Armis Snags Recorded Future’s Tim Mackie As Channel Chief

Armis has tasked Tim Mackie with strengthening its presence outside North America and modifying the company’s partner certification program to create a more tiered approach based on engagement level.

Armis has hired Recorded Future, SentinelOne and Cylance channel veteran Tim Mackie to grow international sales and repackage the IoT security startup’s training curriculum.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor has tapped Mackie to strengthen Armis’ presence outside North America and modify the company’s partner certification program to create a more tiered approach based on engagement level. Mackie started at Armis April 1 as vice president of global channels following a five-month stint as global channel chief at Somerville, Mass.-based Recorded Future.

“I am so excited to be here,” Mackie told CRN exclusively. “You can feel the crackle of electricity at this place.”

[Related: IoT Security Startup Armis Doubles Valuation To $2B With $125M Round]

Mackie is looking to, for the first time, make certifications a requirement for reaching certain tiers in Armis’ partner program. Up until now, Mackie said Armis had recommended that partners obtain certifications but had never mandated it.

“Certification is really an easy ask where a partner can determine what level of seriousness they are,” Mackie said.

Armis is looking to slim down its training for entry-level practitioners, offering an hour-and-a-half sales and technical introduction for solution providers looking to get basic information, he said. The company will continue to offer robust, in-depth ambassador training to partners, and will roll out engineering boot camps where partners will visit Tel Aviv or the Bay Area for a couple days of R&D team meetings.

By doubling down on training, Mackie hopes to build out a cadre of partners who can demo, conduct proof of concepts, and close opportunities without much involvement from Armis. This will allow high-value partners to really become an extension of Armis’ sales organization while create digestible offerings to push volume partners through, according to Mackie.

From a geographic standpoint, Mackie is looking to have 60 percent of Armis’ sales come from North America, 35 percent come from Europe, and the remainder coming from Asia-Pacific. Armis is more heavily weighted toward North America today, so Mackie said he wants to take advantage of the foundation that’s already been established in Europe and build out a channel interface in Asia-Pacific.

Armis had traditionally been a direct company since its founding in 2015, but over the past year-and-a-half has sought to build out a channel sales motion, highlighted by the hiring of longtime Forescout sales leader Brian Gumbel as chief revenue officer. Between 70 percent and 80 percent of Armis’ sales go through the channel today, Mackie said, with historical accounts making up much of the direct business.

Over time, Mackie said he’d like to see Armis conducting at least 95 percent of its business through the channel. Armis today has just under 200 channel partners globally, which includes a mix of distributors and prominent security brands like Optiv and GuidePoint as well as capable small and mid-sized solution providers, according to Mackie.

Armis is most interested in security-focused partners with robust technical capability, an understanding of the endpoint and managed detection and response space, as well as expertise around securing unmanaged agentless devices. And from a metrics standpoint, Mackie said he plans to keep a close eye on training participation and engagement, marketing activities, deal registration and pipeline building.

“I’m honored to be here. It’s a terrific company and a terrific organization,” Mackie said. “I’m at the right place at the right time.”