Jonathan Whitley

Name: Jonathan Whitley

Role: Regional vice president - Northern Europe, WatchGuard Technologies

Spirit animal: Owl

Walk-on song: Sunny Afternoon

How would you summarise your company's channel philosophy?

Our focus is on partner engagement and training, rather than annual sales targets and technology adoption criteria. We provide product specialisation certification training at no cost, which reduces the barriers to entry for partners and ensures that programme benefits reflect the level of engagement.

We are looking to grow the number of our partners

Everything we do, from building our Unified Security Platform, to how we bundle products, structure our channel programme and manage support, are focused to better enable channel partners to migrate to an MSP model and grow their business.

Tell us about your company's partner programme in 100 words or fewer…

The WatchGuardONE Partner Program is focused on delivering exceptional technical, sales, and marketing support from education and training, to cooperative lead generation, sales and goal-setting. We ensure each WatchGuard support employee is equipped to meet the diverse needs of partners and their customers. We continually expand our product portfolio to address the changing threat landscape while investing 30 - 40 per cent of our revenue to grow and develop our channel programme, every year. This means that our WatchGuardONE partner programme is always aligned with our technology solutions.

How many partners do you work with in the UK?

We currently have 172 qualified partners in the UK. This just represents those partners who are totally up to date with all their certifications. However, we tend to do business with between 700 - 800 resellers in any given quarter.

Are you looking either to expand or reduce that? If so, what partner profile/geography does this apply to?

We are looking to grow the number of our partners. There are many good fits for a WatchGuard reseller and typically the resellers we have the closest relationships with have a strong ethos of providing value to their customers. This would include the ability to provide comprehensive services to their customers, ideally a managed service.

If I look at it from a geographical perspective, an area where we need to hire more partners would be Scotland.

Have you made any major changes to your partner programme recently, or are you about to?

Over the past year, WatchGuard integrated its full suite of endpoint security products and services and Wi-Fi solutions into WatchGuard Cloud to further simplify security service management for MSPs and enable them to offer a Unified Security Platform to customers. The company also expanded its full suite of FlexPay payment options to all four product lines.

Describe your perfect partner?

Someone obsessive about security. It is not enough to just have good products; you need to understand your customers and their business to offer them a good solution. Our best partners do this. Our best partners have a set of tools that they are experts in and use only these to provide a solution to their customers. They are also not afraid to say no to their customers if they are asked to provide something they do not support.

In which areas would you most like to see your partners invest over the next 12 months?

Broadening their knowledge across the entire WatchGuard USP platform. Customers are increasingly looking for a truly integrated solution and this is what USP provides. It also provides a more coherent business proposition for them and introduces them to technologies in faster growing market sectors.

What are your priorities for the next 12 months?

While we're always striving to improve every aspect of our partner programme and how our teams operate in conjunction with our partner community, my top goals for 2022 are to 1) to continue building out the company's approach to pipeline development and the role the partner plays in that process 2) continue evolving WatchGuard's programme to even better suit partners operating as managed service providers (introducing new training content, changing sales thresholds, evolving how marketing funds are earned, and so on).

Do you feel your company is doing enough to cater for non-resale partners, including those that sell technology as a managed service, ISVs or agents?

Absolutely. MSSPs are at the heart of all the development that we have for management billing etc. These partners also represent the very fastest growing part of our market for us.

Is direct-channel conflict ever an issue in your partner ecosystem, and if so how do you mitigate that?

Competition is a fact, and beneficial in the long run. Partners who offer a managed service certainly have an advantage beyond more traditional resale partners. Managed service partners have an edge as services are tricky to compare as the underlying components are often white labelled and part of an overall stack.

Name one trait you prize highly in partners, and one you deplore?

The one thing I would change is the currency! The USD is not our friend at the moment

I prize those partners that understand the mutual advantage. We get more done and enjoy the process a lot more when we are not just trying to get one over each other.

I deplore the lack of ethics. A bad reputation is not something you can easily shake off and we should all have a sense of fair play.

How do you feel your company's margin proposition stacks up against your peers?

The margins some of our MSSP partners make are healthy and amongst the very best in the industry.

If you could wave a magic wand and change one aspect of your channel performance or strategy overnight, what would it be?

Now, the one thing I would change is the currency! The USD is not our friend at the moment.

What's the most challenging aspect of being a channel leader?

The most challenging aspect in 2022 is continuing to work with our global distribution partners to deliver innovative business models to support the ever-evolving partner community. However, just as WatchGuard has been the first firewall vendor to offer hardware via subscription business models through some of the largest names in distribution globally, I'm confident we will continue to pave the way for our partners.

Tell us something about yourself most people won't know

I am an introvert and 100 per cent prefer to be behind the scenes. Always, no exceptions. Not to say I can't face the masses, and usually enjoy it when I do, but it drains the energy right out of me and I need a good reboot afterwards.

I am an introvert and 100 per cent prefer to be behind the scenes. Always, no exceptions. Not to say I can't face the masses, and usually enjoy it when I do, but it drains the energy right out of me and I need a good reboot afterwards

What is your spirit animal?

Owl, for all the reasons you can imagine starting with wisdom.