Netskope Partner Program for MSPs Offers New Pricing and Training

Netskope just launched a new MSP program for its secure access service edge (SASE) platform. It features dedicated MSP resources, new technical support accreditation and flexible licensing options. The company developed the program after it saw more of its traditional VARs and resellers moving to the cloud and developing managed service practices.

The Netskope managed service provider program is an extension of the company’s Evolve Partner Program, which it designed to create a global strategy around resellers that mainly served enterprise clients, said Kristin Carnes, the company’s vice president global channel programs and strategy. Over time, though, many of those partners evolved, adding more managed services and expanding into the SMB, as well as state and local government markets. Netskope added new components to its programs to support that evolution.

Netskope’s Kristin Carnes

“There’s a huge gap from a skills perspective, particularly for smaller and midsize (end-user) customers who have generalists on their staff but certainly don’t have a lot of cloud expertise,” Carnes said. “They’re looking for partners not only to sell products, but to provide first-line support for those products and solutions. It’s really a natural progression of our program and where our partners are headed.”

Netskope does not sell direct, Carnes said. About one-half of those VAR and reseller partners now offer managed services. The company also picked up a lot of MSPs through its purchase last summer of Infiot, a developer of secure access technologies that Netskope integrated into its Borderless SD-WAN offering.

“While our partners still have a resell motion, they’re really moving toward offering robust services around the technologies that they sell, and that predominately is moving to the cloud,” Carnes said.

Netskope Partner Program Breakdown

The managed service provider program consists of three key components:

“Those things packaged together makes it so much easier for the partner because they can take one thing to the customer,” Carnes said. “[MSPs and VARs] know what’s underneath it, but the customer doesn’t always need to know. They just need to know what the results are going to be. “

Netskope simplified pricing by providing a discount directly to partners to create a more reliable fixed-pricing model.

“There’s one price point for each one of the offerings,” Carnes said. “That gives them what they can work off of without having to come back to us to ask for additional discounting.”

The company also created a new deal protection program. MSPs register a deal through their Netskope account rep and, once the registration form is accepted, the account rep will protect the deal and work with the MSP as needed.

2. Technical accreditation and support. Netskope added implementation and support training tracks that include five new training modules. A new global support portal also offers tools specifically for managed service providers.

3. A new dedicated MSP portal provides access to all of the new initiatives.

“MSPs will have access to all of the training and support resources that they need, including the latest notes on product changes and the deal protection program,” Carnes said. “Everything’s right at their fingertips.”