Courion Launches VAR Program For Identity Management

Framingham, Mass.-based Courion said that space remains largely untapped because the high cost and complexity of identity management solutions has kept the technology out of the hands of small and midsize businesses. To evangelize the operational efficiencies of its automated identity management solution, Courion this month launched a channel program to attract security VARs with experience selling to midsize customers, said Kurt Johnson, vice president of corporate development.

The program centers on Courion's Enterprise Provisioning Suite, which automates setting up user accounts, managing passwords and configuring user-access policies -- all of which translate into more efficient use of IT staff resources, according to Johnson.

"Typically in organizations, you have dozens of different people involved in setting up an individual user's account. We took a self-service mind-set and brought it to the enterprise provisioning space," Johnson said.

Enterprise Provisioning Suite enables IT managers to set access to specific applications by department and offers access levels based on a variety of application-level attributes, according to Johnson. "It's good for managing account modifications, and when someone leaves, you can disable their account with one click," he said.

Regulatory compliance pressures are one of the biggest drains on IT staff resources, and Enterprise Provisioning Suite addresses that by generating reports and ensuring a company has a complete audit trail for user policies, Johnson said.

"Every vendor has its own spin on identity management because there are multiple angles to the technology. However, Courion has the most well-rounded approach to identity management because it addresses most of the angles," said Chris Collier, vice president of market at Identiphi, an Austin, Texas-based solution provider.

"By handling identity provisioning and management, Courion extends our own technology to lessen the up-front burden of deploying our own authentication and identity management solutions," Collier added.

Courion's new channel program consists of a basic level of authorization to sell Courion products and a formal level that involves certification, sales and technical training, co-marketing and sales referrals, Johnson said.

For the program, Courion is targeting Citrix and Microsoft solution providers that have experience selling to midsize companies, he said.