Interaction - Manish Alshi, Channel Head (India & SAARC), Check Point

Manish Alshi, Head of Channels (India & SAARC), Check Point Software Technologies talks about the channel strategies of Check Point.

Briefly describe your channel strategy in 2021

In 2020, we launched our new global partner programme in consultation with hundreds of Check Point Software partners from all over the world. The programme enables partners to have deeper collaboration with Check Point Software, giving them access to support & resources to speed up customer sales cycles. Partners enjoy predictable growth margins and recognition when winning new accounts, closing strategic win-backs and accelerating customer adoption and success in cloud security. Customers also benefit from a positive day-one experience and flexible solutions that give them more versatility and value in their security purchasing decisions.

In 2021, we have been focusing on delivering the best growth opportunities and rewards in the industry to help our partners be more successful and profitable. We have been doubling our commitment to helping them win new business and build even stronger relationships with existing customers.

As a result of our efforts, in the first half of 2021, we were able to increase our deal registrations substantially, year on year. We also on-boarded 104 new partners, who underwent our training and certification program. With consistent support from our esteemed partners, we were also able to establish a successful go to market strategy for new customer acquisitions through a White Space account coverage across the country.

What are you doing to help the channel partners grow their business?

Some of online our tools to help them shorten sales cycles are -

• Check Point’s “Engage” app is arguably the most innovative app in the channel that brings the world of cyber security to our partner sales representatives and system. Users can register a deal, collaborate with our field teams, chat with an expert, receive alerts and gain access to useful content.
• “DemoPoint” unifies our partners and field resources to enable customer-facing demos with pre-constructed demo solutions. We also invite our partner to be part of the extended Check Point community through “CheckMates”, which brings partners, experts and R&D together to share best practices.

Further, we have Partner reward programme to recognise alignment, activity and execution -

Check Point rewards partners for their aligning & executing their effort with our overall objectives. Our Partner Growth Program has 5 tiers / star levels and is designed to offer consistency and clarity to our partners. Partners benefit from greater discounts and internal / external branding as they advance STAR levels.  Our new model recognises partner’s performance alongside their efforts and defines clear targets per partner level, which are based on Check Point’s priorities and engage activities. Each partner level has a specific “points” target. Partners can earn points for all of the activities below -

1. Customer meetings, POCs, demos and training
2. Year over year growth
3. Acquiring new customers
4. Selling emerging technologies such as Cloud and Harmony
5. Selling Infinity Total Protection

There are also some certification requirements for each level that are constantly being monitored and improved upon, for relevance and skills development.

• Deal registration program for partner profitability

We offer a comprehensive deal registration programme, designed to protect partner’s profitability and reward alignment. This programme offers differentiated discounts for new customers, emerging technologies and Infinity. The programme also offers investment opportunities through co-op, market development funds, cyber learning credits and aggressive discounts for solutions for partners’ in-house use.

• New customer acquisition support for partners

Our Enhanced Whitespace Programme assists partners in acquiring new customers by combining their account knowledge with Check Point and third part data sources. The results are excellent collaboration with our field teams, abbreviated sales cycles and increased win rates. Partners also benefit Check Points channel marketing with scalable “partner ready” campaigns to extend their market reach.

• Enablement assets to optimise customer value

We offer partners enablement assets which optimise customer experience and value. Our new training and certification programme offers partners best in class training courses to assess, sell, deploy and support security solutions. We also offer one of the best professional services training and shadowing programs in the industry.

What are your channel-related plans in H2?

Our plans for H2 are pivoted around three core objectives:

• Intensifying our joint go to market strategy with our partners and establishing a deeper trust with them
• Helping them ramp up their implementation resources for Check Point products & enable them to augment their services & Day2 support revenues &
• Encouraging Partners to continue focusing on new customer acquisitions through our new customer rebate program, that incentives them for their effort to register new customer wins.

What's your message for the potential partners?

Check Point is and will continue to be a 100% focused Channel-driven Company - it’s been that way now for more than 27 years. Check Point Software continues to stay committed to the Indian market and we are whole-heartedly devoted to our goal of being the most profitable vendor for our partners in the cyber security domain in India.

We firmly believe that the partner ecosystem is critical to scaling our business and view our partners in India as an extension of our team. This also means extending resources available internally for our employees to our partners, ensuring that we are all equipped to succeed together. We will continue to have customized enablement plans to ensure that our partners are completely skilled & are in a position to serve their customers in the most effective manner.