Exclusive: Cybersecurity platform Qualys sees the channel as the only way to “scale up”

The cyber vendor recently hired Ben Brown as its new ANZ channel manager to focus on channel.

Cybersecurity vendor Qualys is narrowing its focus on its partners and the channel as it continues to grow in the ANZ region.

To do that the ANZ arm of the business has recently hired a new local channel manager, Ben Brown, to help the company hit its growth targets.

Speaking to CRN Australia exclusively, Sam Salehi, managing director ANZ said he sees channel as the only way for the company to “scale up”.

“I wanted to make sure that the person in charge is channel friendly and has done it in different roles. Brown has been around for a long time and has done channel for a number of big organisations in the cybersecurity space,” he said.

“We thought that he can come help us push that channel strategy in the ANZ region.”

According to Brown, Qualys is fast becoming a channel first business.

“That's the direction from HQ. That's the direction from the ANZ business,” he said.

“Everyone from Shawn O'Brien (EVP Global Sales and Strategic Alliances) to Salehi, they see channel as everybody's responsibility.”

Brown continued, “It's my job to manage it, to run it, to build it.

“But everybody within the team has a touch point. Everybody in the team has responsibility for making the channel successful. Because if the channel's successful, we're successful,” he said.

Qualys is 52 percent channel, and 48 percent direct sales, however, all new business goes through the channel.

In Australia, they work with approximately 90 partners.

“Some of those are purely transactional. Some of those are a lot more strategic, but it's everything from your smaller boutique partners through to your national VARs, your international SIs, and managed service partners,” Brown said.

In his new role, Brown will build out the go-to-market motion between Qualys and its partner ecosystem.

“Everything from account mapping and finding opportunities for us to work on with our partners, through to enablement, and through to marketing,” he said.

“My job is to help Qualys and the partners build out a successful business together.”

One of his first tasks in his new role for Brown will be to understand what his partners are doing.

“Trying to build out our own portfolio within that partner ecosystem. If partner just does the Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI), how do we get them to move into the Enterprise Trurisk Management and risk operations centre (ROC) space

Another big focus for Qualys is enablement, Brown said.

“Qualys has evolved quite a lot over the past 12 to 18, months. There's a big focus on enablement, not just trying to enable partners on how to sell Qualys, but also help them to the point where they're able to deliver services and be a lot more profitable,” she said.

“We know partners don't make revenue out of selling licenses. For us and for the partners, the stickiness, the long-term strategy and partnership is all around services, professional advisory, managed services.

“There's a lot there that partners can be doing. A big focus for the next 12 months is building out that services portfolio within our partner base.”

Salehi added that they’re currently assessing from their 90 partners, which ones they will increase their focus on.

“We're looking very closely in terms of which one of those partners want to be our top five to top 10 partners that we want to build some services with,” he said.

“Brown is currently meeting a lot of different partners in different part of the country, as well as New Zealand, where we have got Chilisoft as a distributor.

“Once we have that, then the next step would be building the go-to-market strategy with those partners, whether it's enabling them, educating their sales team, or simply participating in their sales kick-off, for example.”

Salehi explained that they will be giving these partners more time and attention so Qualys is front of mind, especially as they brand into new specialisations.

“We've completely moved into risk quantification. We have done a lot in terms of our ROC and the way we are helping our customers with exposure management,” he said.

“That's something that a lot of our partners and even existing customers are not aware of. Our role, both for Brown and myself, is to change that mindset about Qualys.”

Brown believes that Qualys is “well positioned” to help partners and customers with what's going around on with everything Mythos and AI related.

“We're in a good spot to help customers prioritise what they need to do and help them get successful outcomes in a meaningful way. In a way that saves them money, saves them time, saves them their own sanity over what they're having to deal with out there,” he said.

“The industry evolves so quickly. Mythos has just accelerated all of that again. Qualys is very well placed to help customers and partners deal with the current situation.”

Salehi noted that complexity is the enemy of security.

“Everything we talk about from detection to prioritisation, as well as remediation, is happening through a single agent with Qualys. So instead of having multiple tools, which brings that complexity into environment, you can simplify by partnering with Qualys.

"To Brown’s point, this is the best time to partner with Qualys and avoid having all those complex scenarios in your customer environments.”