8MAN seeks UK partners to take on Varonis

German vendor claims its technology is simpler and more visual than market leader as it touches down in UK

Germany-based access rights management outfit 8MAN has issued a war-cry to rival Varonis as it sets about building a UK channel.

Talking to CRN, 8MAN managing director Jens Puhle (pictured) said he is seeking 25 to 30 partners that will "eat, drink and sleep 8MAN" following its launch of a London office in the summer.

8MAN, the main solution of Berlin-based vendor Protected Networks, is designed to protect company data from unauthorised access, particularly by employees.

Puhle pitched last year's insider data breach at Morrisons - which saw a disgruntled employee make off with 10,000 of his colleagues' NI numbers - as exactly the kind of threat 8MAN could thwart.

"We are here to stay and want to educate partners as much as possible so they can eat, drink and sleep 8MAN and go out and sell it," he said.

Puhle's goal is to establish itself as the main competitor in the UK to Varonis, a NASDAQ-listed outfit that turned over $31.2m in its most recent quarter.

He claimed 8MAN's solution was "more visual and straightforward" than that of its larger rival.

"We want to take the market away from Varonis," he said.

"One of our strengths is, if you are in charge of a business unit and you have, say, 50 staff working for you, you can set up an interface like an Amazon shopping cart where employees can log in and say ‘I want access to this and that' and then you say ‘yes' or ‘no'. It takes 30 minutes to set up. With Varonis you may have more technical requirements."

Drawing 70 per cent of sales from the DACH region, 8MAN currently has 700 global customers, about 10 to 15 of which are based in the UK. It currently has two UK distributors - Prianto and Distology - and about 12 UK resellers, which include Intellect and Computer Security Technology (CST).

The firm expanded into the UK off the back of a cash injection from its private equity backers in the summer, Puhle said.

"We have shown our commitment by coming over," he said. "We don't want 500 partners but people that can commit to us and who see our technology as their core technology."