Interaction - Sunil Sharma, MD, Sales, Sophos India & SAARC

Sunil Sharma, MD, Sales, Sophos India & SAARC tells us about the channel partner programme of Sophos in this discussion.

Briefly describe your channel strategy for 2021

Sunil Sharma - Sophos is entirely a channel driven company. Our channel strategies are well designed and driven through our global partner programme. We launched the new Sophos global partner program in July 2020.

The programme is built on the following key parameters -

Simplicity and Transparency - The Sophos Global Partner Programme is comprehensive but simple. It clearly defines and informs our channel partners on the registration process, enablement tools, trainings and growth path associated with the partner programme.

Partner Profitability - Our partner program rewards commitment. The more the partners are committed to Sophos, the more profitability they can achieve.

The partners can attain profitability under two aspects of our partner programme -

1. Tiered Discounts: We provide tiered discounts aligned to respective partner tiers: authorized partner, silver partner, gold partner, platinum partner and sub-distributors. These discounts help partners built consistent profitability.

1. Margin Retention Opportunities: ‘Deal Registration’ & ‘Incumbency’ are the arrangements to provide margin retention to our partners. Deal Registration helps partners to secure upsell, cross sell and new customer opportunities. Incumbency helps them to secure their renewing customers.

Partner Enablement - The training modules under our partner program enables our partners to be responsive to the changing needs of today’s cybersecurity customers. These trainings empower our partners to tackle common trends that are impacting our industry, such as customers moving to the cloud, increased consumption of managed services across the full security spectrum, and of course, the proliferation of advanced and targeted attacks.

To enable our partners, Sophos provides certification for every important role at partner companies: Certified Sales Consultant, Certified Engineer, Certified Architect and Certified Technician.

What are you doing to get more channel partners to benefit from this channel strategy?              

Sunil Sharma - To optimise the Sophos global partner programme for our partners, we make sure that they are well versed with all the features and benefits under our partner program. Through regular touch points like channel webinars and trainings, we make partners aware of their growth path with Sophos. In addition to this, Sophos has a comprehensive and intuitive ‘partner portal’. All the important partner campaigns are regularly highlighted there. Partners can avail all such benefits under our partner program in a few clicks within the partner portal..

What new challenges have emerged in 2021 which have necessitated this strategy?

Sunil Sharma - Sophos believes in putting partners first in all our efforts. Hence, the partner strategies that we have in place, are proactive and not a response to sudden challenges. Due to our next generation cloud native cybersecurity solutions, our partners were able to secure their customers even during the peak of the pandemic and lockdown.

We make sure that our partners are empowered to tackle any kind of business or other challenges. And it starts from with the products that we create. There are features designed specifically for partners, such as the Sophos Central-Partner dashboard that allows partners to centrally manage their customer endpoints and firewalls from a single dashboard. Partners also have clear upsell and cross-sell opportunities with their existing customers, due to the broad portfolio of Sophos products that are available within Sophos Central.

How have your channel partners responded to this strategy? 

Sunil Sharma - The Sophos global partner programme is hugely appreciated by our partners. Today, we have more than 3000 partners utilising various features, campaigns and benefits associated with our partner programme.