Exclusive: MobileIron Buoys Channel With New Authorized Training Partner Program

MobileIron on Thursday rolled out the Authorized Training Partner Program, a new educational initiative for partners to delve deeper into security solutions and overall mobile trends.

The new program enables eligible partners to become certified instructors through live classes and hands-on labs. The partners can then extend their training about MobileIron solutions and industry trends to customers and other partners.

"The whole point is to allow partners in the program to have certified, validated MobileIron instructors in their company," said Mike McCarron, vice president of customer success at MobileIron. "The program will bring training closer to our customers and help our partners become trusted mobile advisers."

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MobileIron's new Authorized Training Partner Program expands on the benefits of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's existing training program, MobileIron University, which provided partners with online training through an accreditation portal. The new program seeks to expand on MobileIron University by providing in-person training as well as offering certification opportunities for partners to instruct their own customers, McCarron said.

Before its launch, MobileIron brought six initial reseller partners into the Authorized Training Partner Program from various parts of the world: U.K.-based Exclusive Networks, Spain-based Logis IT, Japan-based Macnica, Netherlands based-mITE, Belgium-based Mobco and U.S.-based PaRaBal.

MobileIron chose these initial partners because of their extensive real-world experience with MobileIron technology and with their own customers, according to McCarron. In the future, MobileIron will look to expand the training program to its larger base of reseller partners, he said.

"We look at partners who have invested in the past and who have real-world experience in deploying solutions," said McCarron.

McCarron said the new training initiatives will focus on MobileIron solutions, but also provide a level of guidance, advice and insight on mobile trends across the industry in general, which can help customers ultimately envision where their business is going as the mobile industry evolves.

Peter Coddington, CEO of one of the MobileIron partners going through the Authorized Training Partner Program, Baltimore, Md.-based PaRaBal, said his company can now perform more tailored training to fit customers' custom needs in Sys-Admin courses that allow intimate environments.

"The Authorized Training Partner program puts us in front of the mobility customers in companies and puts more customer trust in our instructors," Coddington said. "Customers can see how knowledgeable we are in a fast-growing area."

PaRaBal, which focuses on mobile enterprise solutions and mobile security services, has been a MobileIron reseller since 2011. Coddington said partners and MobileIron both win from the new training program.

"I think MobileIron is an innovator in allowing partners to do their own training," he said. "All the other mobile device management companies are doing the trainings on their own and … can't keep up with the demand, so MobileIron is being shrewd here in scaling their training by increasing the breadth of their training arm."

PUBLISHED OCT. 8, 2015