If you’ve been in the technology channel a long time, you’ve seen a lot of business models. For years the prevailing go-to-market strategy for equipment makers and service providers has been channel-friendly, but vendor-centric.
Channel-friendly, but Vendor-centric
For the vendor, the indirect channel has been simply another route to market. To them, the channel is more feet on the street, wearing their logo, handing out their branded collateral, peddling their technology – and often even paying for the privilege to do so through required training and certification. If asked, these channel partners would tell you, “I’m a [Insert Big Brand Here] dealer,” rather than describe the problems they solve for their customers.
In the past decade, however, channel strategists have urged channel partners to come out from behind the long shadows of their vendors, to promote their own brands, create their own intellectual property and deliver on their own value proposition. This, they argue, benefits both the partner and vendor in better serving their joint customers, which today must leverage technology (of all types and brands) to achieve their business goals.
Cloud and managed service delivery has given this movement needed momentum. It’s not so much about the technology brands that are behind the service-based solution as it is the solution itself. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
We not only agree, we advocate this approach as a foundational principle of the Overwatch Managed Security Partner Program. You might say we’re vendor-friendly, but channel-centric.
Vendor-friendly, but Channel-centric
So, what does that mean — vendor-friendly? It’s simple: We’re open to relationships with cybersecurity vendors that can provide best-of-breed technology that we can integrate into the Overwatch Managed Security Platform as a Service. We’re not married to any technologies and, in fact, we’re actively and continually seeking tools to add (or substitute) to our arsenal in the fight against cybercrime on behalf businesses of all sizes.
More importantly, we’re channel-centric. We deliver services with the channel exclusively. Notice that we didn’t say our services are delivered “through the channel”. Some might say it’s semantics, but for us it’s a critical distinction: We deliver services “with the channel” not through them to reach the end customer. More accurately, we deliver cybersecurity services in partnership with MSPs. In other words, partners, it’s You + Overwatch.
You + Overwatch
With Overwatch, we’re not trying to go through you to get to your customers. We’re working together to serve your customers. And, as a follow-on, to grow your business as well as ours. Full disclosure: We’re for-profit. We’re upfront about that as we are about everything. In our two decades of partnership with the channel, we’ve learned that what we really sell is not technology enablement services or cybersecurity, but trust. As a trusted technology adviser to your customers, trust is also your stock in trade.
Your Value Proposition + Our Security Expertise
When it comes to cybersecurity, our goal is to help you boost your value proposition from trusted adviser to trusted authority. Together, we leverage your hard-won relationships with customers of your managed IT services to offer cybersecurity services backed by:
- Our Overwatch Managed Cybersecurity ecosystem, including everything detection & response (MXDR), endpoint detection and response (EDR), vulnerability management, patch management, security awareness training, secure edge, email security, etc., is manned by our U.S.-based 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts and our security automation orchestration and response, which delivers high-fidelity alerts and customized response playbooks and faster remediation.
Your Credibility + Our Investment and Scale
You’ve earned plenty of goodwill from customers over the years by giving them good advice and keeping their technology up and running. You’ve probably thought about adding cybersecurity services to shore up a potential weak spot. But, if you’ve run the numbers, you know it’s north of half a million dollars just to source the points solutions, integrate them and stand up a SOC. And, you’ve got to ensure 24/7 operations, so you need to mirror your infrastructure in georedundant data centers. And, then, you have to staff your SOC around the clock, which means hiring security experts who command top dollar. Finally, you’ve got to pile on the customers in order to achieve economies of scale. It’s a daunting exercise; one that most MSPs don’t attempt and the ones that do often look to get out. Understanding that this is a no-win scenario for most MSPs, we’ve done all the work for you; we’ve built the foundation and a master MSP model to spread to costs across thousands of customers. You can offer cybersecurity – not only without taking on debt, but earning profit from day one.
Your Stack + Our Cybersecurity Platform
If you’re honest, cybersecurity needs to be part of the services you’re delivering every day; many of your customers mistakenly think that you’re taking care of their security while your managing their IT systems and networks. As an Overwatch partner, our platform becomes part of your stack. You continue to do your part in keeping the firewall patched and running while adding threat detection and response from the Overwatch Managed Security Platform, which includes both technology and operational processes.
Your Sales Team + Our Sales-enablement Engine
The opportunity for you to partner with High Wire Networks to deliver Overwatch cybersecurity is clear, but it’s meaningless if we are just talking to each other. Your customer is an essential party to the conversation. We need your sales team to reach out to them and evangelize the concepts of risk mitigation, regulatory compliance and good cyber hygiene. We’ll be right beside you, educating your frontline folks to explain these concepts and their value to your customers. Our Overwatch Cybersecurity Partner Program provides aircover with expert content and brandable collateral that you can leave behind to underscore these points and lend credibility to your managed services practice. Plus, we have MDF to lend extra volume to your cybersecurity message. If needed, we’ll help you get the deal across the finish line with guidance from sales engineers who understand IT infrastructure, network and cybersecurity inside and out.
Your Drive + Our Incentives
Of course, every opportunity is what you make of it. Overwatch is no exception, but the conditions have never been better for your business customers to be thinking about vulnerabilities and business continuity. Cyberthreats are chief among their concerns whether their workers are at headquarters or, as they are now, working from home. You may think it’s hyperbole to say the sky’s the limit; but it’s definitely real and right now with the right partner.
Ready to Partner with Us?
Contact High Wire Networks to learn more about Overwatch today!
Phone: 630-635-8477
Email: overwatchsales@highwirenetworks.com
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