Anne Bourgeois, Fortinet

Anne Bourgeois is VP channel for EMEA at Fortinet and an industry veteran with a strong background in cybersecurity, channel programmes, distribution and renewal.

For the last nine years, Anne has been building a story alongside a go-to-market plan and channel enablement tactics that will ensure aggressive revenue growth, customer expansion, new customer acquisition and channel integrity.

Focusing on business opportunities, per-segment strategy, policy and processes, Anne aims to build mutually beneficial relationships with partners.

She also believes that partners should be able to access programs and information that enable them to solve their customers' problems and expand their own footprint.

Prior to Fortinet, Anne worked at Distribution for seven years, developing go-to-market strategies for several security vendors and their partners. Previous roles also include product management, sales management, and sales engineering.

Number of years in current role:

4

Number of years in current company:

9

Number of years involved in indirect sales:

22

Reporting to:

Patrice Perche, CRO

Does this person report to the CEO?

Yes

What percentage of your sales come through the channel?

100 per cent

Describe your personal channel philosophy.

Channel is about providing a solid framework to create synergies between a vendor and its partner or distributor ecosystem.

These synergies are translated into channel programmes that offer a comprehensive partner journey by: Developing new business opportunities to expand the partner's footprint: portfolio or customers; supporting knowledge acquisition: sales training & technical certifications; rewarding partners for being the vendor route to market channel programme execution must be supported by seasoned channel account managers in country, who should be accountable for partner success.

What were your biggest channel accomplishments over the past year?

My team and I demonstrated our ability to transform our EMEA channel ecosystem and support partner transition from Integrator to MSSP, growing the number of MSSPs by 30 per cent in 2023. It is also worth mentioning the success of our dedicated EMEA SMB programme which achieved 29 per cent growth in 2023.

What were your organisation's biggest channel accomplishments over the past year?

A new channel incentive framework to reward the diversity of our partners

A new consumption model dedicated to MSSPs

Specialisation: the number of Fortinet partners holding a specialisation grew by 60 per cent. As a result, 50 per cent of our enterprise partners held a specialisation by the end of 2023.

How is your company working to build equity and inclusion in the channel?

At Fortinet we are committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and diverse workforce within our organisation and across the industry to help empower individuals to reach their full potential.

The number of women in our organisation has increased by 39 per cent. Through the Fortinet Academy and the NSE Institute we also want to set the scene for future generations, making sure that we break the stereotype of cybersecurity not being an industry for women.

We also have a lot of local initiatives to promote diversity in the channel, through mentoring programmes and various events organised by our local channel leaders.

How is your organisation's market development strategy (MDF) changing this year?

In EMEA, Fortinet is using COOP, rather than MDF, which guarantees that our EMEA channel organisation has its own budget and is fully aligned with the company's growth.

Our main objective for 2024 is to invest more coop with named partners so that we can have a bigger impact on a specific partner pipeline and revenue.

What are your top channel goals for 2024?

Launch new certifications and/or partner levels, improve partner profitability, encourage partners to sell a broader part of our portfolio.

What were the key partner investments made over the past year?

New sizing tool to facilitate the bill of materials, European price book to ease quotation on multi country deals and deal registration open to distribution to ease deal protection on SMB opportunity.

How is the rise of public cloud marketplaces as a route to market affecting your channel?

We see it as a positive additional avenue for our partners.