McAfee Outlines Channel Initiatives to Help Partners Differentiate and Profit

McAfee hosts 'Think Big' Partner Summit 2014 to drive change in traditional thinking around IT Security

Dubai, UAE – December 15th, 2014 – McAfee, part of Intel Security, hosted the 4th annual Partner Summit, providing nearly 700 channel partners from around the globe with the opportunity to engage with McAfee executives and customers. During this year’s event, McAfee unveiled several key channel initiatives to help partners build sustainable security practices. These initiatives are part of McAfee’s commitment to continue to innovate and invest in driving partner differentiation and profitability.

"We aim at providing our partners, globally and in the region, with increased flexibility for building profitable and sustainable security practices through a new channel partner program framework that focuses on change and thinking big, " said Maya Kreidy, Regional Channel Manager – UAE, GCC & Pakistan at McAfee, part of Intel Security. "In order to anticipate our customers' evolving security needs today and tomorrow, we need to 'Think Big'."

Partner Program

The purchase behaviors and buying centers for security technology have changed drastically in the last couple of years. As a result, McAfee has announced a new, more flexible partner program framework that allows partners to evolve their business models and adapt to the changing customer landscape. Highlights of the new partner program include:

1. New Name: As part of continued integration with Intel, effective January 1, McAfee is changing the name of its Security Alliance Program to the Intel Security Partner Program.
2. Simplified Solution Competencies: In an effort to reduce program complexity, McAfee will consolidate from five product competencies to three solution competencies: Endpoint Security, Network Security and Security Management.
3. Removing Baseline Certifications & Expanding Continuing Training: Continuously streamlining training requirements is a critical element to success for any partner program. McAfee is removing the need for partners to complete Baseline Certifications and is expanding Continuing Education to give all partners the flexibility to earn credits for training that is most relevant to their business. This change results in an approximate 30 percent reduction in overall training requirements for McAfee Elite Partners.
4. Programs to Specializations: Security is a rapidly changing market, requiring a flexible channel program that can quickly and easily integrate programs as well as add new or acquired technologies.

• The Managed Services Specialization, available Jan. 1, 2015, integrates the current Managed Service Provider Program into a specialization to streamline requirements and optimize benefits.
• The Authorized Support Specialization, available Q2 2015, integrates the current MASP (McAfee Authorized Support Provider) Program into a specialization in an effort to scale the program by providing additional qualifying partners the opportunity to tap into this additional revenue stream.

Partner Enablement

McAfee is committed to continuously looking for ways to enhance its enablement tools and training to help its partners succeed. In 2014 McAfee identified enablement as an area of focus and tripled its investment and drove a 40+ percent increase in Continuing Education participation. The next phase of enablement enhancements are:

• CloudRunner Platform: The new CloudRunner Platform is a free, simple, on-demand platform that enables partners to access McAfee’s product portfolio via the cloud. The platform makes it easier and faster to deliver product demonstrations to customers, which can accelerate sales cycles and help to increase profitability by lowering the cost of sales. With CloudRunner, partners can build a demo environment in an average of five minutes without the need to have an appliance, box or virtual machine set up in a customer’s environment. CloudRunner will be available in early November and will include, McAfee Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), McAfee Endpoint, and McAfee Network Security Platform (NSP) environments.
• Post-Sales Services Enablement: IDC is projecting in 2015 the total addressable market for Security System Integration Services will be more than $12 billion (IDC Report: Worldwide and U.S. Professional Security Services 2013-2017 Forecast). To help strengthen a partner’s implementation services, we are introducing post-sales services training and certifications. There are eight, four-day, instructor led Post-Sales Services Enablement, including NGFW, McAfee Security Information Event Management, McAfee e-Policy Orchestrator, NSP, McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention, McAfee Advanced Threat Defense, McAfee Drive Encryption, McAfee Application Control and McAfee Change Control. Upon passing the associated exam, course participants are recognized as a Certified McAfee Security Specialist (CMSS), validating their installation, configuration, management and basic architecture knowledge.
• Creating a Service Delivery Specialization: This will be the first Specialization built under the new partner program framework. It will also be the first McAfee Specialization that uses the CMSS certification as a core requirement. This specialization, available in the second half of 2015, will enable partners to more effectively deliver implementation services which are instrumental in driving partner profitability and customer satisfaction.

Partner Experience

McAfee is in constant pursuit of finding new ways to drive partner success through increased partner efficiency. Two new key channel partner experience announcements were made:

•   Partner 360 Dashboard: The Partner 360 Dashboard provides partners with a detailed analysis of their performance and profitability, allowing them to make better business decisions. It provides a detailed view into approximately 10 different business indicators, including sales performance, rebate and marketing development funds. The platform will be piloted with a select group of North America partners in Q4 2014 with a broader roll out aimed for the first half of 2015.

•   SMARTmarketing Platform – Think Big, Win Big: McAfee is committed to helping channel partners make money and more easily turn prospects into leads. To help drive this effort, McAfee has made a significant investment in a new marketing platform as part of the McAfee SMARTmarketing initiative to give partners the tools needed to run their own marketing activities including syndicated web content, email marketing, social media syndication and website analytics. To register go to: McAfee SMARTmarketing

For more on Partner Summit news and information please search #mfeps14 or check out the McAfee Channel blog