Ontinue Launches First Partner Program After Split from Open Systems

Less than a week after its launch by Open Systems, Ontinue has unveiled its first partner program.

Ontinue is teaming up with strategic partners focused on helping Microsoft customers with digital transformation. This announcement follows the launch of Ontinue’s new ION managed extended detection and response (MXDR) service. The service supports Microsoft security solutions.

Ontinue is a five-time Microsoft Gold Partner and one of the original MSSPs to join the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). It was also the Microsoft Security MSSP Partner of the Year in 2022.

Ontinue the MDR Division of Open Systems

Leading the program is veteran channel executive Tim Wheatley. He joined Ontinue as vice president of channel and alliances, and previously was Zimperium’s global channel chief.

Ontinue’s Tim Wheatley

“Open Systems split the company into two divisions to further specialize in both markets and partner ecosystems,” he said. “Ontinue, the MDR division of Open Systems, is focused on Microsoft and the Microsoft partner ecosystem. We launched the new program to create a mechanism where Microsoft’s top security compliance and identity (SCI) partners could enhance their offerings to their customers and help those customers realize the value of their Microsoft Security investments sooner, as well as yield higher renewals of the same security workloads deployed.”

The new program offers Microsoft expertise; accelerated Microsoft sales; increased customer renewals; and rewards and incentives.

What Ontinue Partners Wanted

“The partners we spoke with pointed out that they didn’t want a complex, overly intensive program that placed more time on doing partner program things versus getting our respective teams aligned and selling together alongside Microsoft,” Wheatley said. “We did that. In addition, our program and process allows partners to not only make a referral or resell rewards and margin, but also allows Ontinue to feed incremental services to those partners, which is what most of them are looking for.”

The program is very streamlined, he said.

“We have two agreement types: referral and reseller,” Wheatley said. “Both come with benefits of MDF, enablement, of course, sales team alignment …all through dedicated partner managers. I will, in fact, be doubling the size of my team this year to ensure that we can go deep with a smaller set of very focused partners. This will ensure they get the right amount of attention and nothing falls through the cracks. We are also expanding our partner portal and adding in a ton of great content, including co-brandable materials, to again make it super easy to do business with us.”

Competitive Advantage

The new program will give Ontinue partners a competitive advantage, Wheatley said. The partners that Ontinue is onboarding come directly from Microsoft referrals.

“We have asked them to introduce us to their top security implementation partners, and they are doing that,” he said. “What this does is elevates not only Ontinue, but also the partners in Microsoft’s eyes. This is because the partner gets the benefit of partnering with the MSSP partner of the year, with unrivaled Microsoft security capabilities.  And Ontinue gets the benefit of working with the partners that Microsoft has prioritized partnering around security workload implementation.”