Forrester-owned SiriusDecisions has recognized cyber security provider F-Secure’s Global Partner Program as the Channel Marketing Program of the Year. The distinction validates F-Secure’s achievements in providing industry-leading support for business-to-business (B2B) resellers’ efforts in developing the know-how and expertise needed to deliver more mature security capabilities, such as those offered by detection and response solutions, to organizations.

Launched in 2019, F-Secure’s Global Partner Program connects B2B IT resellers all over the world with F-Secure to help address the challenges of providing cyber security expertise and services to their clients. It structures cooperation into a painless, transparent process that supports resellers providing F-Secure’s corporate security solutions to their clients.

According to F-Secure Global Head of Channel Development Elena Zykova, indicators of the program’s success overwhelmingly prove the value of close cooperation between cyber security providers and IT resellers that help deliver solutions to organizations.

“We recognized the need for more cooperation between companies with cyber security expertise and know-how, such as F-Secure, and IT resellers that deliver security services to organizations. For example, about half the partners involved with piloting the program said they’d never had direct contact with a cyber security company’s marketing staff before, and breaking that barrier really paid off during the pilot,” said Zykova. “All of the partners in the pilot grew their sales by over 50 percent compared with the same period in the previous year, which really shows how much we can achieve by working together.”    

The program was initiated at a time when many IT resellers are struggling to meet the security needs of organizations. In a recent F-Secure survey,* 69 percent of organizations expressed an intent to change service providers for partners with better technical know-how and deeper security knowledge – a trend that Zykova says shows how important security expertise is for IT resellers and their clients.

“Organizations want their service providers to be security superheroes, but these high expectations often leave them frustrated with short-handed IT resellers,” explains Zykova. “Our response to that pain point was to integrate sales, marketing, tech support, and business models and incentives, into a fluid program that rewards partners for improving their ability to deliver services. Supporting our partners’ growth into trusted cyber security advisors is vital in helping them learn to go beyond providing basic endpoint protection software and start delivering the detection and response solutions many businesses now require.”

SiriusDecisions’ Program of the Year winners have been selected from a field of leading B2B organizations that achieve significant and innovative results across revenue-generating functions.

“Program of the Year winners highlight our analysts’ selections for outstanding achievements across product, marketing, and sales disciplines. Insights from the winners can help other organizations learn and drive their own businesses forward,” said Chris Cleary, Service Director, Channel Sales Strategies, SiriusDecisions. “We are pleased to have supported F-Secure in the development of the program, and are happy to recognize its success by naming it as a Program of the Year.”