OneSpan To Scale Up Channel Investment With Debut Of First Formal Partner Program

The provider of e-signature and identity authentication technologies is ‘sending the right message’ through the moves to boost its partner engagement, an executive at a top OneSpan partner tells CRN.

OneSpan unfurled its first formal channel program Wednesday with the aim of bolstering the cybersecurity vendor’s work with partners through enhanced training, marketing support and incentives, the company exclusively told CRN.

An executive at a major OneSpan partner told CRN the moves are “sending the right message” to solution providers, showing that the company is serious about ramping up its focus on channel-driven expansion.

“The fact that OneSpan is taking the time to put in place this partner program tells a lot,” said the executive, Louis-Nicolas Hamer, co-lead of the Salesforce and OneSpan Sign practices at Quebec City-based consultancy Levio.

[Related: The 10 Hottest Cybersecurity Tools And Products Of 2023]

“For us at Levio, we immediately realized that OneSpan is putting a stake in the ground saying, ‘Our success is only possible if our partners have success.’ And they’re putting a program in place with the right incentives, the right training and marketing support,” Hamer told CRN. “I think it’s generating momentum and sending a clear message.”

OneSpan, a publicly traded firm based in Boston, offers a portfolio of products with a focus on electronic signature and identity authentication technologies. The company said the launch of its new OneSpan Partner Network program will include engagement models for different types of partners such as resellers, MSPs and system integrators.

The program will aim to formalize what the company has already been doing with partners such as Levio.

Previously, when it came to training and joint activities with OneSpan such as marketing campaigns, “we were doing these things all informally,” Hamer said. “Now this whole process is industrialized and formal.”

Main components of the OneSpan Partner Network program include enhanced access to training materials, marketing resources, sales tools and technical support, the company said.

Improved incentives such as discounts and rewards will be made available to partners based on their performance and overall engagement level, OneSpan said. And as part of this push, the company said it will boost its efforts in lead-generation and joint marketing with partners.

The program will also include an accelerated process for onboarding, OneSpan noted. And the company pledged to make a wider set of products available to partners, as well, including in identity proofing and authentication in addition to secure e-signature.

Key Differentiators

At Levio, Hamer said his team is glad to see OneSpan doubling down on bringing more products to the channel because the company’s technology offers some major advantages for customers. For instance, OneSpan provides capabilities to more precisely validate who is electronically signing a document, to ensure authenticity, he said.

“That has a big impact,” Hamer said. “We’re really excited about starting to vocalize those capabilities to our customers.”

Throughout its product portfolio, OneSpan has excelled at offering a simplified user experience — “simple enough that SMBs can use it,” he said — paired with a product that is “enterprise-grade” in terms of features. That combination is rare in the market, Hamer said.

On the whole, Levio now expects it will be able to significantly expand its business with OneSpan thanks to the introduction of the new partner program, he said. “Having a well-structured program in place will have a big impact on my team’s ability to turn around and sell [OneSpan] more effectively,” Hamer said.

Ultimately, “we’re super encouraged to see OneSpan is ready to go to that next level [by] investing in their partners,” he said. “So I think it’s time for us to double down as well on OneSpan and start being more aggressive in the market.”