WhiteHat gets dressed for channel success
Security vendor looking to double UK partner base for its 'cybersecurity in a box' offering
WhiteHat Security is looking to invest heavily in its channel programme as it seeks to double its number of UK partners in 2015.
Founded in 2001, the security vendor specialises in providing vulnerability assessments for web applications in a SaaS package, to let companies know where their security holes are, and then provides information on how to fix them.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the vendor launched in the UK in 2012 and is now seeking to bolster its partner focus in the region and double its number of UK partners from 12 to 24 in the next 12 months, according to Andrew Lawton, vice president of EMEA.
Lawton said WhiteHat is taking on Sean Remnant, chief technology officer at distribution partner Exclusive Networks, as a consultant over the next six to nine months to help build WhiteHat's partner base and improve its partner programme. These improvements include the creation of marketing development funds (MDF) and a revamped partner portal.
"We need to improve the way we communicate with our partners," he said.
"Certainly in the past our US office has not been used to working with partners, and all my UK and EMEA team are. So it has taken some time to build up and invest in the partner programme and educate the US corporate on how to use partners, and they are now going to be investing further in improving the partner programme."
For its last fiscal year, which runs from January to December, WhiteHat enjoyed 400 per cent growth in revenue, year over year, across EMEA, and for 2015 it is targeting a 40 per cent increase in revenue, Lawton said.
He added that WhiteHat's partners do not need to have much technical expertise, they are simply used to go out and find new customers and in return gain revenue and good margins.
"What we give partners is a very simple way to gain access to this market because effectively this is cybersecurity in a box; they can effectively just resell what we do and then wrap around their own services and wrap around their own products," he said.