San Jose, Calif.-based Finjan, a global provider of secure web gateway solutions designed for the enterprise market space, has today announced the launch of its new Vital Security Partner Program to showcase the company’s 100 per cent commitment to the channel.
Limor Elbaz, vice-president of business development at Finjan, assures that with the launch of this new partner program, Finjan has no intentions of having this replace the original program. Rather, Elbaz says the introduction of the Vital Security Partner Program is Finjan’s way of maintaining its commitment with the channel.
One key differentiating feature between the Vital Security Partner Program and the Finjan Basic Partner Program is the number of partner participants enrolled in each one. The new program is designed to aid Finjan resellers and system integrators by giving more extensive and complete access to services such as marketing and support services, sales and technical training sessions and the like.
“Before, we had just the Basic program where we ran deals with 670 partners,” Elbaz said. “The new program is designed for the North American market and we want to work with a smaller set of partners so we can keep a close relationship with them. Our objective [with the Vital Security Partner Program] is to focus on signing up about 50-60 partners.”
While Elbaz says many resellers have already started approaching Finjan about the new partner program, she says the company is being more selective about who they will include this time around.
“We’ll go to the more loyal partners to sign on to this program” Elbaz said. “We want partners who have some sort of security practice. They don’t necessarily have to sell web security, but they need knowledge with some practice of selling it. We also want resellers who sell in the field of the enterprise market since this is where our focus lies. We also want resellers who can give customers a personal and professional touch.”
Partners who are in Finjan’s Vital Security Partner Program also have access to Finjan’s RUSafe channel-only product to use during customer demonstrations.
“We realize that when selling web security, our channel faces the challenge of being able to convince their customer that a new layer of security is necessary,” Elbaz said. “Our RUSafe channel product is a tool to help the channel show customers why they need extra security.”
Finjan’s RUSafe product connects to the customer’s network and after two weeks, with the click of button, the partner has a complete automated audit that shows any web-borne threats the customer has been exposed to.
“This way, the customer sees what threats are out there and they see why they need extra security,” Elbaz said. “We’ve had over a 90 per cent success rate with this.”
The Vital Security Partner Program is designed with three levels for partners in mind. They include from the highest to most basic levels, Premium, Optimized and Authorized. Under each tier, program resources differ but the quality and ease of access to Finjan services remains the same.
What Elbaz also makes note of is that this program is oriented around solutions rather than just services and products.
“We teach partners how to sell Finjan as a complementary product to existing solutions,” Elbaz said. “We’ve built this program to teach partners what services we recommend they offer to the channel around products and solutions.”
Elbaz says margins for Authorized partners are at 25 per cent across the board, while Optimized partners receive a 30 per cent margin and Premium partners can achieve 35 per cent.
In addition to ample margins, Vital Security Partner Program members also receive both sales and technical training along with access to a certification program. Marketing support, communication and technical support are some of the many other benefits that can also be found in the program.
Finjan made the move towards becoming 100 per cent channel focused because the company knows how important their partner community is.
“We’re committed to providing our partners with success,” Elbaz said. “Our partners are our extending arms to get things out to customers. We care for them just as we care for ourselves.”
Finjan’s Canadian plans include expanding business in Canada and establishing a greater footprint within the country, Elbaz said.