5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Feb. 10, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel including Dell Technologies, Insight Enterprises, Thoughtworks, Skyhigh Security and Cyberhaven.

The Week Ending Feb. 10

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Dell Technologies with its plans to expand its channel efforts around its Apex as-a-service offerings.

Also making this week’s list are Skyhigh Security for launching its first distinct partner program since the split of McAfee Enterprise, AWS consulting service partner Thoughtworks for a savvy acquisition, and security service edge tech developer Cyberhaven for its own ambitious channel plans.

And leading Microsoft partner Insight Enterprises is here for building up a $1.5 billion M&A war chest that could be used to fuel acquisitions this year.

Dell Offers Partner Incentives, MDF To Boost Channel Sales Of Apex

Dell Technologies is going all in on getting its channel partners to sell Dell Apex, the company’s as-a-service IT infrastructure servers and storage offering.

This week Dell told partners that it is boosting up-front incentives and providing market development funds for partners to sell, install and maintain Apex with their own managed services.

Dell is also creating training programs to help partners build product maturity with Apex and persona-defined courses for partners looking to build their business or improve their technical know-how.

The updates to the Dell partner program allow partners to leverage their existing service delivery competencies and offer customers an Apex solution that is completely partner managed.

Dell’s channel moves with Apex were a bright spot during a week that also saw Dell announce that it is cutting 6,650 jobs in response to the uncertain economy.

Skyhigh Security Debuts First Partner Program Since McAfee Enterprise Split

Skyhigh Security wins kudos this week for debuting its first distinct partner program since the split of McAfee Enterprise last year. Skyhigh Security is a leading developer of security service edge (SSE) technology.

The Skyhigh Security Altitude Partner Program is initially focused on reseller and distributor partners. It offers what company executives describe as generous back-end rebates, a new partner portal, deal registration and a commitment that 100 percent of business will be transacted through the channel.

Skyhigh’s Altitude program includes three tiers—registered, essential and advanced. The program offers a revamped training platform, available through the portal, for sales and technical training that partners can take free of charge to move up to a higher tier. The new program offers double-digit, back-end rebates for advanced-tier partners and slightly less for essential-tier partners.

Thoughtworks Acquires Award-Winning AWS Partner Itoc

Global consulting services firm Thoughtworks isn’t stopping with its recently achieved AWS Premier Tier Services Partner status, AWS’ highest partner designation.

This week Thoughtworks acquired Itoc, itself an AWS all-star consulting partner, in a move that will further expand its AWS business. Itoc was the winner of the AWS 2021 Consulting Partner of the Year Award in Australia and has over 100 AWS certifications including in cybersecurity and Software as a Service.

Founded in 2012, Itoc aims to solve customers’ biggest cloud challenges with a slew of services around cloud migration, application modernization, DevOps, data engineering and the AWS Marketplace. Itoc is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and Cloud Managed Services Provider solution provider.

Thoughtworks plans to leverage Itoc to strengthen its enterprise modernization, platforms and cloud services business in Australia. The entire 70-person Itoc team will be joining Thoughtworks.

Cyberhaven Aims To Boost Channel-Sourced Deals, Become A ‘Go-To’ Data Security Partner

Returning to the topic of security companies looking to grow their channel reach, data security tech developer Cyberhaven this week said it is looking to dramatically expand the percentage of deals that are sourced through channel partners going forward.

Today the company has a channel partner involved in 100 percent of its deals, but only 30 percent are currently channel sourced. CEO Howard Ting (pictured) told CRN that the company would like to get that rate up to 60 percent or 70 percent over the next few years.

“We think that scaling with the channel is a huge part of how we’re going to be successful in the future,” said Ting, who previously held a top marketing role at Palo Alto Networks and served as chief marketing officer at Nutanix. “I really want the channel to see us as one of their go-to data security partners, and we’re going to make sure that they’re really well-compensated for that.”

Microsoft Channel Star Insight Enterprises Has $1.5B M&A War Chest

Insight Enterprises, one of Microsoft’s largest global channel partners, has its eyes set on acquisitions in 2023 thanks to its $1.5 billion in M&A financing. That includes the potential of buying another Microsoft channel partner.

“M&A is an important part of our strategy. As we enter 2023, we have nearly $1.5 billion in financing capacity to fuel this strategy,” said Insight President and CEO Joyce Mullen (pictured) during the company’s fourth-quarter financial earnings report Thursday. “We will be deliberate in our acquisitions to support our solutions business in key growth areas such as cloud, data, AI and cyber.”

While Insight doesn’t make a huge number of acquisitions, when the solution provider does buy other companies, they tend to be focused on the Microsoft space.

Last year Insight bought Hanu Software Solutions, an India-based Microsoft Azure Expert managed service provider. Insight’s biggest acquisition in years came in 2019 with the purchase of PCM, a leading cloud and cybersecurity consulting firm specializing in Microsoft cloud technology including Azure and Office 365.