Tanium Details Jump from Direct Sales to ‘Partner-First’

Cybersecurity company Tanium is describing its efforts to transition from a direct sales organization to "partner-first" in just a few years.

Partner-generated business now accounts for a little over 90% of Tanium’s overall revenue.

“We can’t get to the growth we want to get to without using the channel,” said Stuart Robson-Frisby, VP, EMEA channel. “[Tanium] has recognized from the top down that we will invest in our channel partners. We will invest in getting people upskilled with professional services, investing in being a partner-first business. The only marketing money we’re spending is with partners. So we are really doubling down to make partners aware we are behind them.”

Tanium's Stuart Robson-Frisby

Partner-First Strategy Driven By Tanium Leadership

Robson-Frisby said the directive to be partner-first comes from Tanium’s executive team down to its direct salesforce. This includes pushing any services business out to partners.

“It’s about giving [partners] the commitments that you want to help them to improve their bottom line. You want to help them improve their margin. You want them to be the go-to partner of your technology. It’s really easy to say; it’s a lot harder to do. Some people that are saying it still have a direct route as well. You have to be very clear when you’re doing it that you are fully on board with the partner strategy.”

Developed a Channel Strategy

Tanium partners range from MSPs to big partners like Computacenter, and global system integrators such as Capgemini, Deloitte and PwC.

Robson-Frisby said in the past Tanium also used to walk away from "low-end" business.

“If it wasn’t 10,000 seats, we would just walk away and say, ‘That’s not for us; we’re not going to win.’ As we’ve developed our channel strategy, we have come together with our products and our pricing to make sure we have an attractive offering to go into that lower segment as well. Now we go down to 1000 minimum licenses.

“So we’ve extended our reach to market," he continued. "We need more partners in that to bring us into those because as you get more and more opportunities, you can’t handle them on your own.”

Focus On Partner Training, Accreditation

Robson-Frisby said Tanium is looking to build a partner program that gives partners “predictability on what they’re going to, margin-wise. It gives them predictability to build a service around it and manage that service if they wish to go that route. Some partners don’t want to; they just want to be straightforward resellers. But some partners will be a specific managed service partner. And they can build a fully managed service around our product.”

The endpoint security firm currently is focusing on partner training and accreditation.

“We have a new kind of program within our partner program,” said the exec. “That is sitting our technical resource alongside our partners to help train them, to be able to help shadow them so they can see exactly what we’re going through to get them accredited, [so] they can go out and deliver services.”