The technology landscape is undergoing a dynamic transformation with the influx of digitalization. Technology trends such as mobility, Internet of Things (IoT) have equipped businesses to enhance operations, be more effective towards addressing customers’ needs and gain competitive advantage. While these advancements have opened avenues for businesses to be more profitable, it has also opened up Pandora’s Box of vulnerabilities. Cybercrime has evolved over time; it is no more about that small-time hacker trying to get hold of your social media account. Cybercriminals are undergoing organizational shifts, establishing corporate best practices and carving a sophisticated profession out of cybercrime. Headlines of data breaches and targeted attacks are now a part of the daily humdrum. Considering geographical boundaries have ceased to exist due to the influx of hyper-connectivity, cybercrime is not a concern for the urban mass alone. As modern technologies aide the business agenda, ensuring the security of these technologies has also become a part of the business discussion.
Evolved Threat Landscape and Pertinence of Partners
Enterprise security is no longer an IT-only issue but has now become a boardroom agenda. Today’s attackers are skilled enough and sufficiently resourced to have the persistence and patience to carry out their espionage activities over a period of months or even years. Businesses need to deploy holistic IT security practices covering technology, policies and processes to deal with the new set of threats. Enterprises today are looking for partners who can aide and devise all-inclusive architectures for them which complement their business prerogatives. In the last few years, a partner’s role has traversed from just sales enablers into real custodians of a company where customers are increasingly trusting their counsel and not just their products. Partners now know the various critical applications, business objectives and cost benefits so that they can build the best architecture and strategies for organizations instead of selling point-products to them.
Channel Best Practices
Given the increasing importance of a partner’s role and the imperative to keep them engaged and equipped with the right solutions and skills, incentivizing adequately in this dynamic environment acts as a catalyst to bring out the best of their capabilities and ensure mutually profitable relation. It helps boost sales, increase mindshare for partners and also build partner-loyalty. An effectual partner program focusses on recognizing the value in investing in committed, capable partners with dedicated team towards incentivizing and stakeholders engagement. There are few tenets to be kept in mind while designing a strong partner program in addition to enabling them with the latest products and solutions. These include timely communication with partners through the right tools, elimination of redundant processes, understanding of the changing market and lucrative returns by protecting and enhancing the profit margins.
Most importantly, it is highly critical for organizations to not abandon relationships with long-standing channel partners in order to jump on new technology bandwagons. At Symantec, we firmly believe that partners are the connecting link between service provider and customers. With a view to stop advanced attacks, Symantec has upped the ante to curb the growing menace with the new Unified Security Strategy and a renewed partner program – Secure One. The new world is being defined by seamless interconnectivity, and it is essential to recognize the key role the partner community is playing in enabling this transition. It should be as lucid as possible knowing the accountability, criticality and compliance issues, while simultaneously driving the momentum, transformation and adoption. Working together with partners can help businesses implement a robust security strategy, improve their productivity and ensure continued success for partners as well as their customers.
