Qualys seeking more partners for local push

Security vendor hunting for partners that already have mature security practices

Vulnerability management vendor Qualys is seeking partners to give a more local focus to some of the sectors in which it operates.

Amer Deeba, chief commercial officer at Qualys, explained: "We are recruiting more partners because there are certain sectors we service, including the government, where we need to give more of a local focus - for example, focusing on local government as well as central government - and that requires more local partners.

"We are also looking at the SMB side and as we expand our portfolio of services, we want to look for partners that can help us expand those services. It is really about expanding the portfolio and having the ability to cover the market properly."

The NASDAQ-listed vendor specialises in automating auditing, compliance and protection of IT systems. Deeba said that 60 per cent of its SMB sales are done through the channel, with the channel accounting for around 50 per cent of its enterprise sales.

"In the beginning, we had to build our business starting from the bottom and going direct to some customers. But now as we are expanding, we are putting more focus on the channel," Deeba explained.

Despite the almost 50/50 split, Deeba said there was no conflict between partners and the direct sales team.

"We allow partners to register their deals. If customers come to us we only offer them our price list, so we do not compete with any of our partners on prices. Also, some customers are not looking to buy just our solution, but a whole bundle including our products," he added.

Qualys is hoping to recruit anywhere from five to 20 partners, "so long as they are the right partners who have the right mind set."

"We want partners that really have a mature security practice, either consultancy, MSP or VAR," Deeba said. "It is very important that they have security personnel who can really understand our offering and explain it to the customer, really adding that value."

ITC Secure has been a Qualys partner for over eight years, and its CEO Tom Millar said the vendor is a "cornerstone" of its security managed services.

"I would say they are in our top three most critical suppliers. It is fundamental to the managed services we deliver. What we like about Qualys is their product is cloud based, it is easy to deploy, and it has a lot of breadth to it now as they add more and more services to it. We are quietly but confidently extending our relationship to their new services," he said.

"We would probably like to see more of Qualys than we do. They are quite light in terms of resourcing but I think that is their model. It is a very good relationship that has been going for a long time."