Malwarebytes’ Mike LaPeters: Convergence, Unity Fuel New Channel Strategy
… security in general. It’s about really understanding how to weave together a solid security story on how you’re going to keep your customers secure.
So those are the three areas that I’ve been spending my time on over the last seven weeks, putting this all together. And we’re coming very close on being ready to really roll out new programs and new strategies.
CP: So to clarify, there are multiple partner programs now geared toward individual partners types and there’s going to be one new, unified program that includes convergence?
ML: It’s all convergence. The concept that we’ve been working on here is removing the focus on a particular partner type because those types have blurred so much. So the focus on our part is making sure that we have the right enablement, resources, benefits and requirements for whatever is the easiest and most effective way for that partner to reach their customer. You can engage with your customer in whatever way is the best way for them to be able to be secure. That’s probably one of the biggest pieces, is the whole thought around convergence.
The other thing is the globalization of our program. Today, each one of those partner types — we have an EMEA version, an APAC version and an American version of that. So we’re bringing that all together and we are going to have one program that you engage with us with and that program will ensure that we’ve got all the right resources and benefits, and things to make sure you can be successful.
CP: Is there still a lot of work to be done before rolling out the new program?
ML: There’s still a ton of work to be done. But we are going to be piecing out these additions to the program, these additions to our enablement. All these things are going to be coming out over the next four to six months. Endgame for us I would say, as we look at RSA … that’s a real milestone event for us to say that we’re going to be in a very different spot from programs, structure and how we engage on the global stage. We have this path that we’re on right now to really enter our fiscal 2021, which starts Feb. 1, with as much of all these things with i’s dotted and t’s crossed.
CP: What will all of this unification and convergence mean in terms of competitive advantage for Malwarebyptes and its partners?
ML: There are a couple of things that will set us apart. No. 1, our ability to engage with customers on so many different fronts and in so many different ways, so it’s not just about the old definition of antivirus or even this new next-gen anti-malware kind of approach. With our ability to do incident response and remediation, our technology almost immediately gives …