Thales Expands Global Partnership With Exclusive Networks: ‘A Perfect Fit’

‘Data security and identity are complex things,’ says John Polly, vice president of global channel and alliances at Thales. ‘The whole goal is how do we make this simple? We are a culture of heavy, heavy engineering. Exclusive is going to help us translate our great engineering piece into value that the partners can consume to go solve problems for their customers.’

Technology vendor Thales has expanded its partnership with cybersecurity distributor Exclusive Networks to reach broader markets across North America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific.

The two companies, both based in Paris, will further invest in Thales’ data security and identity and access management channel business for existing and new partners.

John Polly, vice presidentof global channel and alliances at Thales, said the company’s go-to-market strategy is through partners, and Exclusive Networks is “a distributor that’s only focused on security.”

The distributor was the “perfect fit” to take on more of Thales’ distribution due to its global reach, executive relationships, field relationships, its ecosystem and its governance model, he said. And the team at Exclusive Networks made a difference in Thales’ mindset about how to further capture market share.

[Related: Comcast Masergy Teams With Fortinet, Exclusive Networks To Serve Up Managed SD-WAN To VARs, MSPs]

“They really made us think about some things that we hadn’t thought of,” Polly told CRN in an exclusive interview. “They took it and created this great super campaign. They took it to a next layer of getting deeper into what the objective is and who are we trying to reach, and I think that’s actually how they’re going to help drive that revenue.”

Thales is a global leader in data security and identity and access management with more than 30,000 customers. Exclusive Networks’ long-standing partnership with Thales was built on its expertise in cybersecurity.

Denis Ferrand-Ajchenbaum, senior vice president of global business development and ecosystems at Exclusive Networks, said the distributor is selling the value proposition and educating on the value proposition of vendors to the partner ecosystem.

In the next year, he expects to expand to a worldwide level and at least “double down on the size of the revenue we have done in the prior year” with Thales.

“The size of the distribution total addressable market in North America is 15, 20 times of what is currently happening in EMEA plus APAC,” he said.

The distributor is also going to introduce Thales to an even larger global ecosystem where it can tap into different types of partners.

“Traditionally, we would talk about our products and go-to-market and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a ransomware product so let’s go enable the channel with our value prop,’” Polly said. “But then how do we do it with other key people in the ecosystem such as SAP, AWS, Dell and IBM? That’s where Exclusive is really going to help us,” Polly said.

“Data security and identity are complex things,” he added. “The whole goal is how do we make this simple? We are a culture of heavy, heavy engineering. Exclusive is going to help us translate our great engineering piece into value that the partners can consume to go solve problems for their customers.”

Amanda Dugger, CEO of Tampa, Fla.-based solution provider DGR Systems, said the partnership amplifies DGR Systems’ potential related to security products and helps it bring the next generation of solutions to market faster and more competently.

“By combining Thales’ industry-leading cybersecurity portfolio with Exclusive Networks’ unmatched customer support and efficiency as a distribution partner, channel partners and their clients will be the ultimate winners,” she said.