What's On Your Mind? Share at CP Expo's Cybersecurity Peer Group

Channel Futures is launching a new cybersecurity peer group where MSPs, MSSPs and other cybersecurity providers can share insights and talk about what’s on their mind in a vendor-free environment.

We’ll host the Channel Futures Cybersecurity Peer Group on April 12. It’s part of the Channel Partners Conference and Expo and co-located MSP Summit, April 11-14, in Las Vegas. Rory Sanchez, president, and Sam Ruggeri, executive vice president of global sales, at Cerberus Cyber Sentinel, are moderating the peer group.

Today’s channel leaders are looking to accelerate security sales and profits, improve customer satisfaction, find the right organizational structure or gain efficiency. They need to hear best practices from their peers. No one can go it alone in today’s complex cybersecurity channel. It takes a network to deliver what customers need and want.

Potential topics for the Cybersecurity Peer Group include: talent recruitment and retention, pricing services, strategic vendor evaluation, customer acquisition, the changing cybersecurity landscape and more.

Come prepared to share with a group of trusted business leaders who will quickly become part of your network. This will be the start of a community that meets year-round in person at key industry events and via video conferences.

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Sanchez and Ruggeri discuss the significance of the peer group and what it could mean for participants.

Channel Futures: What are the advantages for providers to join the Cybersecurity Peer Group?

Cerberus Cyber Sentinel’s Rory Sanchez

Rory Sanchez: There’s no better learning experience than learning from your peers. If properly done, peer groups can provide an environment for sharing best practices and allowing peer group members to grow their businesses together by leveraging the collective knowledge and experiences of the entire group.

Sam Ruggeri: There is much that can be learned for your peers. At the end of the day, we are all in the same business, and from my own years of experience, most are willing to share their success as well as downsides. These conferences, while rich in content, give more in the way of folks collaborating together. This can be from how do you do it, to can you help me do it and or can we partner.

CF: Can you give some examples of typical issues addressed in peer groups?

Cerberus Cyber Sentinel’s Sam Ruggeri

RS: Peer groups can share best practices, compare toolsets, analyze financials and work together to improve each other’s profitability. The possibilities are actually endless.

SR: Everyone is always wanting to know how folks are doing. For those that are doing well, what are they doing differently? These folks typically want to share their success story.

CF: Is the session during the Channel Partners Conference and Expo just the beginning? What can participates expect beyond this session?

RS: Yes, this session is a pre-launch at best. We expect to take what we learn from this sessions and come back to those interested with a proposed go-forward plan.

SR: If this is a discovery session, we will have to have more meat and intrigue. We know to find out how many are willing to join and if they can see the benefit. Will you be a part of an ongoing group that meets quarterly for example or holds monthly calls?

CF: What do you hope participants can learn and make use of from the Cybersecurity Peer Group?

RS: This session should get them thinking about what joining a peer group could mean. Hopefully, it will create excitement for future participation.

SR: This can’t be a one-and-done. It has to be a way to share best practices so the group itself can benefit from it. It has to be more than a commercial. Again, this will give us a gauge as 30 minutes doesn’t give much room for discussion. I would suggest to have next steps prepared based on how well this is received.