11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
The vendor space has got off to an action-packed start to 2022, with Cisco this month reportedly bidding more than $20bn for Splunk, Microsoft gearing up for an Office 365 pricing and billing shake up and McAfee Enterprise and FireEye merging to form ‘Trellix'. AWS' annual growth rate has accelerated to 40 per cent, meanwhile.
Channel partners will have been following such developments closely as they mull which vendors to skill up on, and which to shelve or marginalise, in 2022.
Although enablement lies at the centre of the vendor-partner relationship, the 45 vendors featured in the recent CRN Vendor Report* received mixed reviews in the Accreditation & Training category, garnering a 6.5 average score.
Following on from the report, we asked 11 tech solution provider bosses (ordered below by headcount, from smallest to largest) about which vendors they are focusing their staff training and accreditation efforts on and how vendors can make the process more seamless.
*Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, HPE, HP Inc, AWS, Lenovo, VMware, Apple, Adobe, Veeam, Citrix, IBM, Fortinet, Check Point, Sophos, Google, Mimecast, Barracuda Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Connectwise, Datto, Zoom, NetApp, Juniper, Oracle, Netgear, Poly, Fujitsu, Nutanix, Salesforce, SAP, SonicWall, Samsung, ESET, Avaya, Broadcom/Symantec, Crowdstrike, F5 Networks, WatchGuard, McAfee Enterprise, N-Able, Mitel, Intel, Extreme Networks
Keep [accreditation] short and sweet, you want us selling, not bogged down with training courses
Donna Taylor
Role: Managing director, IT Bus
Which vendor are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
As a business we are strategic in who our core vendors are and while we have no plans to change our current strategy this year, we will be heavily focused to grow our partnership with Forcepoint. I have always liked the technology, as have our customers, but feel they have really focused and invested in their partner programme recently and am excited to strengthen our relationship.
Forcepoint is a high-scale, high-growth company with a comprehensive network security portfolio.
We researched the market and felt that through their recent acquisitions Forcepoint's new Forcepoint One Platform was not only simple to deploy but will be easy for our customers to work with. This further enhances their portfolio and I feel they will be a major force in the SSE market in 2022 and beyond. I believe their products drive demand for professional services in multiple categories. It's worth noting that Forcepoint is exiting the services business and shifting focus to partner-led professional services, which will support our services team expansion.
They truly see the value in the channel.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
What are your ambitions for the partnership?
Through both our current customer base and opening net new business we aim to achieve Titanium status, which is Forcepoint's new highest accreditation status, which is a tall order but one that will give us scale and growth supported directly by the channel team.
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts? If so, why?
Yes, Cyber Risk Aware. User awareness training should now be one of the priorities in any IT security strategy and CRA are ahead of the game with their technology and approach. Their roadmap is exciting, and I think they can have a big impact in the market and very much help to support and benefit our customers.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
Vendors that focus solely on revenue targets. We firmly believe the value a reseller can offer overall is what is important, and some vendors always seem to miss this. Forcepoint have redesigned their programme to enable partner services and practice services buildout. Providing customer success and partner value.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Keep them short and sweet, you want us selling, not bogged down with training courses. Come in and work with us on the courses, align it with our business and team together to take the message to our customers. Shadowing the technical staff is great and offers great knowledge exchange. It's all about partnerships!
Which CEO is ramping his company's JumpCloud and Netscope accreditation efforts? Find out on the next page…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
Okta and Microsoft seem to be the default options. We want to give users another choice
Scott Nursten
Role: CEO, ITHQ
Which vendor are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
Number one is AWS for both tech and architecture resources. We're seeing massive growth and adoption in the cloud. Fortinet is second, also because of huge demand, but it is difficult to be competitive without top-tier status.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
What is your ambition for the partnership?
With all our vendors, our ambition is to be a top-tier partner. We're different from the average UK IT business in that we're not a catalogue company. We only carry specific solution-focused vendors that solve specific problems. We want to excel with these vendors; be known as the go-to experts with these technologies.
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts? If so, why?
JumpCloud and Netskope. JumpCloud doesn't have a large European presence but it's a fantastic platform. Okta and Microsoft seem to be the default options. We want to give users another choice that's a bit more cost-effective. Netskope is a multi-faceted data and IP loss prevention tool. We're seeing a big uptick in requests for this, and we predict strong growth in the future.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
The system is wide open to abuse. All vendors use the same model and say you must invest time and energy in their product to become an expert.
Big catalogue businesses quickly shortcut the certs by ‘buying' their accreditations using contracted certified professionals. They use their market share to quickly negotiate top tier status, sidestepping the cert process internally, making them ‘experts' in label only. We are all-in with our vendors, but we must play by the same rules as catalogue businesses.
Worst of all, sales teams at big companies are highly incentivised for profits, not to ‘solve for the customer'. Go to any of the well-known players in the UK and you'll find they are top tier status; seen as the best partners. But they will sell you whichever vendor offers them the best deal that week.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Partners should have to demonstrate how vendor products deliver benefits in a real-world scenario. We hear consistently from our vendors that we're a ‘safe pair of hands'. Our expertise is obvious in how we use the technology in the design, spec and implementation of solutions, and how we take them to market.
Which MSP boss is focusing her accreditation efforts on ConnectWise in 2022? Find out on following page…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
We see a fair few vendors changing the goals when it comes to required exams or steps to accreditation
Melissa Rambridge
Role: CEO, Sweethaven
Which vendor are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
In line with Sweethaven's projected growth in cybersecurity for both education and B2B markets, this year we'll be focusing our technical and sales staff training/accreditations on Connectwise - namely their security suite including Fortify Endpoint Security and Network Threat Detection.
What is your ambition for the partnership?
Sweethaven has a number of large, UK-wide joint ventures on the horizon and we believe this partnership will specifically enable us to provision high-quality EDR and SIEM solutions within our security stacks, delivered with a high degree of consultancy knowledge and calibre. There is currently a huge need and gap in the education space in particular for these solutions.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts? If so, why?
We are continually on the lookout for and assessing new, innovative solution providers within the security space to enhance our security stack - especially when factoring in our requirement for delivery to two quite different markets with edu and B2B.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
It would have to be lack of clarity on training paths. We see a fair few vendors changing the goals when it comes to required exams or steps to accreditation, which can prove tricky when you've just formulated a team member's progression path around them!
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Be crystal clear on what you would like your resellers and MSPs to be most skilled in, and why. Once that is clearly signposted, working in partnership to both take the headache/time constraint out of setting training paths for internal teams and, in turn, promoting those solutions to market - within a logical sequence of events - is always most helpful. Training and accreditation is mutually recognised as hugely important for all involved (not least professional development of team members), when time is pressured then help in achieved progression paths is always very greatly appreciated!
See the next page to discover which partner CEO sees Cisco as their biggest "white space opportunity" in 2022…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
"Cisco represents the biggest ‘white space' opportunity for Ampito"
Angela Whitty
Role: CEO, Ampito Group
Which vendors are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
We are seeing an ever-increasing requirement across our customer base with regards to security. Fortinet have been a long-standing partner and therefore we have a significant base to maintain and hence we remain focussed in that area. On a similar note, the consolidation of Aruba and Silver Peak and our legacy base and expertise continue to make this a priority. Finally, I would say that Cisco represents the biggest ‘white space' opportunity for Ampito. Our relationship is relatively embryonic and hence we are selecting the appropriate accreditations that we would need to support our customers.
What are your ambitions for the partnerships?
Our biggest ambition is to develop further services around exciting technologies to provide new solutions to customers whilst driving incremental revenue and improving profitability. We want to work collaboratively with our vendor partners in developing mutually beneficial solutions and services using the best technology available in the market. With a focus for us being on ‘move to cloud', subscription-based models looking towards application delivery and performance as well as reporting we see the need for software centric solution. We want to be on that journey with our key vendor partners.
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts? If so, why?
Areas around cybersecurity, specifically attack simulation, vulnerability scanning, and traditional penetration testing are key. We've got some great vendors in this space and current working on a couple of new additions to bolster our offering. This will provide customers with solutions to help identify threats before they could become a victim these can be offered as an Ampito Managed Service and in some cases self-managed. The default scenario we are starting to see more of is for machine learning and automation, with a greater focus on management, monitoring with remediation through automation. We have been working on security enhancements on our core Netscout Arbor solution, with the likes of Netskope, App Check, Safe Breach to name a few.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
Cost and consistency has got to be the biggest bugbear for us here! One could say it's our issue that we offer such a broad portfolio of vendors and therefore our cost to certify is higher, but that's a direct reflection of the needs and requirements of our customers. When programme requirements change continually, it means we must take our staff away from their day-to-day roles to fulfil program requirements which can means a loss of customer focus - and revenue - and that's not good for anyone!
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Keep it simple! Effective but simple. If we work in partnership, we can make sure that collectively we have the skills for meet our joint customers needs and stay ahead of current market and technological trends. We are close to our customers and would be more than happy to offer feedback to any vendor who wanted to hear our experiences from the field and the potential disconnect with what we are asked for with regards to accreditations.
Which solution provider leader is unhappy with vendors who restrict access to demo labs or NFR licenses? Find out on following page…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
Putting up barriers to demo labs or reducing access via limited NFR licences becomes an exercise in channel disablement
David Lannin
Role: CTO, Sapphire Technologies
Which vendor are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
Sapphire are continuing to expand our expertise with Check Point Software Technologies. This year we're focusing on their cloud security solutions, ensuring customers have the best protection in their digital transformation projects.
What are your ambitions for the partnership?
More of the same! We've got a great partnership with them already and work very well with their UK commercial and technical teams. Their portfolio is expanding, and with some significant acquisitions this year, we expect other technologies and service lines to become available to us.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
Vendors who fail to provide access to their technology for training and learning purposes. Not everyone can learn effectively from a video or a slide deck and putting up barriers to demo labs or reducing access via limited NFR licences becomes an exercise in channel disablement rather than a positive training experience.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Make it fair and interesting. If it's a complex solution, offer multiple training routes to the candidate, such as demo access, case studies, NFR licenses and training materials. Hours of training videos alone often won't be effective, so diversify. Don't force resellers to train on solutions they aren't reselling. Don't move the goalposts once accreditation is undertaken for at least 12 months. (Apologies, that's a lot more than one! I suppose I've seen some vendors falling short, far too often).
Which reseller CEO is focusing her firm's efforts on Fortinet and Aruba in 2022? See next page to find out…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
We will be focusing our efforts on retaining top partner status with Aruba Networks and Fortinet
Yolanta Gill
Role: CEO, European Electronique
Which vendor are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
Over the past few years European Electronique's focus has been on networking infrastructure and cyber security. Although Microsoft would certainly be one of our top vendors as the company is at the forefront of digital and cloud transformation, we will be focusing our efforts on retaining top partner status with Aruba Networks and Fortinet.
With the move to cloud and hybrid working, security is, more than ever, one of the biggest challenges facing CIOs and IT teams. Whilst European Electronique delivers networking infrastructure and a range of security products alongside managed service solutions, we are extending the scope of our expertise into advanced cyber security services. We are addressing our customers' needs and concerns providing solutions ranging from managed firewalls, multi-factor authentication to cloud email defence and intrusion protection.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Retaining or gaining accreditation status is always very demanding and a complex process which requires continual renewal, putting a strain on the company so simplifying the process would be beneficial.
Poor training portals are a "definite no no" for our next partner MD. See next page for more...
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
Out of date material and poor training portals is a definite no no
Guy Hocking
Role: Group managing director, Utilize
Which vendors are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
Microsoft and Sophos.
What are your ambitions for the partnerships?
Microsoft: Evolving the breadth and depth of our Microsoft skills pool is a full-time job. Our training and development co-ordinators regularly update the training plans for our teams. This year we are ramping up our skills in the Power Platform and have clear targets around this.
Sophos: Retaining our Platinum partnership is something we have successfully achieved each year. This year is about building on that skillset and exploring our wider security portfolio.
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts? If so, why?
Security is ever evolving. So much so we have a dedicated team researching new services that can help protect our clients. We are looking at managed 24/7 alerting, managed intruder detection and a whole range of complementary services. Dedicated Darkweb scanning is the latest managed service we have developed, ID Agent from Kaseya being our vendor of choice and a focus of our skills accreditation.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
Out of date material and poor training portals is a definite no no in this ever-changing industry.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
We have just embarked on an apprenticeship programme that see's us commit to a cohort of 10 apprentices per year. Having spoken with local college leaders, I believe more vendor engagement with these programmes at this level (going into colleges and helping run an up-to-date curriculum) would be hugely advantageous to students and the wider industry.
See next page to find out CAE Technology CEO Justin Harling's vendor priorities and accreditation bugbears…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
We are concentrating on the core where there is a proven market
Justin Harling
Role: CEO, CAE Technology
Which vendors are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
Given the nature of the customer opportunity at the moment, there is not a singular focus, but it is a combination of skills wrapped within our own methodology and development that is being prioritised.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
What are your ambitions for the partnerships?
The ambition is that a deeper wider relationship with Cisco, Dell and Microsoft will allow us to present differentiated full stack solutions for hybrid infrastructure including the all-important security layer.
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts? If so, why?
We are concentrating on the core where there is both a proven market and an incredibly strong track record of innovation that we are confident will continue to drive growth.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
New programmes that then are not supported by availability of required training, which often leads to additional levels of stress and disruption for our people.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Clearly set out why changes are being made (not just the passage of time) and demonstrate a defined link to how this can help us improve profitability.
Phoenix Software's Sam Mudd is urging vendors to "avoid duplication" in their programmes. See next page for more…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
If we have passed an accreditation to actually deploy a technology, then why must we also pass certification for the same technology with their partner programme?
Sam Mudd
Role: Managing director, Phoenix Software
Which vendors are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and what are your ambitions for the partnerships?
The Phoenix ambition is to work our way to top accreditations and relations with our strategic partners such as Microsoft and Sophos and many more, and we have attained that in recent years. Then it is all about retention of those important investments you have made in your talent, and making sure your staff are happy and enjoy their work with you as an employer.
Are there any new/emerging vendors or technology areas where you are ramping up accreditation efforts?
SOC Services: MDR/SIEM/SOAR/incident response/threat hunting
Security Technology: threat intelligence services/perimeter security (firewalling/SASE/SD-WAN)/identity
Data Protection: zero trust data protection/immutable backup technology
…all areas of immense importance. No need to specify which vendors as a key part of our strategy is pick the right ones for our vertical industry needs, but suffice to say we are consistently watching the market for new vendors and their offerings to add to our ecosystems of partnership if we believe there is a good value proposition.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
It's merely the balancing act of delivering on current customer contracts and managing utilisation demands along with our standards and vendor certification training. Having a project management plan approach to this, throughout the calendar year helps us track the periods when we will need to be internally focused.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
Plenty of runway notice to what is needed (12 months in advance would be great) and a bit of latitude when it comes to understanding we are also running businesses that are customer facing, and every day brings its challenges and priorities that we must attend to. Avoid duplication! - this is aimed at vendors who have technical deployment certifications which are separate to their channel programmes. If we have passed an accreditation to actually deploy a technology, then why must we also pass certification for the same technology with their partner programme? This could help tremendously if they were intertwined!
Which IT solutions provider boss is betting on new partnerships with Crowdstrike and Mimecast to bring home the bacon? See next page…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
We're investing in new partnerships to deliver security managed services with companies like CrowdStrike and Mimecast
Gareth Meyer
Role: COO, Ultima Business Solutions
Which vendors are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
We value all partners; however, Microsoft is our largest invested partner and is hugely important to us, but AWS is also a big focus.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
What are your ambitions for the partnerships?
We're investing in specialisations rather than a wide range of accreditations to enable us to accelerate and deliver cloud managed services. We are creating long-term relationships that add value to our customers through our professional and managed service offerings.
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts? If so, why?
We're investing in new partnerships to deliver security managed services with companies like CrowdStrike and Mimecast. These next-gen collaborative partnerships support our clients with multi-layer cloud security providing revenue and reputation protection 24/7.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
One of our biggest frustrations across all partners is lack of flexibility to meet client feedback and demand. Operating as a legacy business does not provide the agility that a modern managed service provider needs to deliver service excellence today.
Which reseller boss wants more vendors to pursue gamifaction when it comes to sales accreditations? See next page for more…
11 channel partner bosses reveal which vendors they are skilling up on in 2022
UK reseller and MSP head honchos including CAE’s Justin Harling, Phoenix Software’s Sam Mudd and Ampito’s Angela Whitty reveal where they are focusing their 2022 accreditation and training efforts, as well as their accreditation pet peeves
The gamification of sales accreditations usually returns a higher degree of interest
Jack Watson
Role: Managing Director, Bytes Software Services
Which vendor are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
We aren't focussing on any one vendor for technical and sales staff accreditation efforts this year. We are looking at developing the breadth of experience we offer so we can better help our customers navigate the complexity of modern workplace, hybrid infrastructure and security. We've found that taking a more rounded view of customer challenges and industry opportunity this way is paying dividends. In terms of deep technical resource, we are continuing to invest in network security and hybrid cloud infrastructure. In those areas the likes of Check Point and Microsoft provide us with plenty of opportunity from a vendor perspective.
What are your ambitions for the partnerships?
We want to continue to improve our capability around SASE and lead conversations around zero trust architecture. We want to keep accelerating our cyber security capability to meet customer demand and double our security MSSP business. Our cloud business is already growing at the same rate and what we fundamentally want is more customers calling Bytes as their first instinct for assistance on Azure technical support as they have historically for licensing advice.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts?
We've seen positive growth with some already strong partnerships with Rubrik, Varonis and Palo Alto, which I think is an extension to the increasing sophistication of cyber attack and data resilience.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
I think we continue to see product features and functionality outweigh customer challenges and impact at different inflection points. It is also rare for sales staff accreditation training to talk in terms of how vendors work with and complement other solutions. We are seeing a great deal more collaboration in the security space due to the necessity of multi-layered solutions and I'd like to see more of that approach.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
The gamification of sales accreditations usually returns a higher degree of interest. We've seen our Microsoft skills challenges equip a large volume of people in a short space of time. There is a strong sense of self-improvement and intrinsic motivation to be more productive and autonomous at Bytes so where vendors couch their training as something that can in some way improve the individual's personal opportunity and impact there is opportunity for better engagement.