Mimecast exec on how MSPs can navigate reduced customer spending

Email security vendor's channel manager reveals toCRN how it its investing in its channel strategy and why MSPs should

Cybersecurity MSPs need to position themselves as trusted advisors in order to navigate tightening IT budgets from customers, according to Mimecast's channel manager Hannah Mayersbeth.

Mayersbeth told CRN that customers are scrutinising their budgets more as COVID-19 continues to impact business forecasting, which, in turn, is throwing up challenges to partners who are trying to convince them of the need to bolster their security procedures as their employees work from home.

"A lot of customers are under huge financial strains in the current pandemic, so the purse strings are being pulled," she said.

"A lot of our partners are struggling to help customers to purchase more layers of security and make sure that they are really protecting their businesses against those threats - that's really the challenge that we're seeing at the moment.

"We're trying to help partners help customers understand that they have to prioritise cybersecurity with the spend that they do have because if a company gets hit with a ransomware attack they could be faced with huge fines or loss in productivity."

The pandemic has been a great opportunity for partners to educate customers on taking a "holistic approach" to their cybersecurity strategy, Mayersbeth said, as customers continue to struggle to adapt to the number of threats out there.

"The majority of the time, customers are still reacting to the threats that they're seeing as and when, and looking to partners to supply point solutions to help address those challenges," she explained.

"The great thing that's come out of this is the amount of education that's now available promoting the awareness of threats and how to get better protected. This is really great, but in reality, a lot of companies are struggling to keep up with all of the different technologies that are required to keep them safe.

"So there's a real heavy reliance on our MSPs to really be the experts in cybersecurity and they're having to lean a lot more on vendors like us to help them know where to go and know what the best practice is."

Positioning themselves as trusted advisors in these challenging times will help MSPs reap the eventual benefits of a strengthened relationship with their clients, she added.

"As long as partners are getting clued up with what they're offering in terms of cybersecurity- their approach as well as the technologies - then they really have the ability to capitalise on that and show that they've got that edge in the marketplace, and that they can help to pull the customer through this and make sure they are well protected," she stated.

"As long as they're doing that and they're clear on that messaging, once we come out the other end of all this, they're going to be in a really strong position to then continue to work with those customers."

Mimecast's acquisition of MessageControl in July strengthens this messaging around the vendor's email security offerings, Mayersbeth said, adding that its recently-launched SAFE Phish solution - which provides an "accurate" risk score - also bolsters its partners' abilities to become trusted advisors.

"Off the back of our State of Email Security report, we saw that 56 per cent of companies aren't using any awareness training at all, which is a huge gap and a huge area of risk for a lot of businesses," she elaborated.

"That's why we've invested in this technology; to help our channel and provide this service that can help our MSPs' customers become better protected… and that they can lean on specialist vendors like us to get skilled up with the knowledge and the tools to offer to their customers, and enable themselves to become their trusted advisors."