BeyondTrust expands EMEA channel focus in 2015

BeyondTrust® has appointed Kevin Gallagher as VP for Strategic Alliances to strengthen and drive its global channel approach and in particular it’s growing EMEA region. Gallagher joins following senior roles at CA and Sun Microsystems and will help BeyondTrust to define and enact a number of ongoing channel changes to enable the company reach a 100% indirect sales model in EMEA.

BeyondTrust's Privileged Account Management and Vulnerability Management solutions are trusted by 4,000 customers worldwide and delivered by approximately 100 channel partners in EMEA. In the last 24 months, BeyondTrust has committed more resources towards the channel growing to 93% of revenue through a mixture of single and two tier distributions across the region. The company has increased headcount from 3 to over 25 international staff and opened offices in the Netherlands, Germany and Dubai to help drive international growth. The channel and end-customers have also been assisted by a 24/7 international help desk with English, French, German and Spanish language support.

“Our aim is to run a 100% indirect business in EMEA and the last two years has seen us move away from direct engagement to offer more support to our partners through technical and training assistance which we feel is of benefit for both our partners and customers,” explains ‎ Brent Thurrell, Vice President EMEAI & APAC at BeyondTrust. Thurrell joined BeyondTrust in 2011, having previously held direct sales, account management and leadership positions for Xerox and Capita. Over the last decade, he has specialised in the Information Security and Privileged Account Management space with a number of senior roles at cutting edge technology vendor and consulting organisations including Aveksa Inc and Vaau.

BeyondTrust runs a multi-level accreditation model across Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers and Thurrell estimates that around 40 partners have invested heavily in creating Privileged Account and Vulnerability Management practices. “The diversity of our portfolio allows partners to solve the headline issues on day one while providing longer term value to their clients in other areas of the security landscape,” says Thurrell, “In terms of go-to market, we have taken a pragmatic approach and work with Value Added Distributors in markets where we feel it makes sense such as the Middle East while keeping a flat approach in others like the UK, France and Benelux.”

In early 2015, BeyondTrust will launch a new partner portal to improve resource availability, education and training. The portal will also help partners to prepare for a more defined accreditation process that is currently under development. Later in the year, BeyondTrust will be announcing a new set of classroom based training sessions for partners at locations across Europe. “Our driving aim is to help our partners who have invested in us to grow their businesses and keep up to date with the relevant sales and technical skills while ensuring that clients recognise that certified partners are a trusted and valuable resource.”

“We are still having some recruitment discussions and there is potential to add a few additional partners in each country but we are not going to oversaturate the community. The Privilege Access and Vulnerability Management spaces are still relatively underdeveloped which offers a great opportunity for our partners that want to grow,” Thurrell adds.