Cryptocard appoints new business development director
Vendor decides to broaden its channel base to incorporate a broad range of new partners
Authentication vendor Cryptocard has appointed a new business development director to help it broaden its channel base and increase market share.
Gary Marsden has joined Cryptocard from system integrator Getronics. Previously, he worked at Tenovis (now part of Avaya). The vendor plans to drive 99 per cent of its business through partners.
Speaking to CRN, Marsden said: “For the past five years we have sold our solutions through traditional distributors and resellers, but we have decided to push for more growth and to broaden our channel to incorporate new types of partners.”
He added that Cryptocard is looking for additional resellers and system integrators, and it is also on the hunt for technology partners in the form of ISPs, ASPs and carriers that can embed Cryptocard technology into their core offerings to develop broader solutions.
“We are not looking to narrow our existing partners’ markets; indeed, we plan to continue leveraging the channels that we have already got,” he said. “But we have a real opportunity in the embedded authentication market and we need more partners to help us.”
Cryptocard has also unveiled its dedicated managed authentication service – CryptoMAS – which works on Mac OS X for the first time, as well as Windows and Linux-based operating systems. It has claimed that this service will further help its partners boost margin.
Jason Hart, chief executive of Cryptocard, told CRN: “No other firms are touching the SME space properly with managed authentication services. However, SMEs are more at risk because they don’t have endless resources and are more vulnerable. They rely a lot on third parties to support their systems, which is why our CryptoMAS offering is proving so attractive to them.”
Michael Breeze, marketing manager at distributor Interactive Ideas, said although his company’s relationship with Cryptocard has only been going a few months, he was seeing a good response from resellers.
“Cryptocard is pretty much a new vendor for us, but we are actively recruiting partners,” he said. “Its products look good and the market is there. We are definitely seeing a lot of interest.
“We have signed up about 10 partners so far and are busy forming go-to-market plans with them. However, the response we have had from resellers has been excellent.”