Tanium Rolls Out Certifications To Drive Partner Profitability

The Tanium Certified Operator is well-suited for partners delivering implementation or migration-based services, while partners that provide professional or managed services should get the Tanium Certified Administrator.

Tanium has introduced its first-ever certifications to make it easier for partners and customers to operate and administer the company’s endpoint visibility and control technology.

The Kirkland, Wash.-based cybersecurity vendor said the Tanium Certified Operator (TCO) will ensure customers are taking full advantage of all the product’s features and functions, according to Todd Palmer, head of global partner sales. The Tanium Certified Administrator (TCA), meanwhile, will be particularly useful for MSPs who are controlling Tanium’s platform on behalf of their customers, he said.

“The services revenue that partners can generate around Tanium is pretty amazing,” said Todd Palmer, head of global partner sales. Solution providers typically enjoy margins of between 30 points and 60 points on assessment, integration, migration, and managed services wrapped around Tanium, Palmer said.

[Related: Tanium Snags Channel Vet Todd Palmer To Drive Partner Sales]

The TCO requires either 12 hours of web-based training or 24 hours of instructor-led training, and ensures partners and customers have core foundational Tanium knowledge and skills and can generate reports and data in the company’s platform. Specifically, partners and customers with the TCO should be able to ask and refine questions, take actions, and use the navigate module function within Tanium.

The TCA, meanwhile, requires an additional eight hours of web-based training or 16 hours of instructor-led training. Certificate-holders must be able to: manage users and permissions; perform core functionality, operations, and management tasks; perform care and feeding of the platform; and conduct basic troubleshooting, according to the company.

Customers would love to have Tanium provided as a service by their channel partner rather than having to implement and operate the technology on their own, according to Palmer. The TCO is well-suited for partners delivering implementation or migration-based services, while solution providers that provide professional or managed services should obtain both the TCO and the TCA, Palmer said.

The introduction of certifications comes as Tanium has tightened its relationship with the channel, with partners accounting for three-quarters of business in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, up dramatically from one-third of business a year earlier after changes to the company’s sales motion and compensation model. More than 80 percent of Tanium’s business is expected to flow through partners this year.

Since the start of 2020, a large portion of Tanium’s existing accounts that were serviced directly have transitioned to being partner-led since many of these organizations were already working with Tanium channel partners in other parts of their business. Tanium sales reps were previously paid on net revenue to Tanium, but now receive equal or slightly better compensation by involving a partner in the deal.

Tanium isn’t introducing a certification requirement in the partner program at the outset, though Palmer expects the company will do so in the future. More than 80 percent of the company’s partners have a professional services organization, with many also offering some sort of managed services, according to Palmer.

Going forward, Palmer said Tanium plans to track the number of certifications obtained by partners as well as the percentage of opportunities where the services component is fulfilled by solution providers rather than the company itself.

“We have probably quadrupled the investment that we have made in people and program marketing dollars to help build these relationships that we have with these partners,” Palmer said.