As an organization, NETSCOUT strongly believes Partners are crucial for its success and works only with Channel Partners to tap and cater to the market
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“The competition for gaining partner mindshare will grow further, driving Channel Marketers to re-design marketing strategies to effectively engage the partner community. There will be an increase in engagement tactics with certifications for specialised training programmes, rewards and recognitions.”
Vinay Sharma,
Regional Director, India and SAARC,
NETSCOUT
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The Pandemic has forced businesses to shift to online operations and there has been a massive adoption of remote working culture and online learning, resulting in digitalisation on an unprecedented scale. Along with the shift to online has also come an unacceptable rise in cybersecurity issues.
With rising ransomware cyberattacks on IT infrastructure, businesses have realized the importance of embracing zero tolerance for gaps in their security strategy. They are increasingly investing on strengthening their cybersecurity to secure their crown jewels and their valuable data. This has thrown open a big opportunity for cybersecurity players.
As the India market remains in the eye of a major digital transformation buoyed by a tech-centred Union Budget, SME Channels embarks upon recording the voices of the who’s who of the Cybersecurity landscape.
As part of our effort to make the voices of major security players heard by the channel community, here is the Security Predictions from Security major NETSCOUT.
In a special interaction with SME Channels, Vinay Sharma, Regional Director, India and SAARC, NETSCOUT, reveals his organization’s strategy to address growing need for security solutions from customers, his predictions for the cybersecurity industry in 2022 and his vision and plans for the channel community. Edited excerpts…
What are the major challenges facing the Cybersecurity market?
The cybersecurity industry is very dynamic due to the evolving threat landscape and the associated complexities. With digital transformation, cloud adoption, increase in the usage of IoT devices and 5G introduction, organisations have to continuously upgrade their cybersecurity strategies and infrastructures.
Hybrid-work models and distributed workforce have increased the cybersecurity risks. Security perimeters are no longer restricted to the physical office as remote employees could become victims of security breaches and their work environments and other edges have to be safeguarded. Innovative security solutions have to be developed on an ongoing basis to address the challenge.
There has been a rise in phishing attacks due to fake Covid-19 vaccination emails and fake alerts of the Russian-Ukraine war through SMS messages. Organisations have the task of protecting their employees with the implementation of access control policies, even for remote workers. All employees have to be provided with cybersecurity training on a regular basis, which is additional consumption of cost and time.
Increase in IoT devices and gaps created during transmission of data between them are vulnerable to attacks and require ongoing protection.
What major trends are you forecasting in the channel market?
The competition for gaining partner mindshare will grow further, driving Channel Marketers to re-design marketing strategies to effectively engage the partner community. There will be an increase in engagement tactics with certifications for specialised training programmes, rewards and recognitions. Personalised partner experience and collaboration with Partners will gain traction.
There will be more focus on selecting the right Partners with relevant skill sets in the respective industry vertical.
Influencer and Referral Partner Programs will remain another area of focus, in the coming times, as well.
With the evolving partner business models, there is a growing competition for partner mindshare. How do you ensure your channel marketing strategy brings value as you co-create customer experience across the Partner ecosystem?
We at NETSCOUT, worldwide, work only with Channel Partners to tap and cater to the market. Our organisation has always respected our Channel Partners and strongly believe they are crucial for our success.
We also acknowledge that India is a Channel-friendly market and continue to invest in this area as we work with Partners to co-create customer experience. We have several tailor-made partner-engagement programs, which are both flexible and scalable and leverage them through the year.
We want our Partners to have a thorough understanding of our technology and capabilities so we can together to serve customers with appropriate solutions
In the coming year, we expect to increase our engagement with the Channel engine so it grows further, leading to better business outcomes.
Which areas are you focusing on in the channel – skillsets, sales and marketing, vertical and technology practice development, service capability, etc.?
All these aspects are important for us to remain competitive in the market. Service Capability aspect is given more priority at our organisation. Services through Partners is our primary objective and we want them to gain substantially from the engagement. We will continue to expand our training and enabling strategic selling programs to support them and bring value to help strengthen their capabilities.
What percentage of budget growth are you expecting for channel development?
With all our Sales and Marketing activities done through Channels Partners only, we ensure they develop their strengths across product knowledge, promotional strategies and customer service areas. So, whether it is overall Channel Enablement, Development or Skillset development of Partners, we continue to significantly invest in them.
Are you planning any new product additions for the channel market?
Our new solution, NETSCOUT’s new Omnis Cyber Intelligence, which is an enterprise-wide network threat and risk investigation platform, helps to reduce the impact of cyberthreats on businesses. It delivers comprehensive security visibility and along with NETSCOUT’s global threat intelligence feed, the platform helps security teams to easily detect, validate, investigate and respond to cyber-threats.
Customers will benefit from this cost-effective and highly scalable cyber-threat analytics system, which can easily integrate with popular SIEM platforms used by several organisations.
We see a huge potential for this product, which we plan to introduce through our Channel Partners.
Is there any channel expansion plan in terms of numbers in 2022?
This year, we plan to expand our Channel market across geographies to cover the regions of Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We are also enhancing the level of engagement with our Channel Partners across industry verticals and look to appoint Partners for specific industrial verticals and large accounts.
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