offering.

“The market itself, there's a great opportunity,” he explained.

"I have a lot of relationships that I've developed over the last 15 years of doing this, where it's good to be able to be able to bring them a solution that they can build a business around. It's a very predictable model.”

Georgiou told CRN Australia that designing the go-to-market strategy around its 100 percent channel stance is important.

“[It’s] what Australia's always called for, especially with many different vendor relationships that I've had over the years, that I believe is going to resonate very well,” he said.

“They do say price is not all about price, but it is about price. Bringing together and having the flexibility to build that model out with Joe to get that model fine tuned for the market is important.

“I have not encountered one partner who hasn't resonated with the messaging. I mean, it's a no brainer.”

For the next 12 months, Sykora said Coro has set it sights on being a market leader in the space.

"No one is the market leader in this space for what we're doing. You'll find a lot of people using either partial coverage, they're using some free coverage, and it's what they can afford,” he said,

“Our goal is to deliver this all in one cybersecurity platform, become the market leader and really own that market space.”

Success to Coro is ensuring they’ve done everything they’ve promised their partners.

“More importantly, is your business growing because of your relationship that you now have with Coro? That's more important with me, the numbers will follow,” he ended.